Action Force

The Action Force strip, based on a popular and long running line of toys, first appeared in IPC's war themed comic Battle from October 1983. From 7th March 1987 though, Action Force-now heavily revamped and closely based on Marvel's American title G.I Joe-became a Marvel UK title in its own right, with few direct ties to the continuity of the previous incarnation at IPC (this was principally because the Action Force toy line had been swallowed up by the G.I Joe range, losing all its UK originated characters, though the writers did attempt to tie the two together by claiming that the British Baron Ironblood had reinvented himself as Cobra Commander; the Baron's Red Shadows and their leader the Black Major would also reappear later). The Action Force series, containing a mix of UK originated strips, re-edited US reprints from G.I Joe (with the names and some details changed to make them more Anglocentric) and (for a brief period) backup strips featuring Marvel's Master of Kung Fu, ran for 50 weekly issues until 13th February 1988 before being cancelled and merged with Transformers with issue #153 of that title. Subsequently, an Action Force Monthly title in the American colour comic format ran for 15 issues from June 1988 to August 1989. Marvel UK also published an Action Force Annual (featuring relettered stories reprinted from G.I Joe) in 1988.


 * Five Action Force promotional mini-comics numbered #1-5 were given away in issues of IPC's Battle, Tiger and Eagle between 16th July and 10th September 1983. All of them ran for just eight pages, with Ron Turner drawing issues #1 and #5 and Vano issues #2-4.