Action 7th August 1976 - vicious

We all know Action, yes? We all know about the thrills and the violence and the, er, action and how great and groundbreaking and different it was.
Well, i've just gotten this issue to fill in my collection and re-read it for the first time in nigh-on 39 years and was quite taken aback at just how nasty and vicious some of the strips were.
Now, i'm no prude, you'll know if you've been here for a while what a fan i am of the comic and how it pushed all the right buttons for me back then, and to this day. But here, it just doesn't have the excellence of past issues and seems to be focussing on the outrageous over originality.
Lets look at some cases in point.
After the glorious cover we go straight into "Dredger" and here he is being briefed by his M-style boss, who's hidden in the shadows in a very Blofield way. I don't remember him, nor him being hidden like that and i don't know if anything ever came of it but, really, that fact and the novelty of the speech balloons with their straight lined tops and bottoms really are the best things about the strip:



Its some piffle about a US politician setting up another politician for a fall, which Dredger susses out really quickly and could've arrested the crokk pretty easily. Instead we get a couple of innocent CIA men killed for just doing their jobs and the baddie is dispensed with thus at a function:



Next up is "Greene's Grudge War" and its the usual thing for boys comics of the time, the hook of the story being played out exactly the same each week slightly differently. So we get, yet again, Greene seething over Bold, trying to do something to set him up for a fall and failing. But the artwork by Belardinelli is his usual top-notch work:



"Hell's Highway" was the usual plod, with standard action scenes:



And then we get to the centre colour pages and "Hookjaw" and unfortunately we're in the middle of the island resort story. Which not only means rubbish story, but truly rubbish art. Still, we do have a bonkers moment, with a lovely panel being my highlight of the issue - the bloke who's made a remote control, full size, great white shark (as you do) swims out to try and stop Hookjaw eating it (why would he?) and lovingly gives the dorsal fin a cuddle:



Next we have "Hellman". This used to be my second favourite strip, but that was when we had fantastic art by the like of Mike Dorey on it. But such talent has long gone and, boy, does it show.
Anyway, we have another staple of boys comics here, a plot device crudely dropped in at the start which you just know (even as a nipper) will be important later on. In this case, the Nazi's lovingly looking after their flag:



As i say, decent art had long gone by now. The splash page made a big deal about which of the three types of tank will be victorious in the battle, but just look at what we get for tanks - all three types just look like shoeboxes with guns stuck on. Go back and compare with the Belardinelli page for a contrast:



When we get further into the story, the unpleasentness is back - tank crews being burnt alive:





And, wouldn't you know it, the petrol-sodden SS flag being useful by being thrown on the flamethrower unit to burn them alive too:



The violence is even in "Look Out For Lefty", where the football is being used like a guided missle:



But the issue ends on a quirky note - if you've ever wondered what a badly damaged cyborg sounds like as he limps away, now you know, courtesy of "Death Game 1999":



So, a strange old issue then, would've been a pretty duff one if it wasn't for Massimo's art and the guy hugging a fin.

"AIEEEE!" WATCH:
An elongated "AIEEEEEE!" from the Nazi tank and again from under the burning flag in "Hellman".
The almost there "AWWWWEEEEEE!" from Rico the Cyborg in "Death Game 1999".