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Welcome to the all new and revamped charleyswar.com, the first and only website on the net dedicated to
Charley's War -the best story in the British war comic 'Battle picture weekly', and later 'Eagle' Charley’s War
is arguably the most important comic war story ever. The script
was written by Pat Mills with artwork by Joe Colquhoun. It started in early 1979 (the 200th issue) and revolved around
the exploits of Charley Bourne; a 16 year old idealistic kid who lies about his age so he can leave his job at the bus garage
and join Kitcheners army as it swelled with volunteers, ready for the 'big push" of summer 1916 (the debacle better known
as the Battle of the Somme.) Charley very quickly realises the real facts of the most horrific War of the Twentieth
Century and turns very much the anti-hero when all of his mates are cut down on the first of July, the first day of the
Somme.
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The story tracked Charley's fortunes right through the Great War, documenting his experiences on the Somme, Ypres and the final Advance of 1918. This thread of World War one action was
backed with historical research by both it’s creators that bordered on obsessive. Many accused Mills of using it as
a vehicle for his left wing political views, as the narrative showed much of the ‘black history’ of the war to
end all wars. None of the story was anything other than one hundred percent truth which kills such accusations stone dead.
It’s irrelevent from what angle the story was projected if all it contained was true. It was cleverly narrated in the
beginning by Charley's own badly spelled letters home to his family in East London. As well as being tragic in places and ironic in others these
letters were an insight into the character from a completely original angle. This ‘down to earth’, uneducated
feel of the character was reflected by the backward facing 'S' within the story's title banner.
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As a Character Charley Bourne was almost illiterate, naive beyond
belief and certainly knew his place in the class-dominated hierarchy of Edwardian society, a strange Hero indeed! Yet
there was something endearing about him that you just can't put your finger on. He was the personification of stoic resignation
that existed at that time. The story had a huge following and became the most popular in the comic in a short space of time.
In a jingoistic 'blood and guts' 10p comic for boys, in which all of it’s other stories were typical glorified comic
fare, that fact alone was quite remarkable. Before long the letters page became almost a CW fan club, and the Grandchildren
of Great war veterans wrote of them showing the story to them and of their positive responses. High praise indeed. After the
War ended an older Charley Bourne was posted to Russia to help the white Russians fight the Bolsheviks in 1919. (An
often overlooked and unknown facet of WW1) The story continued into the beginning of the Second World War when, due to
a falling out with IPC over his research budget Mills bowed out to concentrate on the new story for 2000AD: ‘Slaine’
He had intended to bring Charley’s War into World War Two and tell some
of the darker history of that war too. In the end writer Scott Goodall took up the Mantle with Joe Colquhoun and it continued
(without it’s previous edge) until its eventual rushed end in 1986.
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This website was built because after extensively searching the net for Charley’s War or Battle I found
it totally lacking so decided to build one, simply because its criminal for one not to exist. Believe me I’m not usually the kind of person who just sits down
and says hey ill build a website. It would have to be something very special for me to dedicate so much time to, considering
I had no knowledge of building a web site whatsoever (and am generally the type of person too lazy even to praise a site ive
really enjoyed in the guestbook!) Charley’s war is that special. It’s the first attempt at web design for me,
so I ask you to forgive the imperfections and if you can offer any constructive criticism it would be gratefully received.
(although one regular couldnt bring himself to saying anything against the old site because he said it was done with so much
passion it would have felt like drowning puppies) Its content will be an ongoing project and will change, improve and grow
over time. One thing I can promise is that for all its faults it's passionate and done with an energy that the subject deserves.
It really is a labour of love; I just wish I'd done it earlier. Charley's War was a huge part of my childhood. After 22 years from the golden era of the comic and story alike I can still remember
snippets of script and flashbacks of the artwork as if it were yesterday. When recently I bought some old copies from E-bay
it was strange to see it was 1980 and I was only ten!
