| Posted: 19 May 2018 at 9:47pm | IP Logged | 4
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I remember Action coming out but it wasn't to my taste. I'd been reading the more traditional Valiant since 1969 and stayed with it until it merged with Battle in 1976. In its last couple of years they tried to update it with strips like the Dirty Harry inspired One-Eyed Jack. I didn't particularly care for the changes which may be why I didn't enjoy Action when it launched (I also preferred D.C. Thomson's Warlord to IPC's Battle). I guess I was quite conservative at that point although 2000AD soon followed and I enjoyed that from day one.
Action attracted a lot of bad press (The Sun called it The Seven Penny Nightmare) and the IPC management became increasingly nervous. The 32nd issue sported this cover:
Action's creator Pat Mills has said he was dismayed when he saw the colourist had given the man on the ground a blue suit (probably because of the helmet lying there) as he wasn't supposed to be a policeman.
A few weeks later, the 37th issue had been printed (200,000 copies - Action was selling approx. 180,000 per week) but was pulled by the management and destroyed. This was the cover:
As well as the contents, the repeated use of the word suicide might have caused concern. Around 30 copies are thought to have survived and the last copy put up for sale on eBay fetched £2,555 in 2015.
When Action returned in December '76 it had been toned down. Most of the intended contents from the banned issue were included but some changes were made and two strips (Probationer and Kids Rule O.K) didn't survive.
Death Game 1999 was renamed Spinball 1999 (although it also had (formerly Death Game) as part of the logo!) and the episode was heavily reworked to remove some of the violence.
The following change was made in Hell's Highway:
Hook Jaw lost the colour centre pages and was heavily censored. In the original version the eponymous shark goes on to bring down the helicopter and kill the crew:
Action lasted until November '77 when it was merged with Battle.
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