Action Special 2020 – Henry Flint and Jake Lynch talk Hell Machine
29th March 2020
Back in the 1970s, Action horrified prudes and censors alike, it really was the comic they tried to ban! But now, with the Action 2020 Special, it’s back and it’s looking better than ever!
Inside, you’ll find five all-out action strips, including the return of Hookjaw, Dredger, Kids Rule OK, and Hellman of Hammer Force featuring the return of Garth Ennis to Rebellion and artist Mike Dorey to the strip he court-created. And to round out the comic, you’ll discover a brand-new strip by the incredible team of Henry Flint and Jake Lynch, Hell Machine! And you can get your hands on it now from the Treasury of British Comics webshop.
The original Action ran weekly from February 1976 until a backlash over the violent content resulted in the 37th issue being pulled and pulped. The Sun called it ‘the sevenpenny nightmare’ and Mary Whitehouse & the National Viewers and Listeners Association campaigned to get the comic out of the hands of those impressionable ’70s kids. It was truly a comic that changed the face of Brit comics forever. And now, there’s a chance to find out just what it was all about as Action returns!
Richard Bruton caught up with writer/artist Henry Flint and artist Jake Lynch, although Jake appeared to be having a bit of a reaction to the intense fear of the whole thing…
Hell Machine, it’s a completely new strip for the Action Special 2020, nestling up against classics like Hookjaw, Kids Rule OK, Dredger, and Hellman of Hammer Force. So, Henry & Jake, let me guess, it’s one of those cutesy ‘short circuit’ type things where the sweet robot gets accidentally sent to hell and spends the entire strip making everything lovely and nice? Or maybe not…
Henry Flint: An incompetent government from the near future has accidentally commissioned an underground death machine that eats its citizens. Our hero is a tough 14-year-old girl called Taze. She rebels and is captured, placed on a conveyor belt and fed into the machine to be chopped into bits by saws and blades and other nasty traps.
It fits into one of my favourite genres, a fight-for-survival where the odds are stacked up against the hero, and 70’s boys’ comics did these kind of stories so well. So it’s a chance to have a go and get stuck in. Luckily Action is a great place for the story.
Jake Lynch: I still don’t know what’s it’s about, all I know is they made me sign in blood…IN BLOOD!!
Since then, things have started to become unglued, like reality has become elastic, a scratching behind the eyeballs, feels like something’s getting closer…CLOSER… What’s going on..?
I’m assuming you’re keeping all of the ultra-violence of a typical Action strip in place though?
HF: Yes, most definitely. It wouldn’t be Action if it didn’t have ultra-violence. But not in a detached way, hopefully the readers will empathise with the hero here, otherwise the violence wouldn’t mean anything. At the heart of every Action strip is a character to root for, whose shoes the kids reading can step into and ask themselves what they’d do in that situation. If you’re supporting the underdog you’ll keep reading however nasty it gets.
JL: It certainly has a bit of gore. Is that scratching behind the door..?
How are you splitting the art duties on this one?
HF: I’m writing and drawing the first six pages and Jake is taking over drawing the final nine pages. It’s been written in two parts so there’s a natural break between episodes, in the comic it can be split up.
So, it’s a slightly different writer/artist setup, with an artist producing work to another artist’s script. It’s always struck me that this must be a strange situation to be in, a different dynamic than usual. Was it a little daunting for you here, Jake?
JL: Henry did the first six pages and I did the following nine. I really enjoyed doing it. Henry has a good writing style and I think it’s really aided by his artist’s eye. He has very definite shots in mind and that’s very useful because, hey, it’s Henry Flint, he knows what shots are going to work. Far be it for me to question it, I was just trying to learn from it.
That being said, it was very intimidating submitting the artwork. I have admire Henry’s stuff forever, but he has been very kind and gracious with what was produced. Personally, I’d like to see Henry continue his story so I can go back to where I belong – a fan.
(…It’s okay, there was nothing in the hallway, it was my imagination, silly me…)
HF: Jake has done a great job. I’ve loved getting the pages via email and seeing his interpretation. If Jake was daunted it didn’t show in his art. I have complete faith in his vision.
Now I know what it’s like to be a writer and see the finished pages, and it’s such a privilege to be on the other side for once. I’m not going to take writers for granted any more, not that I ever did but it’s a tough job. Ideas are easy to come by but communicating those ideas, sorting them out into something tangible is really the trick, it’s another skill entirely. I won’t be leaving the day job anytime soon.
I wasn’t quite old enough to get Action first time round and I think we’re about the same ages, so do you have any memories of Action or have you discovered it over the years?
HF: Action was always the scary one. I didn’t pick it up either, too young. I was still reading Buster and Whizzer & Chips at the time.
I did buy a bumper collection, but I’m sure it’s not the same as reading it as a kid. I love all the haircuts that cover the ears. Growing up in the 70’s you never got to see anyone’s ears until Madness. People look at long hair and flares and think of love and peace but I see older kids kicking younger kids. It was the same in Action, tough guys looking like hippies. Guess it was all the lead in the petrol driving everyone slightly crazy.
JL: Same here really. Before I got into 2000 AD I used to read Look-In! The adventures of CHiPs and the A-Team were a bit tame by comparison I understand…!
…AIIIEEEeeeee…!
And with that, we left the Lynch-droid quivering in the corner, fighting off the imaginary monster… well, we thought it was imaginary, but we’ve been trying to get in touch with him to see if he’s all right and the phone just keeps on ringing.
Thanks to both Henry Flint and Jake Lynch for talking to us and filling us in on the thrills of Hell Machine in the new Action Special 2020, on sale from newsagents and comic book shops now.
