Charley's War (Vol. 1): 2 June - 1 August 1916

It's tough to know how to express gratitude to the Publishers. Once again Charleys war can be read by a new generation. This comic series from Battle and Battle action in the seventies and early eighties is simply the most moving, shocking, profound, detailed, magically drawn, superbly scripted Graphic war story ever. The characters will suck you in, they have the depth and belivabilty that i remember as a boy reading and it making me think...ahh..this is what the war was really like. Just dont waste any more of your time. Buy this book and the others NOW. You might die next week having never known Charleys War. And that would be a big mistake.

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.

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 !!!

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