The licensing complexities and how behind-the-scenes wranglings continued to affect the Action Force feature in weekly UK comic Battle Action Force make for as interesting a read as the strips themselves. When the former war comic Battle (by this time retitled Battle Action after a customary UK comic merger, and having relaxed its remit for gritty stories from historical conflicts) was floundering in the 1980s a partnership with toy company Palitoy to feature their Action Force toys as comics features very probably gave the comic an extra few years of life. This kind of European take on G.I. Joe (and there are further twists to be discussed there for possible future reviews) became hugely popular, bringing in a much younger audience than Battle had previously catered for and making the comic its firm home between 1983 and 1986.
Rebellion, of course, own a huge library of British comics material but while their Treasury of British Comics line has brought so much of it to new audiences there’s always the issue of that small proportion that was licensed from toys, television and the like that often feels lost in a rights limbo. For every comics volume of something like collected Space 1999 or The Tomorrow People strips there’s a Sapphire and Steel comic feature that feels lost forever to posterity. Action Force would also have seemed an unlikely project to ever see reprinting given the legal complexities. But Total Toy Books and the Treasury have made it happen in three over-sized and beautifully reproduced hardcovers.
Volume 1, subtitled ‘Red Tide Rising’, brings together the giveaway comics that introduced the various sections of Action Force: the SAS Force, the nautical Q-Force, the self-explanatory Space Force, the infantry Z-Force, and their enemies General Ironblood and his evil, would-be world-conquering Red Shadows army. It features the long-running ‘Operation Bloodhound’ storyline as the members of SAS Force have a number of encounters with Ironblood as they pursue him across South America. There are also sidesteps into the maritime conflicts of Q-Force, and spotlight serials on Ironblood and fellow Red Shadows member Red Jackal, who gets an origin story.
Action takes precedence over characterisation in Action Force with characters being largely defined by class or region. Indeed we probably learn more about them from the profile pages included at the back of this first volume than we do from the strips. They’re standard hero types, like the dashing, square-jawed hero Charles Buckingham of SAS Force who comes from a privileged, aristocratic background or the working class Albert Jones (aka Stakeout) who we know is from Liverpool because he says “wack” in pretty much every speech balloon. The point here though is that for the kids audience the strip was created for this is entirely appropriate. They weren’t looking for intense character studies, and writers Gerry Finley-Day and James Tomlinson ensure the stories move at a brisk and absorbing pace. Geoff Campion is responsible for much of the art in Volume 1, turning in solid battle sequences and flowing layouts that ably capture a sense of action and movement.
If you are unfamiliar with Action Force then you need to approach this first volume aware of the fact that this is adventure story comics material aimed squarely at kids. It’s not meant to be sophisticated or have the cutting edge of Battle features like Charley’s War or Johnny Red. It was based on a toy line after all. So meet it with the expectation that it’s escapist fare with high energy exploits that distract and entertain without necessarily looking to challenge the reader. That was both its intention and its targeted demographic at time of publication. Once you accept that this is both a fun comfort read and a fascinating historical artefact, with G.I. Joe enthusiasts, in particular, likely to take special interest in where the books go as volumes progress.
Battle Action Force Treasury Edition Vol. 1 is a handsomely produced hardcover, with very high reproduction values, carefully considered presentation, and colour pages retained. If there’s one small niggle it’s that in some of the two-page spreads too much of the text in some speech balloons can disappear into the fold of the spine. Regardless, this is still a high quality collection for aficionados and newbies alike. We will be returning to the adventures of Action Force and these reprint volumes in the not too distant future.
Gerry Finley-Day, James Tomlinson (W), Geoff Campion, Jim Watson, Robert Turner, Cam Kennedy, Tony Coleman, Jim Bleach, John Cooper, Carmona, Vanyo (A), John Burns (C), Peter Knight, Maurice Dolphin, Mike Peters, Tom Skomski, Steve Potter, Clive McGee, John Aldrich (L) • Total Toy Books/Treasury of British Comics
Buy Battle Action Force Treasury Editions here
Review by Andy Oliver
