• Source: Action Comics

Action Comics is an American comic book/magazine series that introduced Superman, one of the first major superhero characters. The publisher was originally known as Detective Comics Inc., which later merged into National Comics Publications (later National Periodical Publications), before taking on its current name of DC Comics. Its original incarnation ran from 1938 to 2011 and stands as one of the longest-running comic books with consecutively numbered issues. The second volume of Action Comics beginning with issue #1 ran from 2011 to 2016. Action Comics returned to its original numbering beginning with issue #957 (Aug. 2016).




Publication history






= The Golden Age

=
Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster saw their creation, Superman (also known as Kal-El, originally Kal-L), launched in Action Comics #1 on April 18, 1938 (cover dated June), an event which began the Golden Age of Comic Books. Siegel and Shuster had tried for years to find a publisher for their Superman character—conceived initially as a newspaper strip. Superman was originally a bald madman created by Siegel and Shuster who used his telepathic abilities to wreak havoc on humanity. He appeared in Siegel and Shuster's fanzine Science Fiction. Siegel then commented, "What if this Superman was a force for good instead of evil?" The writer and artist had worked on several features for National Allied Publications' other titles such as Slam Bradley in Detective Comics. They were asked to contribute a feature for National's newest publication. They submitted Superman for
consideration. After re-pasting the sample newspaper strips they had prepared into comic book page format, National decided to make Superman the cover feature of their new magazine. After seeing the published first issue, publisher Harry Donenfeld dismissed the featured strip as ridiculous. He ordered it never to be on the cover of the series. Subsequent reports of the first issue's strong sales and follow up investigations revealed that Superman was the reason. Thus, the character returned to the covers, becoming a permanent presence in issue 19 onward.
Initially, Action Comics was an anthology title featuring several other stories in addition to the Superman story. Zatara, a magician, was one of the other characters who had his own stories in early issues. There was the hero Tex Thompson, who eventually became Mr. America and later the Americommando. Vigilante enjoyed a lengthy run in this series. Sometimes stories of a more humorous nature were included, such as those of Hayfoot Henry, a policeman who talked in rhyme. The series saw the introduction of several characters and themes that would become longstanding elements of the Superman mythos. Lois Lane made her debut in the first issue with Superman. An unnamed "office boy" with a bow tie makes a brief appearance in the story "Superman's Phony Manager" published in Action Comics #6 (November 1938), which is claimed to be Jimmy Olsen's first appearance by several reference sources.
New superpowers depicted for the first time for the character included X-ray vision and super-hearing in issue #11 (April 1939) and telescopic vision and super-breath in issue #20 (January 1940).
Luthor, a villain who would later become Superman's arch-enemy, was introduced in issue #23 (April 1940). The original Toyman was created by writer Don Cameron and artist Ed Dobrotka in issue #64 (September 1943). By 1942, artist Wayne Boring, who had previously been one of Shuster's assistants, had become a major artist on Superman.




= The Silver Age

=
Under editor Mort Weisinger, the Action Comics title saw a further expansion of the Superman mythology. Writer Jerry Coleman and Wayne Boring created the Fortress of Solitude in issue #241 (June 1958) and Otto Binder and Al Plastino debuted the villain Brainiac and the Bottle City of Kandor in the next issue the following month.
Gradually, the size of the issues was decreased. The publisher was reluctant to raise the cover price from the original 10 cents and reduced the number of stories. For a while, Congo Bill and Tommy Tomorrow were the two features in addition to Superman. Writer Robert Bernstein and artist Howard Sherman revamped the "Congo Bill" backup feature in issue #248 (January 1959) in a story wherein the character gained the ability to swap bodies with a gorilla and his strip was renamed Congorilla. The introduction of Supergirl by Otto Binder and Al Plastino occurred in issue #252 (May 1959). Following this debut appearance, Supergirl adopted the secret identity of an orphan "Linda Lee" and made Midvale Orphanage her base of operations. In Action Comics #261 (February 1960), her pet cat Streaky was introduced by Jerry Siegel and Jim Mooney. Supergirl joined the Legion of Super-Heroes in issue #276. She acted for three years as Superman's "secret weapon", until her existence was revealed in Action Comics #285 (January 1962). In the view of comics historian Les Daniels, artist Curt Swan became the definitive artist of Superman in the early 1960s with a "new look" to the character that replaced Wayne Boring's version. Bizarro World first appeared in the story "The World of Bizarros!" in issue #262 (April 1960). Writer Jim Shooter created the villain the Parasite in Action Comics #340 (Aug. 1966).




= The Bronze Age

=
Mort Weisinger retired from DC in 1970 and his final issue of Action Comics was issue #392 (September 1970). Murray Boltinoff became the title's editor until issue #418. Metamorpho was the backup feature in issues #413–418 after which the character had a brief run as the backup in World's Finest Comics. Julius Schwartz became the editor of the series with issue #419 (December 1972) which also introduced the Human Target by Len Wein and Carmine Infantino in the backup feature. The Green Arrow and the Black Canary became a backup feature in #421 and ran through #458, initially rotating with the Human Target and the Atom. Between issues #423 (April 1973) and #424 (June 1973), the series jumped ahead by one month due to DC's decision to change the cover dates of its publishing line.
A new version of the Toyman was created by Cary Bates and Curt Swan in issue #432 (February 1974). Issues #437 (July 1974) and #443 (Jan. 1975) of the series were in the 100 Page Super Spectacular format. Martin Pasko wrote issue #500 (October 1979) which featured a history of the Superman canon as it existed at the time and was published in the Dollar Comics format.
The superheroine Vixen made her first appearance in Action Comics #521 (July 1981). To mark the 45th anniversary of the series, Lex Luthor and Brainiac were both given an updated appearance in issue #544 (June 1983). Lex Luthor dons his war suit for the first time in the story "Luthor Unleashed!" and Brainiac's appearance changes from the familiar green-skinned android to the metal skeletal-like robot in the story "Rebirth!". Keith Giffen's Ambush Bug character made appearances in issues #560, #563, and #565. Action Comics #579, written by Jean-Marc Lofficier and drawn by Giffen, featured an homage to Asterix where Superman and Jimmy Olsen are drawn back in time to a small village of indomitable Gauls. Schwartz ended his run as editor of the series with issue #583 (September 1986) which featured the second part of the "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" story by Alan Moore and Curt Swan.




= The Modern Age

=
Following the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths, writer/artist John Byrne relaunched the Superman franchise in The Man of Steel limited series in 1986. Action Comics became a team-up title with issue #584 (January 1987) featuring Superman and the New Teen Titans. Other costars during this period included the Phantom Stranger, the New Gods, the Demon, Hawkman and Hawkwoman, the Green Lantern Corps, the Metal Men, Superboy, Big Barda, Mister Miracle, Booster Gold, the Martian Manhunter, the Spectre, Lois Lane and Lana Lang, Checkmate, Wonder Woman, and the Man-Bat. The first Action Comics Annual was published in 1987 and featured Superman teaming with Batman in a story written by Byrne and drawn by Arthur Adams. A DC Comics Bonus Book was included in issue #599 (April 1988).
From May 24, 1988 – March 14, 1989, the publication frequency was changed to weekly, the title changed to Action Comics Weekly, and the series became an anthology. Prior to its launch, DC cancelled its ongoing Green Lantern Corps title and made Green Lantern and his adventures exclusive to Action Comics Weekly.
The rest of these issues featured rotating serialized stories of other DC heroes, sometimes as try-outs that led to their own limited or ongoing series. Characters with featured stories in the run included the Black Canary, Blackhawk, Captain Marvel, Catwoman, Deadman, Nightwing, the Phantom Lady, the Phantom Stranger, the Secret Six, Speedy, and Wild Dog. Titles spun off from Action Comics at this time included a Catwoman miniseries and a Blackhawk ongoing, in both cases by the same creative teams that worked on the weekly serials. During and after Action Comics Weekly's run, two Green Lantern Specials were published in late 1988 and the second in spring 1989, the latter special wrapping up the storylines from the Green Lantern serials in Action Comics Weekly. Each issue featured a two-page Superman serial, a feature that, according to an editorial in the first weekly issue, was intended as a homage to the Superman newspaper strips of the past.
The final issue of the weekly was originally intended to feature a book-length encounter between Clark Kent and Hal Jordan by writer Neil Gaiman. While Gaiman's story primarily teamed up Green Lantern and Superman, it also featured other characters from Action Comics Weekly, including the Blackhawks (in flashback), Deadman, and the Phantom Stranger. The story ran counter to DC editorial policy at the time as it portrayed Hal Jordan and Clark Kent as old friends who knew each other's secret identities. This was not considered canon in 1989 and Gaiman was unwilling to change this aspect of the story (as each serial in ACW was edited by different editors, continuity was not being maintained by DC editorial). The story was pulled and a different story, written by Elliot S. Maggin, was run. Gaiman's story was finally published as a one-shot in Green Lantern/Superman: Legend of the Green Flame in November 2000.
The Action Comics Weekly experiment lasted only until the beginning of March 1989 and after a short break, issue #643 (July 1989) brought the title back onto a monthly schedule. Writer/artist George Pérez took over the title and was joined by scripter Roger Stern the following month.
As writer of the series, Stern contributed to such storylines as "Panic in the Sky" and "The Death of Superman". He created the Eradicator in Action Comics Annual #2 and later incorporated the character into the "Reign of the Supermen" story arc beginning in The Adventures of Superman #500. The Eradicator then took over Action Comics as "the Last Son of Krypton" in issue #687 (June 1993).
Stern wrote the 1991 story wherein Clark Kent finally revealed his identity as Superman to Lois Lane.

