Charley's War

As we near remembrance Sunday 11/11/12 I thought I would write a post about one of my favorite comic strips from my childhood in the 1980's.

Charley's War was a story that appeared in the Battle comic from 1979 to 1985. The Battle comic was produced by IPC Publications to rival the Warlord comic.

Charley's War first appeared in the Battle in January 1979 written by Pat Mills and drawn Joe Colquhoun.

The story tells the tale of Charley Bourne who joins the British army at the age of 16 (under age) and he quickly finds himself thrust into the middle of the battle of the somme in the summer of 1916. As the story continues through the first world war showing Charley experiences in the trench's it is incredibly detailed and well researched with high amounts of factual information rolled into Charley's story.

The artwork as like many of the time was printed mainly in black and white which gave it a dark feeling which suited the subject and the horrors of trench life which the writer and artist never shunned away from this was a change from the heroic war stories show in other comics of the time.

The story started out mainly told in letters home to Charley's dad but this later started to fade out of the story. The story runs from the start of the battle of the Somme and ends just after Charley and his son (Len) escape from Dunkirk in the second world war so from 1916 to mid 1940 so we see Charley take part in the battle of the Somme, rescue his mother from a zepplin raid,take part in tunneling under the German trench's before the start of the 3rd battle of Ypres then on to the Etaples Mutiny,then back to the trench's of Passchendaele where he encounters a young Hitler all the way through the rest of the first world war then on to the BEF to russia  fighting along side the white and then into the 1930's where Charley finds himself on the dole in the Great Depression, This is where Mills wanted the story to end and in 1985 he left the comic because a cut in the research budget. The story was then taken up by Scott Goodall till the story ended with Charley and Len escaping from Dunkirk.

The story 1st ran from 1979 to 1985 in the Battle and the was re-printed and finally finished in the Eagle monthly which end in the mid 1990's.

The story has been collected into hard back by titan books of which at the time of this post they have produced up to vol 8.

If you have not already got a poppy or already made a donation please click this link to the British legion website