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| Charley Bourne |
As we've
seen Charley's War is an Anti-War story which ran in a pro-war comic. Think about that for a minute-it is quite
a concept isn't it? Mine was the last generation to be reared on stories of WW2 heroics by Characters such as D-day Dawson
and the like. Fearless and invincible as they fought Hitler's evil empire with a cigar in the side of their mouths,
and de- riguer leather jacket. These were Characters whose lives seemed to start and end with War and their own
personal glory, in stories that were generally lacking anything to do with fact. When Charley's War appeared
it changed everything with it's honesty and realism. It was sometimes Ironic, sometimes funny, sometimes tragic and always
arch. Years later my interest in history and in particular the Great War (sparked from CW) led me to read most
of the classic contemporary accounts; The Siegfried Sassoon trilogy, Robert Graves' 'Goodbye to all that', Carrington's 'A
Subaltern's War' etc. and I was amazed just how detailed and historically correct the story was. Pat knowingly
instilled some knowledge in his readers but more importantly sparked a thought process of their own, leading them into a direction
that was simply the right one! It seems trite to include it here but Wilfred Owen's line in Dulce Et Decorum Est
springs to mind; "You would not tell with such high zest to children ardent for some desperate glory the old lie, Dolce et
decorum est (It is sweet and glorious to die for one's country) If you're discovering Charley's War for the first
time you may be forgiven for thinking " What a load of fuss for a comic strip" But if you read on you will see that CW is
anything but just that.
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The Story is still as popular and so
fondly remembered today because of many many things- Its sensitivity in dealing with such a hugely emotive subject such
as the great war, It's honesty, It's messages of the futility and horror of war, Its comments on class, its anti-macho
stance and it's refusal to allow another generation to forget the huge waste of life being just a handful. The
two main ingredients that made Charleys War so good and so special were Pat Mills and Joe Colquhoun. Pat must have researched
the Great War to incredible lengths to add the realism and angles to it that he did. There is a detailed page about
his choice of subjects and key plotlines within this site as well as an exclusive interview about CW which Pat very kindly granted me. His other work
has been much documented in more recent years due to the Judge Dredd movie (another of his many creations), his place in the
comic industry is ledgendary and he is one of the most prolific writers in his field. Personally, (and i have and will be
again, kicked to death for this) i am not a fan of comics and never have been, even when i used to read Battle as a kid i
only read Charley's War, the other strips didnt interest me at all. 2000AD was lost on me completely, apart from a few classic
Dredd sagas such as 'the Hunter's club' etc. I am at a lost to know what a 'fanboy' is and the mentality of most diehard fans
of modern comics is alien to me. Apart from a bit of Nemisis the Warlock drawn by the great Kevin O'neil- Ive
read nothing of Mill's massive volume of work, i will one day because i know i may well be missing out. I have a sneaking
feeling though that nothing will strike me ever again like Charley's War did. Maybe it was Joes art, maybe it was the
script, i dont know, all i know is that it stands alone in it's medium. Perhaps the phenomenal success of Dredd,
and the shadow it casts on Mills' earlier work is why there's little information on Charley's War. It's remained
for years, a wonderful secret, but it's time to share it.
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I also fell in love with the artwork of dear Joe Colquhoun a comic artist whose work has never been surpassed in my view and
definitely the most underrated in his field. It's a crime that this Genius has been forgotten so quickly after his
sad death some ten years ago. Joe unknowingly taught me, (and many others no doubt) to draw through the hours I
spent copying the characters in CW in biro and pencil. Joe made every single frame something to get lost in. The
characters were so real they could almost jump out the page, their expressions sometimes left no need for lettering. The
extensive panoramas of the Western Front were breathtaking and his attention to detail in uniforms, weapons and setting
was at an equal level with the writing. The subject itself seems an impossible thing to draw ( the confined spaces of
the trenches, the mud, the rain etc.) but yet Joe made these scenes look easy. To this day if I am drawing
in any medium Joe's style is in there looking back at me. Joe had been an excellent teacher and I went on from
copying his stuff as a kid to an A-level and degree in Art. I'm really not over stating the fact when I say Joe
sparked my interest and taught me so much more than my high school Art teachers. There are some great examples of his
work on this site and also a detailed look at how brilliantly researched all his stuff was. There
is also possibly the only interview he ever did here, in which he discusses the buisness, and the strips he did over his long
and varied career. I owe Joe a great deal and this website is the very least I can do.
