Hush's Comic Book World: Battle Action Force Comics

From 1983 to 1986 The Battle comic teamed up with Action Force to become Battle Action Force Comic.

The comic features stories staring characters from the Palitoy toy range of the same name. Palitoy released these 3 and 3/4 inch figures in 1982 as smaller versions of the already successful Action Man line (which itself was the UK version of the 12 inch G.I.Joe) to cash in on some of the success of The Star Wars line that it also held the licence for in the UK.

The stories in the Battle Action Force comics feature mainly characters from the 2nd and 3rd generation of the toy line of which the 3rd generation of the toys now being owned by Hasbro after the death of one of Palitoy's owners borrowed a lot from the US G.I.Joe toy line with some of the characters becoming members of Action Force or appearing along side the evil Barron Ironblood and the Black Major and there Red Shadows as well as fighting for Cobra.

The comics were mainly used as an advertising tool for the toys but had some great stories with original art work and writings from British artists these stories stand alone from the Marvel Stories that ran in the US at about the same time.

Sadly Palitoy closed in 1986 and Hasbro acquired all the rights for the Action Force toy line decided to cancel the Battle Action Force comic in favor of Marvel UK which then ran a comic for 50 issue but that is another story for another time.

Many of the stories left in the Battle were then Merged with the Eagle comic which then ran for another 7 years.

Below is an actual Action Force story taken from Battle Action Force dated 2/08/1986 (cover above).

The Story is called Manhattan Transfer and features one of my favorites at the time Storm Shadow.