CELEBRATING FIFTY YEARS OF BRITAIN'S MOST CONTROVERSIAL COMIC!
Violent, gritty and unrelenting, Action comic was the brainchild of Pat Mills and Geoff Kemp. Tasked with creating a new anthology comic for the IPC's boys adventure division, the pair rapidly developed a winning formula: reimagining existing story ideas from fresh perspectives and infusing them with a health dose of modern realism.
With strips such as Hookjaw, Dredger, Look Out For Lefty and Blackjack, success was instantaneous but so was the criticism. Many members of the press - including the London Evening Standard, The Sun and the Daily Mail - were quick to denounce the comic, while Mary Whitehouse and the pressure group "Delegates Opposing Violent Education" piled pressure on the IPC board to do something about it.
In less than a year, Action had been pulled from circulation, then returned months later, a sanitised, pale shadow of its former self. But the spark had already been lit. Action had made its mark and became the catalyst for the evolution of the British comics scene, paving the way for 2000 AD and the subsequent British invasion of UK talent into America.
Now, for the first time in decades, Rebellion are collecting Action in a series of new archival editions, containing all of the strips and some of the editorial that created so much infamy back in the 1970s!
With brand-new introductions from Pat Mills, the legendary co-creator, editor, and writer of Action, as well as from series writer Steve MacManus, this is a sensational new release which champions firebrand comics at their most powerful and controversial.
Find out just what the shock and awe was about - featuring the original colour pages as originally published, Volume 1 of Action: Before The Ban collects together the first twelve issues of Action, originally published across 1976.
Available from 25 February 2026 in standard hardback and webshop-exclusive hardback editions, Action: Before The Ban defies the censors and proudly celebrates a landmark series in comics history!
And now, this week's releases...
2000AD Prog 2448
Cover: Karl Richardson.
Judge Dredd: The Wild Man of Brian Eno by Ken Niemand (w), Cam Smith (a), Emilio Lecce (c), Annie Parkhouse (l)
The Raviliouis Pact Part 9 by TC Eglington (w), Steven Austin (a), John Charles (c), Simon Bowland (l)
Nu Earth War Tales: The Survivors Part 2 by Karl Stock (w), Karl Richardson (a), Jim Campbell (l)
Scarlet Traces: Empire of Blood Part 17 by Ian Edginton (w), D'Israeli (a), Annie Parkhouse (l)
Judge Dredd: One-Eyed Jacks by Ken Niemand (w), Ian Richardson, Kieran McKeown, Anna Readman (a)
Rebellion ISBN 978-183786606-9, 3 September 2025, 116pp, £16.99. Available via Amazon.
Mega-City One, 2145 AD. This vast urban hell on the east coast of post-apocalyptic North America is home to over 200 million citizens. Crime is rampant, and stemming the tide of chaos are the Judges. Toughest of them all is Judge Dredd – he is the Law! Dredd and Rico investigate a link between 1970s New York and the twenty-second century after antique items start to turn up in the 'Big Meg.' A trip back to the 'Big Apple' sets Dredd on course to come face-to-face with New York's toughest cop, Jack McBane and an undercover cop with a familiar surname - Eartha Fargo...
