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| Steve Holland's latest index (Artwork by Martin Baines) |
My friend Steve Holland - who deserves an MBE or some other accolade (are you listening University of Essex - he's local to you?) for all the indexing he has done, has released his latest work, Action: The Sevenpenny Nightmare. I have not, to date, read a single issue of the original controversial comic, but have browsed through many over the years. But I can tell you the book he's written is fascinating as a social commentary on the hysteria that always attends children's comics from time to time. But for me the interesting bit was the story of the creation of this comic together with photos and biographies of the creators. If you can't find a copy of Martin Barker's Action: The story of a violent comic (currently selling for around £150!!!) give up and buy this as Steve quotes from the latter and also corrects some facts.
Steve didn't miss the connection to this blog, where he has indexed all the cover artists he mentions Frank Bellamy. But you ask, didn't the comic start 14 February 1976 - just before Bellamy passed away? Yes, you are right!
I mentioned this use of a Frank Bellamy image, from Eagle before but thought I'd point to it again in order to highlight Steve's great work and just in case anyone missed the original story.
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| Action 4 September 1976 showing a reprint from Eagle |
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| Eagle Vol.13:16 (21 April 1962) pp.10-11 |
And one on top of the other for comparison, forgiving me for such a crude combination:
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| Showing some manipulation - better than my attempt! |
As I said, I've never read an issue of Action but I still love reading Steve's detailed work on the history of the comic plus the indexing of so many writers and artists. Where do I buy it?
At Steve Holland's Bear Alley Books site
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