Charley's war graphic novel

[Pete Hill]

Just read the first volume of the recently published "Charley's War", a hard-cover collection of the serial comic originally published in the UK newsprint comic Battle Weekly that lasted from the late 1970s through to the mid-80s. The writer was Pat Mills and the illustrator was John Colquhoun (the latter now deceased).The first volume takes place when Charley, a new 16-year old recruit to the British Army, arrives in the trenches on the Western Front just in time to take part in the battle of the Somme in July 1916 The quality of the illustrations are superb and it gave a good picture of life in the trenches. True, as a comic it has to veer towards adventure and lots of action, but there are some highly realistic aspects and it also makes some sharp comments about the war. The research has obviously been done with the details of the trenches, uniforms and weapons ringing true. Even lesser-known details are included such as the British Cavalry charge in the first weeks of the Somme battle, a German sniper wearing medieval-like body armour or thirsty Tommies using the Vickers MG barrel to boil water for tea. As the writers say in the introduction, it is a shame that comics dealing with historical themes are so out of fashion nowadays and comic-fans are almost exclusively drawn to more fantasy-themes. Frank Miller's 'The 300', a graphic novel about the Spartans at Thermopylae in 480BC is one of the very few examples that have been published in recent years. Let's face it, the days of teenage boys reading war comics and making model planes are long gone.

[Romani]

Charley's War is the equivalent in comic to "All Quiet on the Western Front", it should be a recquired reading in British schools.

Volume 2 just came out this year, though it's uneven in quality, the storyline moves between the superb and the weak conventional gung ho heroics of action comics. What is unforgivable is that with so great attention to detail and historical accuracy, the first episode where we see airplanes in the series is an air raid by Albatros DV (or DVa, it depends of wether the artist remembered to draw the aileron control cables or not) fighters countered by Sopwith Camels...in August 1916!

Don't get me wrong, the planes are superbly drawn, and the episode is good in showing what's an air raid like, but it seems that the writer lost it's sense of direction or had editorial pressures because the strip had not enough action and it seems like a hasty concocted filler. But don't be put off, the human interest story is gripping, and the main story arc covering the first employ of tanks in battle is exceptional. The book closes with a trench raid by German storm troops, wich in the basics being researched, it's more comicbook style that historically accurate, an again would have been more properly placed in 1917 than in 1916.

Despite these continuity blunders, I highly recommend it. I read a lot of Charley's War reprints in a random order when I was in England one summer learning english when I was a youngster , and can't wait for the next volumes, that will eventually cover Passchendaele (3rd Ypres) and the Etaples mutiny. I credit Charley's War with sparking my interest in World War I.

[Yeoman]

It was Charleys war that gave me my lifelong interest in WW1.
It was a superbly drawn and moving anti war story. I would sit and be lost for hours in the detail that Joe had drawn - and what detail !
Pats mill's storylines were always full of interest and pathos, just so good.

I have been collecting the reprints that appeared in the 'Judge Dredd' megazine and even after 25+ years can recall the pictures and story so sharply.

Anyone not familiar with the story , have a look here

http://charleyswar.tripod.com/

For the accuracy
http://charleyswar.tripod.com/id7.html

Romani hit the nail on the head with his comment on required reading.

[Colin A Owers]

There is a part of the story when Charley's brother(?)/nephew(?) is illustrated. He joins the RFC and the drawings are superb! well worth looking out for.

I think it was in 200AD - Long live Judge Dredd!

Colin A Owers

[stephenl]

In the late 70's early 80's I would read WWII comics. I never knew of Charley's war. Thanks for the post Pete, I had a Borders Gift card burning a hole in my pocket. So I ordered Vols. one and two with it.


Stephen Lucas

[totoroman]

he covered the first tank deployment?!?

damn! somebody beat me to it. I was working on my own version of that for comics, lol! (I'll bet he didn't use Frederick Libby's account, though... which gives me some small comfort)

thanks for the warning about the historical inaccuracies. even so, the fact that they tried to put out a story like that is good. heheheh, maybe later on they'll have a "critical edition" for use in schools that can point out continuity and history errors.