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Action Force #1.

Action Force was a weekly comic produced in the United Kingdom by the British division of Marvel Comics, featuring Action Force, which at this stage was the name used by the A Real American Hero toyline in the UK. The first issue was published on March 1st 1987, with a cover date of March 7th 1987.

The comic combined reprints of the US G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero with originated strips featuring Action Force and other back-up strips such as Master of Kung-Fu, together with factfiles about the various characters and a regular humour strip called Combat Colin.

For the reprints "G.I. Joe" was normally relettered to "Action Force" as was standard in adapting G.I. Joe fiction for the British market, though other variants were also used. In addition the reprints were sometimes cut to remove pages and even individual panels for either reasons of space or to avoid referring to events not seen in the UK, with relettering modifying the story accordingly.

The entire run was edited by Richard Starkings and his assistant Steve White but the originated strips had no single creative team and were produced by a variety of writers and artists.

The title lasted for fifty issues and cost 32p in the UK for the entirety of its run. It was also exported to both the United States of America and Canada. In the US it initially cost $1.00, rising to $1.25 from issue #24 and then to $1.30 from issue #37. In Canada the comic initially cost $1.50, rising to $1.75 from issue #24 and dropping back to $1.70 from issue #37.

In addition to the weekly comic there were also several Action Force specials and annuals, with these continuing even after the regular comic had ended. The later specials and annuals had the title changed to first G.I. Joe the Action Force and then just G.I. Joe in line with changes to the toyline.

Issue #24 to issue #27 saw perhaps the best known of the originated stories, "Ancient Relics!" which was a crossover with Marvel UK's Transformers title. When Action Force folded the title was nominally merged with Transformers which continued the G.I. Joe reprints. In addition Marvel UK also launched Action Force Monthly (which was also published in the US under the title G.I. Joe: European Missions).

See also: Action Force (weekly)/Gallery

Marvel Comics Issues[]

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