Several major Superman storylines crossed over with Action Comics including "Emperor Joker" in 2000 and "Our Worlds at War" in 2001. John Byrne returned to Action Comics for issues #827–835 working with writer Gail Simone in 2005–2006.
After the "One Year Later" company-wide storyline, Action Comics had a crossover arc with the Superman series, entitled "Up, Up and Away!" which told of Clark Kent attempting to protect Metropolis without his powers until eventually regaining them.
The "Last Son" storyline was written by Geoff Johns and Richard Donner, the director of the 1978 film Superman: The Movie, and was pencilled by Adam Kubert. This story introduces the original character, Christopher Kent, and adapts the classic Superman film villains, General Zod, Ursa and Non into the regular DC Universe continuity. Issue #851 (August 2007) was presented in 3-D.
Starting with issue #875 (May 2009), written by Greg Rucka and drawn by Eddy Barrows, Thara Ak-Var and Chris Kent, took Superman's place as the main protagonists of the comic, while Superman left Earth to live on New Krypton. A Captain Atom backup feature began in issue #879 (September 2009).
On February 22, 2010, a copy of Action Comics #1 (June 1938) sold at auction for $3 million, besting the $317,000 record for a comic book set by a different copy, in lesser condition, the previous year. The sale, by an anonymous seller to an anonymous buyer, was through the Manhattan-based auction company ComicConnect.com.
Although DC had initially announced Marc Guggenheim as writer of the title following the War of the Supermen limited series, he was replaced by Paul Cornell. Cornell featured Lex Luthor as the main character in Action Comics from issues #890–900 and Death appeared in issue #894, with the agreement of the character's creator, Neil Gaiman. In April 2011, the 900th issue of Action Comics was released. It served as a conclusion for Luthor's "Black Ring" storyline and a continuation for the "Reign of Doomsday" storyline. The final issue of the original series was Action Comics #904.




= The New 52

=
The title was relaunched from issue #1, as part of 2011's The New 52 by the creative team of writer Grant Morrison and artist Rags Morales. As with all of the books associated with the relaunch, Clark Kent appears younger than the previous incarnation of the character. Action Comics focus on the early days of Superman's career, while the Superman series focus on Superman's present. Superheroes at large have appeared only in the past five years, and are viewed with at best, suspicion, and at worst, outright hostility. The storyline in Action Comics takes place about a year before the events of Justice League #1, and was referred to by DC Co-Publisher Dan DiDio as "DC Universe Year Zero" while JL operates as "Year One." The Man of Steel is not yet trusted by Metropolis citizens and wears a basic costume consisting of a caped T-shirt, jeans and work boots. The first issue has had five printings as of March 2012.
The first story arc of the relaunched series, entitled Superman and the Men of Steel for the collected edition, begins very early in Superman's career as he starts making a name for himself as a champion of the oppressed in Metropolis. He captures the attention of the military and scientist Lex Luthor, who are both interested in testing his capabilities as well as discovering what kind of threat he represents.
Following the completion of Morrison's storyline, writer Andy Diggle and artist Tony Daniel became the new creative team on the title with issue #19. Unlike the previous issues, the setting for the Action Comics series would now take place in the present. Diggle announced his resignation as the writer of the series shortly before his first issue went on sale. Diggle left the title with only one issue completed (he would be co-writer for #20 and co-plot issue #21), with Daniel taking on full scripting and art duties for the two following issues completing the three-part story arc "Hybrid". Scott Lobdell wrote the series after Diggle and Daniel's departure. Writer Greg Pak and artist Aaron Kuder became the new creative team on the series with issue #25 (Jan. 2014). This series concluded with issue #52 (July 2016), which was part of the "Final Days of Superman" storyline which depicted the death of the "New 52" version of Superman.




= DC Rebirth

=
As part of DC Comics' DC Rebirth relaunch in June 2016, Action Comics reverted to its original numbering beginning with Action Comics #957. Written by Dan Jurgens, the series ships twice-monthly and serves as a continuation of the comic book series Superman: Lois and Clark, which featured the pre-Flashpoint Superman alongside his wife, Lois Lane, and their son, Jon Kent.

For the series' 1000th issue—released on April 18, 2018, the 80th anniversary of the premiere issue—DC returned Superman to his traditional costume with the red trunks and yellow belt. Action Comics #1000 collects the regular cover, blank variant cover, eight covers spanning eight decades from the 1930s-2000s, nineteen other variant covers from variant artists, and a hardcover Action Comics: 80 Years of Superman Deluxe Edition.
Brian Michael Bendis became the new writer for the Action Comics series starting with issue #1001.




= Infinite Frontier

=
Starting with issue #1029, the title became a part of the Infinite Frontier relaunch in March 2021. Phillip Kennedy Johnson became the lead writer on the series, as well as its companion series Superman.