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Since I launched the old version of this site in 2002 a great
deal of things have happened. From the first appearance on the web of CW information I was quite literally SWAMPED with emails
(im sorry incidentally to the very many I never had time to answer) I couldn’t quite believe the reaction, neither could
Pat Mills. Together, we started a campaign to get the strip reissued. With me collecting and forwarding every email and query
about a re-release to Pat and him once a month or so bundling them up and sending to Titan along with demands they re-issue
at very least the two previously published titles books 1 and 2. Titan shuffled their feet and waited.
In September 2002, only four months after the site was
launched a new publication called 'memorabilia magazine' was issued featuring an article concerning the recent interest in
British war comics. The Charley’s War graphic novels released by IPC in the early 80's (books one and two) were changing
hands on eBay for up to sixty pounds each. The Article by a guy called John Freeman (who later gave me some excellent advice
for which I thank him very much) was about war comics in general, but as is the case with the genre it became a Charley’s
War article in the main due to the size of the shadow the strip casts in its field. Pat Mills was interviewed for the
article and he cleverly turned it into a vehicle to plug this site and explain about the reissue campaign. John Freeman very
nicely printed the name of the site a few times and mentioned me and Charley’s War throughout the article. This exposure
was a fantastic bit of luck and the further interest made for even bigger email bundles landing on Titan's desks via
me and Pat.
Titan/Rebellion tentatively tested the water and announced that
Charley's War would be reprinted in the 2000AD spin-off 'Judge Dredd Megazine' to open the doors for it Dave Bishop wrote
an epic series about Battle Action called 'Blazing Battle Action'. It was an epic piece which again could not avoid devoting
a hell of a lot of it to Charley's War. It ran some small panel size articles about the strip alongside such as 'Charley’s
war- how good was it?' and Joe Colquhoun's biography. Most of it was culled from this site, but Bishop very kindly quoted
me and acknowledged the site in practically every issue of the article. The result of this epic was that when Charley’s
War was re-run in the Megazine in prog 211 on 24th September 2002 the story had already grabbed the interest of the original readership and the younger new ones as well.
In all, the entire run up to and all of the Battle of the Somme was reprinted in total it is sixty nine issues! The 2000AD forum was
buzzing with discussions being held about the merits of the reprints and if they date well. Generally the reception was fantastic
and soon after Titan coughed, stopped shuffling their feet and announced that they would be releasing the strip in Graphic
Novel form, complete with a 'directors commentary by Pat Mills' (initially the release is two hardback editions and then the
plan is to continue until they are no longer economically viable) This same month of writing (November 2004) that promise
became a reality and the first Charley's War book release for eighteen years has arrived (see review) The book is apparently selling well and is unsurprisingly as popular as it ever was. I was lucky enough to be asked to write
a small piece for the book which needless to say I was over the moon to have the chance to do (thank you Steve White and Pat
Mills!)
As many people have pointed out this new river of interest and
a book release started with the tiny stream of the old site and I guess it is indeed thanks to this site in many ways, if
that the case I’m immensly proud of that, but thank you to all those people who wrote all those emails
to me (some of which that remained unanswered-im sorry) - none of it was in vain- they were all, in my opinion, the main
reason why Titan has done all this, so thanks for taking the time to write them all. Now go and buy it so we can have the
whole thing in books!!
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That is the Charley's War story to date. It's
held peoples interest and continues to, it's an interest that has spanned 25 years and that interest is due to Pat Mills and
Joe Colquhoun. Joe and Pat really were the Lennon/McCartney of the comic world, two geniuses working on the same project.
In the mid eighties 'Battle' editor Terry Magee wrote-"One history professor wrote to me and equated Charley's War to 'All
Quiet On The Western Front' as an important social document-So well written, so well drawn, worthy enough to be included in
any college curriculum of art history."
High praise indeed-and yet no website?..........Well here's my modest effort
for Pat and Joe.....
Charley's War.com
Neil Emery, winter 2004
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