Was Action comics 1 ever for sale in the U.K.

[philipwraith]

i recently went to a comic fair and i was having a chat with a collector who claims to have seen a British version of Action Comics 1 back in the 1980's.According to him D.C. had thousands of copies that were returned from newstands in the U.S.A and some of these books were shipped and sold in the U.K.

I dont know if this is true or why these are known as 'UK' versions when these are American comics that were unsold??

Has anyone heard of this before??if anyone can shed any light on this i would like to know.if there is just a slight possiblity of one of these turning up in a second hand shop or flea market in the U.K??it would be an amazing find?

I have done a little research and found nothing.It sure is a puzzler.

[JonTheScanner]

Unless a warehouse full showed up how could you tell. If somebody brought a copy of Action #1 to the UK and sold it to a second hand shop in 1940 and it was marked say 6p could you distinguish this from the sole remaining copy of a bulk shipment?

To be even marginal evidence you'd want multiple copies all overstamped with the same UK price in approximately the same way (I'm assuming hand stamping here) or with the same UK price labels fixed on the cover.

[paw broon]

This is an interesting question but, having had a ponder and done a bit of reading up, I get the feeling the collector was mistaken.  American comics did turn up in the U.K., and they were to be found if you lived near big docks or American military bases.  These were comics that came over in boats as ballast or were supplied to the military and got into the hands of the general population.  There is huge room for a bit of confusion as there were a number of British comics titled Action or Action something or other. including Action Double Double Comics in the '60's (Thorpe and Porter) which were bound together remaindered copies of DC and marvel comics with the covers removed. Still with a glossy cover and a few with new artwork on the cover.  There was also Action Comics in 1958 from L.Miller and the infamous Action from IPC in '76, to mention a few.  So your collector could be getting mixed up or has really seen a copy from a U.S. base but that wouldn't have been overstamped.  I'm certain there was no British "version" .
Actually as I'm writing this, I have to confess I don't know when American comics started to arrive as ballast.
Hope I haven't muddied the water but I suggest that if you haven't already done so, post your query on:-
http://comicsuk.co.uk/forum/index.php
There are some serious experts on the forum, just occasionally a bit  spikier than the folk on DCM.
If you do post there, I look forward to following the thread.