Charley's War

This beautifully produced black and white hardcover collects the first thirty or so episodes of the nearly 300 originally published in the British comic book "Battle Action" from 1979-85. The story follows Bethnal Green teenager Charley from his enlistment in 1916 through the end of the war, with this initial volume focusing on his acclimation to the Western Front and the Battle of the Somme. The book opens with a fiery foreword from the series' writer, who positions it as the antithesis of both the heroic "Boys Own" genre and the false anti-war sentiments of the "War is Hell" genre. Mills explains how his intent was to highlight the true class nature of warfare via the common man character of Charley -- not that smart, but brave and honorable when it counts.

At first I wasn't that drawn to Charley, he seemed like a pretty typical wisecracking Cockney lad, but as the story advances, you see his sunny disposition get realistically worn down, and a bitterness emerging. Some of the supporting cast are a bit stock, such as Mad Mick, the massive Irishman who can't hold his drink, or Ginger, the perpetual whiner, the straight-arrow Sarge, and the odious Lt. Snell. But others are a little more interesting, like Pop, who enlisted after both sons were killed in the war, or Lonely, the lone survivor of a platoon, or Smith 70, the nerdy machine gunner. The Germans are reasonably well done as Mills does take pains to point out the difference between the Bavarians and Prussians, and the dieharders and the casual soldiers, and there's an obligatory scene with a prisoner where the Brits learn "he's just like one of us."

On the whole, Mills succeeds in his objective of peeling the mythology away from the war, and the comic is truly subversive (especially for its time). He clearly did massive amounts of research and it shows in both the writing and artist Joe Colquhuon's amazingly detailed artwork. In fact, the artwork is the true strength of the series -- each page is jam-packed with visual information and there are tons of small details and mordant humor lurking in the background for the reader to discover. It's amazing to learn in the afterword that Mills and Colquhuon didn't slave away together over each episode. Rather, per the working processes of the day, Mills would write the script and it was edited and sent off to Colquhuon -- and they only spoke a handful of times over the run of the series! I can't speak to whether or not the series would appeal to children of today, but it certainly held the attention of this adult reader.

PS. A very minor quibble with the supplementary material is that it can be hard to match Mills' comments to the corresponding episodes, since they aren't numbered in any way. Votes: +0

Absolutely fantastic just as emotional and visually exciting as when I first read them as a child. Beautifully presented and reprinted. Highly reccomended to anyone interested in the first world war or looking to get into studying it as a hobby. Keep em coming !!! Votes: +0

I must admit that I had my doubts about Charley's War before reading it. It just didn't seem possible to even come close to capturing the horrors of war through a comic.

But then I realized that this wasn't a valid doubt. Because of course you can't. Nothing - books, movies, comics, documentaries, and so on - can truly make someone understand what war is all about. Only war itself can do that. You must thus go to war in order to fully understand war.

Yet still, through the use of different means, especially the written word and still or moving images, one can gain a sense of appreciation that at least comes close to something resembling the beginning of an understanding about warfare and everything about it, the First World War included. This is not for everyone though - warfare is a complex thing that requires an understanding in not only weaponry and military tactics, but also history, politics, sociology, and more - but by trying to capture what war is all about most people will if nothing else realize that people actually fought and died by the millions in the filthy trenches and what this really means; while the stubborn monarchs, the incompetent military leaders, and the stupid politicians relaxed in their easy-chairs miles and miles away from the front and the atrocities that took place there.

An interesting dilemma is mentioned in the introduction to this book. Trench warfare was everything but mobile, stalemate was the order of the day (and year after year), and doesn't this make the setting the worst possible to include in a comic, since the environments doesn't really change that much, if at all? Well, true, but on the other hand, this enabled the creators behind Charley's War to explore the characters in depth and create complex personalities, and no, just because you constantly don't have new environments doesn't mean the plot becomes boring.

The story centres around Charley Bourne, who joins the army in 1916 by lying about his age. Like millions of men and young boys at the time, Charley goes to war with an extremely romanticized, and severely flawed, view of what war is all about. This was a war like no other, ancient traditions and tactics clashed with modern and mechanized weaponry, which led to a conflict thought to be over and done with in a few months got stretched out for years and year, resulting in millions after millions of men being senselessly slaughtered.

You don't have to be a Word War One buff to understand everything that happens in Charley's War, but obviously you'll appreciate it more if you for instance have some knowledge beforehand about the Battle of the Somme. The drawings are extremely well done, all characters are quite believable (the Brits as well as the Germans), the chain of events is not the least predictable, and it's definitely never boring.

However, it's all in black and white, and while this in a way gives the filthy trenches a rough and unpleasant look (just like in real life), I still think the lack of color is highly unfortunate. There are no nauseating close-ups of bodyparts shot of by enemy fire, you'll never see the remnants of young men blown to pieces by murderous shelling, and the red blood that fertilized the ground all over Europe is nowhere to be found.

And that's too bad, because you need the nauseating stuff in a story such as this one. After all, in war, bodies are torn apart and mutilated in truly horrible stuff, and everyone should be aware of this. But not it's just like in the old and highly inaccurate war movies: grenades and shelling cause people to fly through the air, but their bodies remain intact and not a drop of blood is spilled.

If only this gruelling realism had been added to the mix; then Charley's War could've been a true masterpiece. But instead it ends up as "only" great, and nothing more. Which is still, however, not bad at all.
Votes: +0

I have been a student of the first world war for some time and I have also been a fan of comics. I ran across this book around a month ago at my local library and was positively thrilled to finally find a comic book treatment for world war 1. The art style is very reminicent of the old war comics from the 50's and 60's but the work itself dates from the 70's so this is not surprising and really works well in the story, the tales are well balanced if a little short(due of course to the format they were originally published in) and shows the level of research that went into the making of the strip.

In the 70's there were most likely plenty of WWI veterans still around (my own great grandfather did not pass away himself until 1984 at the age of 93)whom the writer no doubt could call upon for his research of this story, and the book reflects this all the way through. I even got information on aspects of the war that I've yet to read about in serious history books. I'm an artist myself and I always like to find a good graphic novel, I was amazed when I first pulled this book down off the shelf at the library because I had been hoping someone would do a graphic novel of the first world war for some time now (I was surprised to log onto Amazon.com that same day only to see that they had the book listed as 'not yet relesed' while I had a copy in my hands), I am now looking foreward to when the second volume is released although I suspect I wont be finding it at the library, perhapse this will help launch more WWI graphic novels, it shows that there was more to the war than endless slaughter and all the characters are well developed. Really this book is reminiscent of All quiet on the western front except it's with the British army rather than the Germans. The books introduction gives a brief review of the entire series which manages to cover nearly every aspect of the great war. If the rest of the strips are like the first published volume then this book is truely worth every penny spent.
Votes: +0

this is an excellent series and the best thing in battle action comic. Votes: +0

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