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Action Special

Started by JayzusB.Christ, 27 October, 2018, 01:39:28 PM

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JayzusB.Christ

I really loved the last one; it was unbelievably dark and bleak but in a beautiful way.  Possibly the best work I've read by John Tomlinson and Peter Hogan, and a rare case of the John Smith story not being the best in the collection. That Cursitor Doom story has always stuck in my head as one of the most disturbing horror stories I've read, where it was gradually revealed that the protagonist is [spoiler]dead and in hell.[/spoiler]

I'd love to see another one; perhaps with some more old characters (Kids Rule OK springs to mind; what an awful tragedy that Carlos wouldn't be around to draw another terrorised copper).
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"

WhizzBang

Hi , just wondering what this was. I tried searching the 2000ad online store and could not find an 'Action Special'. I can only assume it is old Action strips continued by modern 2000ad writers.

Greg M.

Not actually Action characters, just British comics characters (who they didn't actually have the rights to at the time.)

http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=prog&page=specials&choice=ACTION92

I'd have to disagree with JBC though - the Smith / Burns story (Doctor Sin) is, for my money, the best thing in it. Quimbandan devil dolls for the win. Hell remembers...

JayzusB.Christ

Not saying it wasn't good or anything; it's rare Smithy writes anything that isn't at least a little bit brilliant.

It's just not one of the ones that really stood out for me, such as the aforementioned Cursitor Doom, The Steel Claw (light on plot but the atmosphere more than made up for it) and even the Spider - for all Millar's 2000ad faults, and there were many, he could write a great one-off.
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"

Richard

The Spider was brilliant. Possibly Millar's best work for Tharg.

JayzusB.Christ

#5
Going to go a bit off topic here and say that for my money, his best was a Terror Tale about a nanny looking after a Necronomicon-obsessed lunatic.  Didn't know much at the time about Lovecraft but that one genuinely put the shits up me; not something that happens me much with horror comic strips.
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"

sheridan

Quote from: JayzusB.Christ on 27 October, 2018, 01:39:28 PM
I'd love to see another one; perhaps with some more old characters (Kids Rule OK springs to mind; what an awful tragedy that Carlos wouldn't be around to draw another terrorised copper).


Don't have the picture to hand - but wasn't that cover miscontrued?  There was a policeman's helmet, there was a man in a suit, and thanks to printing limitations of the time they were coloured in the same shade of blue, making it appear that the man was a  policeman?

JayzusB.Christ

#7
Yeah, think so.  Though I'm not quite sure how much more acceptable it would have been just to have a civilian adult about to be beaten shitless by kids, with a stray policeman's hat nearby showing that the Old Bill had already been dealt with in similar fashion too.  (And in the story itself, I think it may have been a copper who seemed to enjoy the prospect of caning a teenage girl's arse way too much.)
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"

The Monarch

was this the special that caused fleetway some trouble at the time since they didn't own the characters or am i thinking of something else

sheridan

Quote from: The Monarch on 08 November, 2018, 12:31:39 AM
was this the special that caused fleetway some trouble at the time since they didn't own the characters or am i thinking of something else

Yep - that's the one.  It was shortly after IPC became Fleetway (to outside eyes, anyway) and somewhere along the line somebody (editorial?  management?) thought that 2000AD was free to use any IPC IP they wanted.