First Issue: 1st April 1972
Last Issue: 25th August 1973
Copyright: Polystyle
There is some debate as to whether or not “TV Action” merits a different entry as a separate comic to Countdown which ‘ended’ the week before on 24th March 1972. 1st April 1972 saw the appearance of “TV Action + Countdown” and although the title was different, it didn’t appear as a first issue or a number 1 but number 59 which continued the numbering from the previous week’s Countdown.
The public appetite for science fiction was not as it was at the beginning of Countdown’s run and newly titled TV Action included many non science fiction strips such as ‘Hawaii 5-0’, ‘Tightrope’, ‘The Persuaders’ and ‘Mission Impossible’. The remaining Sci-fi content included ‘Doctor Who’, ‘UFO’, ‘Stingray’ with ‘Fireball XL5’ and ‘Captain Scarlet (Embleton)’ reprints from TV21 comic.
Later in it’s run, the comic began to include strips such as ‘Dad’s Army’, ‘Alias Smith and Jones’, ‘the Protectors’ and ‘Canon’. However, The TV Action formula was not to be and it soon met it’s comic end through a merger with TV Comic.
TV Action and Countdown Comic
Number 59
1st April 1972
