Created by Pat Mills and Geoff Kemp, the strip largely happened from Hook Jaw's point of view, portraying the shark as a creature simply following its instincts and forever under attack from amoral humans.

Given a short period to create the new action-adventure comic Action in 1976, Pat Mills and Geoff Kemp quickly hit on the idea of taking popular films and television shows and adding their own twist.

I always worked on the basis that man was plundering Hook Jaw's territory to grab the riches of the ocean and the shark was merely defending its territory.Mills - who had similar views, later stating "I wanted nature to win!

[1] It also added to the comic's street cred by covering a violent film some of the audience were not allowed to see;[6][7] Jaws had been released in the UK on 26 December 1975 to strong box office and considerable publicity due to controversially being rated A (requiring children to be accompanied by an adult).

[8] Right from the start, Action received attention for its high level of violence, with "Hook Jaw"'s frequent dismemberments, maulings and devourings attracting its share of criticism, and after the 16 September 1976 the comic was withdrawn for drastic retooling on the orders of the IPC board.

[4] The storyline was also heavily re-edited, with Hook Jaw briskly redirected from the English Channel to more abstract tropical climes, and a marked increase in the competence of the authorities to deal with the shark.

[4][5] While it remained one of the more popular strips in Action, under the new direction sales slumped and the comic was merged into "Battle"; due to its lack of a military angle it was not selected to continue.

[13][14] In 2017, Rebellion licensed the rights to "Hook Jaw" to Titan Comics, who produced a five-part mini-series written by Simon Spurrier and drawn by Conor Boyle.

Rig boss Red McNally plans to kill Hook Jaw, rapidly becoming obsessed despite the warnings of the more reasonable lead diver Rick Mason.

Blinded by greed and driven insane after a string of disasters hit the rig, McNally eventually dives into the sea to battle Hook Jaw one-on-one and is devoured.

The shark's feeding prevents the gang from getting their loot to shore, and gang-leader Jack Gunn is the latest to become obsessed with killing Hook Jaw before a Royal Navy minesweeper appeared and arrested the criminals.