Every week Action featured a small, cut-out coupon for readers to list the two stories they liked the most, and their least favourite strip. In Martin Barker's survey, readers were asked, without prompting or use of reference, which stories they remembered, from the best to the worst. This was then compared to a survey drawn from the opinions of the publishers and creators of Action. Interestingly the publishers' list omits two entries, the two stories that failed to survive the ban. The results fall into three distinctive tiers, the big guns, the second division and the turkeys. There are a few anomalies in the results, Probationer doesn't feature well because there were only four published episodes, but conversely there were only six episodes of Kids Rule O.K., which lies just outside the top five stories. Hellman's rating is based mostly on the opinions of casual readers, as it was a more conventional story and was also one of the longest running. The Running Man lasted a much shorter time, and was voted for almost entirely by the committed readers. The casuals never rated it, much to the annoyance and disappointment of Pat Mills.

Until I started on this site, I'd completely forgotten the existence of Sport's Not For Losers, The Coffin Sub and Play Till You Drop. As an eight-year-old, they didn't grab me, and so I didn't read them straight off, but ploughed through them at a much later date. I could say the same of The Running Man, but a few issues in, it became a favourite. I always liked Green's Grudge War, and was a bit shocked by the ending, but looking at it now, Green was a twisted little git and probably deserved all he got. My rose-tinted memory tells me that I liked some stories a lot more then than I do now. Blackjack and Hell's Highway used to rate highly with me, but reading them again, they're not as good as I thought, whereas Hellman has gone up in my estimation. I can't say I agree with the following list entirely, but then who could? Here then, are the stories in order of popularity: