|  | | Action Annual 1977 | | On sale: | | September 1976 |  Many extras fill out this Annual. There's a crossword page, two double-page "It's a Laugh!" features, a full page Maniaction, two pages on stuntmen called "They're in the Danger Business!", two double page magic spreads called "Just the Trick", a page of Krazy Kaptions, four pages of unusual aircraft in "Flying Freaks", a full page Soccer Sessions, two double-pages of Brain-busters (although both spreads feature a different title entirely when you get to them), a two page look at a Destrucion Derby, the "Action Man Diary '77", which is a four page feature on nearly all the stunts Steve MacManus did in 1976. I wish I'd looked at the annual before rooting through all the issues to do the Action Man page. Action Mouse gets two full page strips and the Annual rounds of with "They Fly Through The Air..." another double-page on stuntmen. 144 action packed pages indeed. |  This was the only pre-ban annual, and as such it maintained the levels of the weekly. Although suffering slightly from filler and some very poor art, many strips from the comic feature the original artist, or a regular artist from the weekly, which was unusual for annuals produced at this time. A couple of the strips are produced in a washed colour tone of red, perhaps to identify them as the poor quality filler they are. The regular Dredger strip was drawn by a pre-M.A.C.H.-1 Enio, so Dredger looks a lot like how John Probe would eventually turn out. | | |  | | Wild Ones The high point of this is what appears to be colour art by John Ridgeway, otherwise it's a run of the mill tale about TV creator Greg Wild, filming the eponymous show in South America where natives believe a Jaguar is killing humans. Wild soon shows these ignorant locals that they are superstitious idiots and therefore quite obviously wrong. Wild is like an animal himself, that's why Wild Ones is the best. | | Run, Rampton - Run! Alec Shaw returns in a sorry looking tale about Rampton City's new manager Tiger Curtiss. When Donny White collapses during a match, the team reflect on how hard they're being pushed by Curtiss. There have been ructions over the past few days. White dies, and the players rebel, believing Curtiss pushed him too hard. Curtiss punches one player who requests a transfer. As the season progresses, Rampton win and win, bagging the cup and lining up for the double, but at half time in the decider they are losing for the first time since Curtiss arrived. He goes mad, assaulting players and smashing the dressing room before he is lead away by men in white coats. The directors sack him and Rampton look forward to a replacement. | | Dredger A text story with illustrations by Barrie Mitchell where a hitman is smuggled between East and West Berlin by pretending to be dead. Dredger realises the man in the coffin is no corpse and snuffs out the assassin before he can target a supposed British agent. As an extra twist, the assassins' target wasn't an agent at all, one of the Russians involved is really a mole working for the British and set the whole thing up. | | Blackjack 1968, and a very young Jack Barron is the victim of racist bullying on his first day at his new school. The teachers feel more inclined to believe the white boys' version of events, and Jack gets grief from his father as a result. Eventually the ringleader of the bullies and Jack go head to head in the boxing ring where the future world champion prevails. The Headmaster doesn't like this and has Jack expelled. Bully Holman sees his chance to frame Jack and burns down the school, realising it will look like Jack getting even. The police investigate, and the Head implicates Jack for the arson, but luckily Holman tore his jacket whilst setting the fire, and the police find a shred of it at the scene, clearing Jack. One of Holman's cronies spills the beans and they are carted off to the local nick. The Headmaster then decides he's liked Jack all along and asks him to box for the school. | | Ski Patrol A wartime filler story about a bunch of British soldiers blowing up Germans in Norway, on skis, obviously. | | Dredger The regular Dredger strip sees the men from D.I.6. head into the Arabian city of Heiruk, where they are to help a Czech H.S.R. agent defect to the West, whilst caught in the middle of a civil war. Dredger liberates some heavy ordnance before the rendezvous with Lenko. The meeting is a trap, Lenko has been rumbled by the KGB, who are waiting in the shadows. Dredger whips out a missile launcher and incinerates the KGB agents, then the three men head for their transport home. | | What's in a Name? - A White Chute of Courage Story Another 'White Chute' tale, this time about a spot of derring-do when the special squad are sent to rescue the son of a US General who has been shot down over Normandy, days before the allied invasion. Much undercover work and shooting of Germans follows, with the Sarge stopping to show mercy to a young wounded German who shares the same surname as the General and his son. Their name means mercy or some such nonsense, anyway, back to the war chaps... | | The Big Steal An appalling looking story without much to redeem it and not worth wasting time over here. | | Johnny Zero Something of a rip off of Johnny Red, with Battle of Britain ace Johnny Hale training a group of Australians to fight the Japanese. He has no kills to his name in the Pacific campaign, hence the nickname Johnny Zero. After a lot of ball-breaking from the Aussies, Hale shows them all what he's made of and saves the day, whilst belittling the big-mouthed Aussie leader, hurrah! | | Fireball Nope, not that one, another Fireball, Everdale United's right winger (!) Johnny Ball (!!) in a tedious soccer tale. | | Death Game 1999 A text story with illustrations by John Stokes. No Joe Taggart, instead we get Maddik and the Aluma Arrows, a sorry bunch of cons who start a riot on the ice and get shot by the warders. | | Sport's Not For Losers! Before Len Walker became a hurdler, his brother Dan was the bright hope of the Walker family. In this prequel, Len, who had never run a race in the original tale, has to uphold the family honour with his brother after a spate of thefts in the area. The real culprit is an amateur runner, and Len and Dan help uncover him at an athletics event in Barncastle, after which everybody conveniently forgets Len's abilities as a runner until the weekly tale begins. | | Hellman of the Afrika Korps April 1942, a British Intelligence officer's flight is shot down over the desert. The officer, a man named Coburg, has documents vital to the defence of Tobruk, and soon, a race is on to recover these papers. Hellman and his commander need to beat the British to Coburg to retrieve the documents, and to beat the SS if the Englishman is to survive the incident. Hellman arrives too late, the SS have tortured Coburg to the brink of death, filming it all for propaganda. Coburg remains defiant to the last and is murdered in front of Hellman and the cameras. Hellman cannot stand to see this, and strangles the SS commander, just as the British arrive. Hellman eludes capture and his men soon arrive to surround the British. Apoligising for Coburg's fate, Hellman lets the Allied troops go free, before racing back to German HQ with the defence plans. A tank battle halts his progress, but Hammer Force prevail, and with the documents delivered, they strike out towards Tobruk. | | Hook Jaw A full colour eight pager sees Hook Jaw take on Wolf Kincaid, a one armed shark hunter with a metal prosthetic limb. Hook Jaw is terrorising a shipwreck that is of importance to an intelligence organisation. Following attempts to recover the lost vessel, a mini-sub is now stranded on the ocean floor thanks to the shark's frenzied attack. Kincaid is called in to help rescue the crew and recover the missingsecret cargo. The usual gnashing of teeth results in a lot of dead divers from a rival organisation, but Kincaid electrocutes Hook Jaw, allowing the sub to be recovered. Hook Jaw slopes off leaving the navy to salvage the cargo. | | Wild Ones A second ecologically friendly tale of Greg Wild, this time hunting Anaconda on the Amazon River, but only with his camera. | | Six Rifles for the Czar 1812, with the Napoleonic Wars at their height, Russia calls on England for help. The British Empire send only seven men at the behest of the Duke of Wellington. The Russians unsurprisingly view this as an insult to the Czar, but Wellington's men, seasoned campaigners in Spain and Portugal, prevail over the odds, winning both the respect of the Russians and the battle that follows. | |