Publication changes and special numbering


Action Comics is the longest-running DC Comics series by number of issues, followed by Detective Comics. A departure from a strict monthly schedule was four giant-size Supergirl reprint issues published as a 13th issue annually: issues #334 (March 1966), #347 (March–April 1967), #360 (March–April 1968), and #373 (March–April 1969). Action Comics has not had an uninterrupted run, having been on a three-month hiatus on two separate occasions. The first of these occurred during the summer of 1986, with issue #583 bearing a cover date of September, and issue #584 listing January 1987. The regular Superman titles were suspended during this period to allow for the publication of John Byrne's six-issue The Man of Steel limited series. Publication was again suspended between issues #686 and #687 (February and June 1993) following the "Death of Superman" and "Funeral for a Friend" storylines, before Action Comics returned in June 1993 with the "Reign of the Supermen" arc.
The series was published weekly from May 24, 1988, to March 14, 1989. (See detail in The Modern Age section above.) The temporarily increased frequency of issues allowed Action Comics to further surpass the older Detective Comics in the number of individual issues published. It surpassed Detective Comics in the 1970s when that series was bimonthly for a number of years. This change lasted from issue #601 to issue #642. During this time, Superman appeared only in a two-page story per issue; he was still the only character to appear in every issue of the series.
An issue #0 (October 1994) was published between issues #703 and #704 as part of the Zero Month after the "Zero Hour: Crisis in Time" crossover event. There was an issue #1,000,000 (November 1998) during the "DC One Million" crossover event in October 1998 between issues #748 and #749.
On June 1, 2011, it was announced that all series taking place within the shared DC Universe would be either canceled or relaunched with new #1 issues, after a new continuity was created in the wake of the Flashpoint event. Although being DC's longest running series, having reached issue #904 at the end of its initial run, Action Comics was no exception, and the first issue of the new series was released on September 7, 2011.
In February 2016, it was announced that as part of the DC Rebirth relaunch, Action Comics would resume its original numbering system, starting with issue #957 (Aug. 2016) and ship on a twice-monthly schedule.




Collected editions


The Action Comics series is included in many trade paperbacks and hardcovers. These generally reprint only the Superman stories from the given issues.

Superman: The Action Comics Archives
Volume 1: reprints issues #1, 7–20, and summarizes #2–6; May 1998; ISBN 978-1-56389-335-3
Volume 2: reprints issues #21–36; December 1998; ISBN 978-1-56389-426-8
Volume 3: reprints issues #37–52; August 2001; ISBN 978-1-56389-710-8
Volume 4: reprints issues #53–68; June 2005; ISBN 978-1-4012-0408-2
Volume 5: reprints issues #69–85; March 2007; ISBN 978-1-4012-1188-2
The Superman Chronicles
Volume 1: reprints issues #1–13; New York World's Fair Comics #1; Superman #1; January 2006; ISBN 978-1-4012-0764-9
Volume 2: reprints issues #14–20; Superman #2–3; February 2007; ISBN 978-1-4012-1215-5
Volume 3: reprints issues #21–25; New York World's Fair Comics #2; Superman #4–5; August 2007; ISBN 978-1-4012-1374-9
Volume 4: reprints issues #26–31; Superman #6–7; February 2008; ISBN 978-1-4012-1658-0
Volume 5: reprints issues #32–36; Superman #8–9; World's Best Comics #1; August 2008; ISBN 978-1-4012-1851-5
Volume 6: reprints issues #37–40; Superman #10–11; World's Finest Comics #2–3; February 2009; ISBN 978-1-4012-2187-4
Volume 7: reprints issues #41–43; Superman #12–13; World's Finest Comics #4; July 2009; ISBN 978-1-4012-2288-8
Volume 8: reprints issues #44–47; Superman #14–15; April 2010; ISBN 978-1-4012-2647-3
Volume 9: reprints issues #48–52; Superman #16–17; and World's Finest Comics #6; June 2011; ISBN 1401231225
Volume 10: reprints issues #53–55; Superman #18–19; and World's Finest Comics #7; September 2012; ISBN 1401234887
Superman: The Golden Age Omnibus
Volume 1: reprints issues #1–31; Superman #1–7; New York World's Fair Comics #1–2; June 2013; ISBN 1401241891
Volume 2: reprints issues #32–47; Superman #8–15; World's Best Comics #1; World's Finest Comics #2–5; July 2016; ISBN 1401263240
Volume 3: reprints issues #48–63; Superman #16–23; World's Finest Comics #6–10; December 2016; ISBN 1401270115
Volume 4: reprints issues #64-85; Superman #24-33; World's Finest Comics #11-17; May 2017; ISBN 978-1401272579
Volume 5: reprints issues #86-103; Superman #34-42; World's Finest Comics #18-25; January 2018; ISBN 978-1401274764
Superman in the Forties, includes issues #1–2, 14, 23, 64, 93, 107; November 2005; ISBN 978-1-4012-0457-0
Superman in the Fifties, includes issues #151, 242, 252, 254–255; October 2002; ISBN 978-1-56389-826-6
Superman in the Sixties, includes issue #289; October 1999; ISBN 978-1-56389-522-7
Superman in the Seventies, includes issue #484; November 2000; ISBN 978-1-56389-638-5
Superman in the Eighties, includes issues #507–508, 554, 595, 600, 644; April 2006; ISBN 978-1-4012-0952-0
Adventures of Superman: Gil Kane collects Action Comics #539–541, 544–546 and 551–554; Superman #367, 372, 375; Superman Special #1–2; and DC Comics Presents Annual #3, 392 pages, January 2013, ISBN 978-1401236748
Superman: Action Comics (DC Rebirth until #1000, simply being called Action Comics)
Volume 1: Path of Doom, includes Action Comics issues #957–962; February 2017; ISBN 978-1-4012-6804-6
Volume 2: Welcome to the Planet, collects Action Comics issues #963–966, Justice League #52; April 2017; ISBN 978-1-4012-6911-1
Men of Steel, collects Action Comics issues #967–972; June 2017
Superman Reborn, collects Action Comics issues #973–976, Superman #18-19; September 2017
The New World, collects Action Comics issues #977–984; November 2017
The Oz Effect, collects Action Comics issues #985–992; March 2018
Booster Shot, collects Action Comics issues #993–999, Action Comics Special #1; August 2018
Invisible Mafia, collects Action Comics issues #1001–1006; April 2019
Leviathan Rising, collects Action Comics issues #1007–1011, Superman: Leviathan Rising #1; November 2019
Leviathan Hunt, collects Action Comics issues #1012–1016; May 2020
Metropolis Burning, collects Action Comics issues #1017–1021; May 2021
The House of Kent, collects Action Comics issues #1022–1028; August 2021
Warworld Rising, collects Action Comics issues #1030-1035; 2022
The Arena, collects Action Comics issues #1036-1042; 2022




Awards


Action Comics #684 was part of "The Death of Superman" storyline which won the Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Award for "Favorite Comic Book Story" for 1992. Action Comics #687–691 were part of "The Reign of the Supermen" storyline, which won the same award for 1993.




In other media


The 2006 film Superman Returns features a scene in which Superman holds a car over his head in the same pose. The season premiere for the CW's 2021 television series Superman & Lois also features a scene in which Superman saves a kid from an uncontrolled green car homaging the iconic #1 cover.
In Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice from 2016 Lex Luthor's inmate number is AC-23-19-40, a reference to Luthor's first appearance in Action Comics as well as a small newspaper clipping of Superman holding a car over his head in the same pose.
In the 1999 animated film The Iron Giant, Hogarth shows the titular robot a collection of comic books, including an issue of Action Comics featuring Superman, and notes the Giant's comparison between him.
In The Simpsons episode Homer's Barbershop Quartet, Homer scavenges through a box of priceless artifacts, one of the items being the very first copy of Action Comics, which he dismisses all as junk and worthless.




Sales






See also


List of DC Comics publications
List of Superman comics
Publication history of Superman




References






External links


DC page: AC1938, AC2011, AC2016, ACDCFD
Action Comics at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original).
• Source: Action (comics)

Action was a British weekly boys' comic published by IPC Magazines from 14 February 1976 to 5 November 1977, when it merged with war comic Battle after 86 issues. The comic was created by Pat Mills and Geoff Kemp.
While initially a sales success, the comic quickly received media criticism for its violent content, causing a moral panic that ultimately saw it withdrawn from sale by IPC in October 1976, amid rumours it was to be banned. Action returned two months later in a much-sanitised form, quickly losing readers and being cancelled the following year. Despite its short lifespan, Action was highly influential on the British comics scene, and was a direct forerunner of the long-running 2000 AD.




