It horrified prudes and censors alike – but Action is back!
Celebrate the legacy of the legendary comic that they tried to ban with the new Action 2020 special, out this March!
Packed with the same blend of unbeatable characters and no-holds-barred action, Rebellion’s latest special is being brought to you by the best talents of today, including Garth Ennis (Preacher, The Boys), Ram V (Batman, Paradiso) and Henry Flint (Judge Dredd)!
Some of the most popular strips from this most influential of comic books return in the all-new special: there’s killer shark action in Hookjaw by Keith Richardson and Dan Lish, juvenile delinquency in Kids Rule OK by Ram V and Henrick Stahlstrom, frontline German Panzer with Hellman of Hammer Force by Garth Ennis and Mike Dorey, merciless secret agent action with Dredger by Zina Hutton and Staz Johnson, and the brand new Hell Machine by Henry Flint and Jake Lynch.
The Action 2020 Special will be on sale from newsagents and comic book shops on Wednesday 23rd March.
A special edition, only available from the 2000 AD and Treasury of British Comics webshops, will come bagged with a reproduction of the ”˜banned“ issue of Action from October 1976.
Launched in 1976 by writer and editor Pat Mills, Action”˜s blend of no-holds-barred action, unbridled anarchism, and violent riffs off popular films earned it immediate acclaim. The gritty tone and graphic gore of strips such as Hook Jaw, Hellman of Hammer Force, BlackJack, Death Game 1999, Kids Rule OK, Dredger, and Look Out For Lefty delighted readers but quickly attracted the attention of public moralists, with the comic branded “the seven-penny nightmare”“ by the press.
A campaign by the infamous Mary Whitehouse and her National Viewers and Listeners Association led to threats of a boycott of all publisher IPC“s titles by newsagent chains such as WH Smith and John Menzies. This in turn led to pressure from publisher IPC“s higher management and the 23 October issue was pulped.
When the title returned that November, the violence was heavily toned down. Sales of this neutered Action dropped dramatically and it was folded into stablemate Battle a year later. However, Action remains one of the most influential comic books in British history, leading to Mills creating 2000 AD and also inspire a generation of comic book readers and creators!
Author Profile
