This is a compilation that I had been looking forward to for a long time.  I was part of that lucky generation of kids who were around for the British comics equivalent of punk – the short-lived but epoch-changing run of ‘Action’, and I’m talking about the original run, before it was banned and emasculated and returned to limp on for a few more issues before being amalgamated with ‘Battle’. It might be too much to say that without ‘Action’ there would have been no ‘2000AD’, no ‘Battle’ or no British comics renaissance in general, but they would certainly have looked a lot different if ‘Action’ hadn’t paved the way.

This is a compilation of one of the main strips in ‘Action’, the nature’s revenge serial (and, it must be admitted, ‘Jaws’ cash-in) ‘Hook Jaw’.  A great white shark escapes having been gaffed by a fisherman, permanently marked by having the broken remains of the gaff lodged in his lower jaw (the fisherman incidentally, does not come out of the encounter so well…)  From this point on Hook Jaw acts as nature’s avenger against her many despoilers, such as oil drillers and tropical island developers.  Most of the people who get eaten deserve it and it is clear that the hero respects Hook Jaw as an enemy in a way that few of the human characters are.

The footprint of Pat Mills lies heavy on the strip, with its politics clearly on the side of untamed nature and indigenous peoples, however unlike some of his more recent work the political subtext is carried by a gripping, if unsubtle, story.  It is for me a classic example of British comics in their prime – confident and mature enough to deal with adult themes without talking down to its intended audience, but before they became too aware of themselves as an artform and started taking themselves too seriously.

The artwork is in the distinctive hands of Ramon Sola whose muscular style fits the aggressively masculine storylines perfectly – remember, this is when boys’ comics were for boys and girls had their own, usually with the same creative team behind them.  The only pity is that the strips are reproduced in black and white throughout, rather than the original colour, which leads to some rather dark pages in places.  Still, better to have it available in this form than not at all.

As an adult and furthermore a member of the Shark Trust, I have a few reservations about the portrayal of these magnificent creatures, but it is very much of its time and, while I was re-reading the strip in this collected edition I found myself returning mentally to the little boy I once was, with my giant Hook Jaw poster (collected over four issues) on my bedroom wall and my Hook Jaw iron-on transfer on the back of my denim jacket.  Ah happy days…

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