Creation



After a successful stint working on various IPC girls' comics, Pat Mills had interviewed for the vacant position of managing editor at the company. Mills felt the company's output had grown stale and outdated and told the board so, and wasn't offered the job due to his forthright criticism. However, his fresh ideas had been noted by editorial director John Sanders, who likewise felt the company's comics needed an overhaul but found it politically difficult to do so due to the long-serving, well-connected nature of much of the company's staff. He was impressed enough to remember Mills when charged with creating an answer to DC Thomson's Warlord comic, assigning Mills and his fellow freelancer John Wagner to create Battle Picture Weekly in 1974. Despite internal friction from the bypassed staff the comic was a major triumph, and Sanders quickly moved to use them elsewhere in IPC's boys adventure division.
Wagner was given editorship of Valiant, which had been the company's leading title of the sixties but was now increasingly outdated, while Mills was tasked with creating a new weekly. Having learnt about Mills' perfectionism in the launch of Battle – which required the guidance of veteran Dave Hunt to make its launch date – Mills was given a choice of staff editors to work with, picking the experienced Geoff Kemp. Kemp had a long history with the company, including a sizeable stint as assistant editor of Lion (which he had helped update in the mid-1960s, being the driving force behind the introduction of the likes of anti-hero The Spider) but was identified by Sanders and Mills as one of the staff most open to new ideas. The pair were given three months to put the comic together from scratch; while Mills felt this was a "ridiculously short time", the more seasoned Kemp would later note it was the longest run-in he had ever known. The pair quickly settled on a formula of taking extant story ideas, approaching them from a different angle and injecting a large amount of contemporary realism. Mills envisioned making a title that appealed to children that didn't read comics rather than simply trying to draw an audience from other titles, and as such aimed to make the title streetwise and more in touch.
Following this template, the pair looked at the blockbuster film Jaws and switched the perspective by following the shark, while making many of the human characters unsympathetic, to create "Hook Jaw". "Hellman of Hammer Force" took the old staple of World War II but followed an Axis protagonist in the form of fiercely principled tank commander Major Kurt Hellman. According to Mills, Sanders was initially reluctant about running the story, but was worn down by repeated requests. "Dredger" applied the hard-edged ethos of Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry to the spy genre. "Blackjack" was a boxing story, but unlike those featured previously in the likes of Tiger and Valiant not only took a closer look at corruption in the sport but also featured a black protagonist, infused with the brashness of Muhammad Ali; Mills would later recall some of IPC's staff felt Barron being black would make the strip unpopular, and urging him to change the character to a white man with a black sidekick. A similarly unsentimental view of athletics and youth was evident in "Sport's Not For Losers!", about a working class lout who smoked but had an unexpected talent for long-distance running. For "The Running Man", Mafiosi and a face-swap were added to the format of The Fugitive. The obligatory football strip, "Play Till You Drop!", featured a player controlled by a blackmailing journalist, while "The Coffin Sub" featured a captain wracked with survivor's guilt wondering if he was leading his new crew to their deaths. Rejected were an ecologically tinged fishing story (dropped when a dummy episode proved too bleak) and a story about a photographer with a knack of getting in the thick of unpleasant situations, as well as World War I aviation strip "The Suicide Club" by Kelvin Gosnell (which was eventually used as a one-off in the 1976 Action Special).
They also looked at the editorial content, feeling that this also dated their competitors by generally being too paternal and condescending. Steve MacManus, who was writing "The Running Man" and "Sport's Not For Losers!", found himself corralled into the role of 'ActionMan', whereby readers would set the unfortunate writer bizarre stunts; MacManus would be photographed doing the winning entry and the reader who submitted it would be awarded with £10. MacManus also handled running the letters column, taking on the persona of a put-upon dogsbody forever trying to avoid tyrannical editor Peg-Leg and have a cup of tea in peace. Readers were encouraged to submit bizarre and stupid questions to resident 'Knowall' Milton Finesilver and, most anarchically, to nominate a public figure as 'Twit of the Week'. Each 'Twit' would have their portrait printed together with a pithy dismissal of whatever they had done to invoke the readership's ire. Bamber Gascoigne, Nicholas Parsons, Russell Harty, The Bay City Rollers, Malcolm Allison and Tony Blackburn were among those honoured. The idea was to let the readers know they considered them as equals – in the words of MacManus, to let readers know "We know what you're thinking". As with Battle, the plan was for Mills and Kemp to bed in the new title and then hand it over to an experienced editor for week-to-week running.
Mills purposefully modelled the page layouts on infamous British tabloid newspaper The Sun, later explaining: -

My thinking was to play them at their own game and use that approach to do Action... figure out how the popular culture media indoctrinates readers with their establishment shite and rival it with equally popular counter-culture. So don't do a version of Oz or International Times, as much as I admire them, as that will have limited appeal to kids, but do a subversive equivalent of mainstream media culture.
Doug Church worked as art director on the comic, as he had done on Battle. The plan was originally to name the new comic 'Boots' or 'Dr. Martens' (in honour of the tough kid's footwear of choice) but instead Mills chose 'Action'. He initially wanted to call it Action 76 and change the number incrementally to emphasise the comic's up to date nature, but this went down poorly with newsagents and the idea was dropped.




Publishing history



Backed by a television advertising campaign the first issue sold 250,000 copies – a sizeable figure at the time. As was standard for the industry figures soon dropped to a respectable range of 160,000 to 170,000. However, instead of dropping further they stabilised and then actually started to increase as word-of-mouth spread, and IPC's post room was swamped by reader's letters. Having learnt of Action, IPC's rival DC Thomson brought out Bullet in response; however, produced by the same hands as Victor, Hornet and Hotspur it failed to make much of an impression. In the early days of the comic, Mills was very hands-on, rewriting many of the scripts himself.




