Blood for the Baron!

I know that Charlie's War saw reprints. I was wondering what the odds are that there would be enough interest to reprint in a book form (with color, hopefully) the old Battle Action Force comics? Here in America, I know it would sell, but, due to the legal problems, it would have to be done overseas first (or renamed "G.I. Joe: Battle Action Force").
Does anyone even know who has all of this old material? If not, someone should locate it and archive it!

Sweet God! Is anybody alive out there?

When I first posted the site I contacted the guys at 2000 AD (sister comic to Battle, basically the same staff with a few mainstays) to ask about copyrights. It seemed to be a bit of a grey area, as 2000 AD had recently shifted from IPC to Rebellion. I imagaine as they're now reprinting Battle stories in the Meg they'd be the guys to speak to. All of 2000 AD's reprints are published by Titan Books.

2000 AD sort of agreed to turn a blind eye to my site on the premise that I would withdraw stories as and when they were ever re-released, which I thought was particularly hilarious as I never actually asked them for their permission!

Then again, it may well be a Hasbro thing, given the way Battle was dumped for Marvel UK, they may have none of the rights. I think someone somewhere posted that the move was initiated by the US toymakers to bring the comics in line with Marvel US's GI Joe.

Since I am "stuck" here overseas, I think it would be great if some of you British guys who love B.A.F. find out who has the original material. I'm sure that they would need Hasbro's permission to print it, but I would love to see the entire series reprinted in color. I really think that whoever has the original artowork is sitting on a "gold mine", but no publisher has realized that there are people willing to buy this stuff again...

Reprint it both in orginal form & an ALL COLOUR format too

As for finding who has the originals,may be a hell of a task but l`ll also ask around

Ja
Steel bonnet

This is all relatively unknown material to me.

I own four European Missions stories from my youth, but it's only in the last month I have understood why the characters seemed to be different in some way than I remember. Would it be a fair assessment that whatever the fictional military which was known as Action Force slowly changed into a pseudo-GiJoe using common American characters with a different history, or am I off base so far?

jonesy1275 wrote:I've got a lot of the original artwork for Operation Claymore!!

You.... You.... You.... (words fail me).

Can I colour them in with my crayons?

It's even more complicated than that, Doomworm!!

Action Force started off as a UK miniature Action Man range, with straight-legged figures akin to the original Star Wars range.

Then came the Red Shadow era, which had the Shadow enemy team, and 4 combat units; Z Force, SAS, Q Force and Space Force. While being primarily UK created, a few GI Joe vehicles and figures were repackaged and repainted for this range. These toys were featured in the comic Battle Action Force.

Then Action Force was relaunched, selling standard GI Joe toys under the name Action Force. This sucked, as many of the previous years toys were re-released with a different set of stickers. The creative team at Battle Action Force managed to wangle through magnificently and carried on chronicling the adventures of these Action Force GI Joes.

Then, some bright spark at Marvel US decided to unify the comic range, and before you know it the Action Force rights were stripped from Battle and handed to Marvel UK. This coincided with the new range of Action Force toys and figures. (how this corresponds with US toy releases I do not know). Marvel UK's Action Force weekly was launched. It contained 5 pages of original UK strip and 11 pages of US GI Joe reprint. Somebody actually had to change the words "GI Joe" for "Action Force" in all of the word balloons.

After 50 issues, 3 annuals and 2 specials it folded. Then the Action Force monthly was launched. It lasted 15 issues. These were reprinted / repackaged in the States as GI Joe European Missions. It contains all new UK strip (with some UK weekly reprints). The GI Joe reprints continued as the backup strip in Marvel UK Transformers Weekly. (See http://www.bloodforthebaron.com/phpbb2/ ... .php?t=851)

Then, when Action Force toy sales flagged, they were repackaged as GI Joe - The Action Force. To no effect whatsoever. There are an annual and a special available under this title. A year later they were called GI Joe, but by then the comic had ceased. There are 2 very rare (low print run) GI Joe specials and an Annual out there. All contain US reprint.

Really, when we talk about Action Force here we mean the Red Shadow era, the GI Joe's dressed as Action Force we generally regard as being GI Joe. I hope that clears things up for you!!

jonesy1275 wrote:I've got a lot of the original artwork for Operation Claymore!!

Wait a minute! You have some of the original artwork? I guess that means that the templates are all over London in different households right now? That would make it highly difficult to reprint these tales, right? Ugh!