|  None of the story threads left hanging here were resolved in the way they were originally meant to, leading to the revised version of this issue, dated 4th December 1976. The Dredger strip ran almost unedited, save for a few references to him being a 'dirty' agent, calling Breed a 'stupid berk' and removal of the word damn. Importantly, Jozwiak is not dead at the end of the edited story. Hell's Highway was edited for politics, violence and language, making a nonsense of the strip. The story should have wrapped up soon after this tale, but instead carried on for several months, deteriorating as it went. Hook Jaw moved from the colour pages. Weeks worth of story became three clumsily edited pages. The diver hanging from the chopper survives, so the chopper never crashes. Gunn and his gang, no longer in custody, are dressed as soldiers without explanation. They are soon rumbled by the ship's Captain and then eaten by Hook Jaw, who swims off rather than fight. Look Out For Lefty stole the centre spread, but all reference to the Rippers was expunged, making for a tedious football story. Many panels had dialogue edits which appear clumsy and hackneyed. Hellman has some dialogue edits, plus the removal of Stalin from the final panel, which was redrawn. Kids Rule O.K. lost half a page of violence and clumsily edited dialogue for the printed run, but along with Probationer, never made it back from the ban.
The biggest disappointment is the loss of the original ending to Death Game 1999. Massimo Belardinelli had just taken over as artist. Tom Tully had at least five more weeks worth of story to come. The Killers were going to die one by one until only Taggart was left standing (with Yo-Yo badly injured). Joe would have to defend against the Assassins alone, somehow still managing to salvage the win, earning freedom for himself and Yo-Yo. The artwork of 4th December has large blank areas where dialogue or violent images have been removed. The facial expressions of characters do not match the anodyne speeches they are delivering. Why is Schroeder snarling at Smailes, who is hiding behind a curtain at the victory party? What dialogue was removed here? Why is there no dialogue to accompany the final panel, as Smailes watches the two ex-convicts disappear into the crowd. The expression on his face tells a story all of its own. Belardinelli's work was cut to pieces to construct the lame ending, depriving us of the real thing. Only seven pages out of over twenty that were drawn have survived, and even these are not without editorial interference. There may be copies of the original script, or bromides of the art, but more likely these are gone forever. The chance of bromides being produced far enough in advance before the original art was cut to pieces is almost nil. It is worth casting a close eye over the 4th December issue, just to look at strangely spaced dialogue and unusually shaped or truncated speech balloons. The flight lines of the axe in Hellman do not match the position of the axe in the redrawn panel, the ridiculous hook used in Hell's Highway for Danny to board the rig, and so much empty space in Hook Jaw draw attention to the crude processes used. It was a poorly bodged issue, and the inclusion of both Roaring Wheels and Double Dynamite were nails in Action's inevitable coffin. |