= Controversy

=
Almost immediately Action's violence began to attract attention from the press. On 23 February 1976, The London Evening Standard ran an article on the comic, criticising its bloodletting. More sustained criticism came from The Sun, which dissected Action on 30 April 1976. As author Martin Baker has noted, the article itself was relatively balanced but the headline – "The Sevenpenny Nightmare", in reference to the notorious Victorian penny dreadfuls – set the tone for a campaign against the title's immorality. However, the excellent sales led to the creative staff being egged on in some cases.
Meanwhile, the comic continued, and the first round of changes to the contents were instigated. "The Coffin Sub" and "Play Till You Drop" proved unpopular with readers and were ejected in favour of World War II commando story "Green's Grudge War" and a new football strip, "Look Out for Lefty!". The latter revolved around the supremely gifted but short-tempered Kenny 'Lefty' Lampton, a borderline thug whose off-the-pitch life rang more true than the kidnappings and assassination plots faced by Roy of the Rovers. May saw the Northern poverty of "Sport's Not For Losers!" swapped out for "Death Game 1999", a highly violent lift of successful sci-fi film Rollerball, and in June trucking drama "Hell's Highway" replaced "The Running Man". John Smith meanwhile took over the editorship from Kemp; his previous experience had largely been with nursery titles. The creative teams on the various strips meanwhile revelled in treading new ground and pushing boundaries.
Meanwhile, the press attention on the title refused to go away. Self-appointed public guardian Mary Whitehouse and her NVLA – influential with the powerful tabloid press and Parliament – took a sojourn from trying to remove violence from television to begin campaigning against Action. Another moralistic pressure group, Delegates Opposing Violent Education, threatened to have its members deface Action in newsagents by adding stickers denouncing the publication as being in violation of the Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act 1955. Denis Gifford, a former cartoonist turned comics historian whose books had made him the doyen of British comics, gave colour quotes negatively comparing Action to his beloved nonviolent pre-war comics such as Happy Days. Much of the reportage drew comparisons between Action and the lurid pre-code American horror titles of the 1950s, which had been banned in Britain by the act of Parliament.
Sanders became the public face of Action's defence, stoutly maintaining it was still less violent than numerous popular films and television shows. However, behind the scenes he attempted to moderate the comic. Despite his efforts, in September 1976 criticism reached a new level. Two strips brought particular attention. New addition "Kids Rule O.K." featured a version of present-day Britain where a disease suddenly killed off the world's adult population, leaving the country filled with tough gangs of teenagers fighting to survive, while "Look Out for Lefty!" covered the player's breakthrough into the first team. In the latter Lefty's iconoclasm had created an enemy among his team-mates who went out of his way to disrupt the title character's game. Seeing this from the terraces, Lefty's spiky girlfriend Angie threw a bottle at the attacker, knocking him out and allowing Lefty's talent to shine through. At the time football hooliganism was on a sharp rise and the press accused the comic of endorsing such behaviour, with noted referee Jack Taylor among those to supply condemning statements to the tabloids. The same 18 September edition had also launched "Kids Rule O.K." with a front cover – rendered by Carlos Ezquerra – featuring a bike chain wielding youth against a background of urban devastation, standing over what appeared to be the body of a policeman. While in typical comic style the cover image was only tangentially related to the strip itself, the image was seized on by the press as an example of the comic's attempts to corrupt the nation's youth. The artist would later claim this was caused by the colourist, and the helmet and the prone figure were not meant to be related. The controversy was such that a bemused Stan Lee, visiting to do the promotional rounds for Marvel UK's launch of Captain Britain, found himself being questioned about it.




= Withdrawal

=
With the attention not going away, the BBC arranged for Sanders to be interviewed live on their popular prime time magazine show Nationwide. At the time the programme's main studio anchor was Frank Bough, who was – before his private life was revealed by the press to involve wearing lingerie for cocaine-fuelled orgies with prostitutes – one of the most trusted faces on television. Sanders was given a list of questions he would be asked, which Bough promptly ignored in favour of excoriating his guest for warping children. A blindsided Sanders attempted to rally, but after the broadcast the IPC board intervened and after the 16 October 1976 issue Action was pulled from circulation. Sanders reportedly only found out about the withdrawal by reading about it in newspapers when on holiday in Spain.
The decision to withdraw had actually been made some seven weeks before, that being the lead-in for the printing cycle; IPC resisted calls to pull production on comics they had already paid for. However, the 23 October edition only got as far as a small run of 30 copies (an internal policy allowing a comic to be given final checks before a full print run was made). The precise reason for this step, unprecedented for a publisher that valued sales above all else, has been a matter for debate; Baker has speculated several factors combined to lead to the title being withdrawn. It is often stated that newsagents threatened to either refuse to stock Action or all IPC comics. However of the two largest distributors in the UK at the time John Menzies only sent a note expressing concern about the criticism of Action, while Baker's research was only able to conclusively verify that WHSmith only threatened either only honour orders for reserved copies or not provide promotional support for any relaunches, though he found there were many second-hand accounts of the threat from those inside IPC at the time.
Another suggested factor was internal politicking. Many of the IPC staff, particularly the boys' adventure division, had greatly resented being bypassed for Battle and then Action, but strong sales had prevented them from protesting. Many had been with the company for decades and had good relations with the board, particularly the influential Jack Le Grand, the driving force behind the creation of Valiant. Like the staff, the board was distinctly traditionalist and many held personal views closer to those of Whitehouse than of Action's creators and readers. Further friction came from freelancers such as Mills being paid better than their equivalent staffers. Mills himself would later feel that after he stepped away Action "went too far".




