Back in 2017, Titan Comics announced the impending release of a bulky Hook Jaw Archives collection, which today seems rather hard to find, with copies offered on eBay for eye watering amounts.
”Hook Jaw – the comic so controversial, it got banned!” screamed promotional material circulated to some press outlets at the time. “Pat Mills and Ramon Sola’s classic 70s ‘sharksploitation’ strip is collected in one volume by Titan Comics, featuring the great white shark that targets the corrupt and greedy!
“Hook Jaw, the previously out of print classic created by Pat Mills, with art by Ramon Sola, is brought together in a prestige hardback by Titan Comics. See for yourself the controversial story that caused a media storm, as a vengeful great white shark strikes back against those who would pollute or exploit its natural habitat!”
Is its scarcity, I wonder, down to Rebellion’s purchase of Egmont’s IPC comic assets, and it was withdrawn from sale? There’s a copy on eBay for sale right now for over £80.
The collection itself had a long gestation. Author, artist and former Titan staffer Steve White tells us he proposed the idea in 2007, and had even approached Peter Benchley, author of Jaws, to provide an introduction. Benchley had agreed, subject to sight of the material included, but a staff move meant the idea went nowhere.
Titan also published Hook Jaw Volume 1 in 2017, collecting their mini series by Si Spurrier and Conor Boyle.
Rebellion recently announced its Action – Before the Ban project, so you’ll soon be able to read the early “Hook Jaw” stories once more, from the very beginning.
Some “Hook Jaw” strips had been previously released in collection, by Spitfire Comics, back in 2007, and a digital collection from Egmont in 2013, collating the remastered early stories first published in STRIP: The Adventure Comic Magazine.
If you’d like to know more about Action, do check out our The Sevenpenny Nightmare microsite, which we’ve been giving a bit of a tidy.
Originally compiled by Moose Harris and represented with his kind permission, it includes, also with permission, excerpts from the late Martin Barker’s Action – The Story of a Violent Comic, a fascinating and insightful account of the creation, birth, life and death of a much missed and wrongly maligned publication.
Rebellion will launch its series, Action – Before The Ban in 2026 – and copies of Volume One are available to preorder.
for the first time in decades, Rebellion are collecting Action in a series of new archival editions, containing all of the strips and some of the editorial that created so much infamy back in the 1970s.
With brand-new introductions from Pat Mills, the legendary co-creator, editor, and writer of Action, as well as from series writer Steve MacManus, this is a sensational new release which champions firebrand comics at their most powerful and controversial.
Available in standard and webshop-exclusive editions, Action: Before The Ban defies the censors and proudly celebrates a landmark series in British comics history…
Action – Before the Ban 1: The Archival Collection
By Pat Mills, John Wagner (Writers) and Various Artists
Release date: Scheduled for 24th February 2026
Paperback | 368 Pages
ISBN: 978-1837866694
This article was previously published suggesting the Titan collection had not been released, in error. Our apologies for any confusion
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: British Comics, British Comics - Collections, British Comics - Current British Publishers, Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News
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Hi John
That Titan collection was definitely printed as I have a copy (and there are a few for sale on eBay.
Regards
Lewis
Yep, quickly updated the item, thanks – I blame my error on post holiday tiredness! It seems the collection’s existence has been scrubbed from various bookseller sites and news outlets!
Checking back on emails at the time, Titan did ask me about the STRIP published reprints, and I sent them what was done, beautifully remastered by Jim Campbell, as he outlined here, but I think staff changes there are why I never received information, or a copy, of the final collection.
I also have a copy of this. I snapped it up at the time as Hook Jaw was the only strip that bloodthirsty young me used to read in ACTION.
Wouldn’t part with it for anything!