= Return, decline and cancellation

=
Smith was removed, with much of the blame being put on his inexperience with adventure comics meaning he lost control of the creative teams. The traditionalist Sid Bicknell, a former Valiant editor, took over and Sanders was tasked by the board with approving every single page. Baker was able to view a copy of the 23 October issue during production of Action – A Violent Comic, and compare it to the heavily cannibalised version that would become the 4 December edition, and identified a large number of edits for both violence and political content. Other overt changes were the removal of "Kids Rule OK" and "The Probationer" entirely, replaced by motor racing story "Roaring Wheels" and "Double Dynamite" (a boxing story about a white man with a black sidekick), while "Death Game 1999" was renamed "Spinball". "Double Dynamite" and fellow post-suspension introductions "Jinx Jackson" and "The Loner" were described by Andrew Screen as "standard boy’s adventure strips that could feature in any other contemporary comic", and therefore proof that Action's "edge had gone".
The new, safer Action failed to sell as well as readers swiftly realised it was largely the same as previous boys' comics and in November 1977 it was merged into Battle after sales fell to an unprofitable 70,000. "Hellman of Hammer Force" (which had ironically avoided heavy censure and had actually featured more deaths after the suspension), "Dredger" and "Spinball" would continue, though the latter pair were reconfigured and only "Hellman of Hammer Force" would run for any considerable length of time. In the meantime, Mills and Wagner had been reunited by Sanders, and successfully launched the science fiction boys' weekly 2000 AD in 1977.




Legacy


Mills has credited his overall experience with Action as being crucial to 2000 AD, both in terms of taking on writing more of the contents himself instead of editing and in terms of learning what was and wasn't going to get unwanted attention. As he noted some years later, "We just kept saying it that they're robots or androids that are getting their heads blown off!". Many of the Action contributors would play key roles in 2000 AD's formative years.
A decade after the cancellation, "Dredger", "The Coffin Sub" and "Play Till You Drop!" were among the contents of the short-lived 1987 reprint title All-Action Monthly. The following year portions of "Dredger" and "Hook Jaw" were included in the 224-page softback Big Adventure Book special, alongside reprints of the likes of "The Steel Claw" and "One-Eyed Jack".
In 1990 Titan Books released Action – The Story of a Violent Comic written by Martin Barker. This was a history of the comic, as well as a study of the effects of the ban.
In this book Barker revealed that 30 copies of the pulped 23 October 1976 issue were saved and the book prints many of the strips from that issue, plus following issues thanks to Barker coming into possession of unpublished art. The book reveals just how much Action was being censored at an editorial level, and the route the title was heading in before it was cancelled. In 2007, Spitfire Comics released a collection of the pre-ban "Hook Jaw" strips in Collected Hook Jaw vol.1.




= Revivals

=
Since 2016 the rights to Action and its contents have been owned by Rebellion Developments. In 2017, Rebellion leased the rights to "Hook Jaw" to Titan Comics, who produced a five-part mini-series written by Simon Spurrier and drawn by Conor Boyle, and also published a collected edition of the Action strips to tie in with the series.
In spring 2020 Rebellion published an Action Special 2020 under its Treasury of British Comics imprint. The special included new strips for "Kids Rule O.K." (by Ram V and Henrik Sarlström), "Hellman of Hammer Force" (by Garth Ennis and original artist Mike Dorey), "Hook Jaw" (by Quint Amity and Dan Lish) and "Dredger" (by Zina Hutton and Staz Johnson), as well as Henry Flint's "Hell Machine". The Special also included a cover-to-cover reprint of the previously unpublished 23 October 1976 edition of Action. Ennis won the 2021 Irish Comics News Award for Best Irish Writer for his story. but other elements of the special were not as well received. The company also published a collected edition of the "Hellman of Hammer Force" collected edition in 2021.
In June 2022 they followed up with a hardcover Battle Action Special with new stories featuring characters from both comics, all written by Ennis and with various artists, with new "Dredger" and "Kids Rule O.K." stories. This had a more positive reception. Starting in May 2023, Rebellion published a five-issue series of Battle Action, with each issue featuring two complete stories, once again written by Ennis. In 2024, ten further issues were announced, beginning in that year.




Stories






Spinoffs


Action Annual (9 editions, 1977 to 1985)
Action Summer Special (5 editions, 1976 to 1980)




Collected editions






Notes






References






Further reading


Barker, Martin (11 August 1990). Action: The Story of a Violent Comic. Titan Books. ISBN 9781852860233.




External links


Action at the Grand Comics Database
Action – The Sevenpenny Nightmare
Action, BritishComics.com
"Too much action: how kids' comic Action drowned in its own ultraviolence" by David Burnett, The Guardian, 21 October 2016
Strip Hooligans – The story of the banned comic Action

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• DC Comics
• Detective Comics
• Superman
• Batman
• Aksi langsung
• Joe Suster
• Justice League Action
• Enchantress (DC Comics)
• Supergirl
• Joe Shuster
• Action Comics
• Action Comics 1
• Action (comics)
• Superman
• Action Comics 1000
• DC Comics
• Action
• Smallville (comics)
• List of DC Comics publications (A–B)
• Parasite (comics)