Charley’s War is a unique comic strip, completely unlike anything else I’ve ever seen. I found it by accident in the public library, in its newly reprinted version, sitting pristinely on the shelf, looking like a sort of graphic holy grail. God bless the library employee who had the impeccable taste to order this for the stacks. And god bless fate - which led me to her.
Charley’s War is the story of young Charley Bourne, a not-so-bright British lad who manages to get himself conscripted into the English Army in the middle of World War 1. Life in the Army seems to be a pretty honorable and exciting thing to Charley and the other boys, but they’re about to get a taste of trench warfare. The Battle of the Somme is about to begin, and Charley and his new mates are going to be right in the thick of it.
The initial premise almost sounds like a prelude to an issue of Sgt. Rock, but what follows is much more visceral and uniquely tangible. Charley is not a muscular, fire from the hip hero, nor is he a simpering typist handed a rifle and made to march through his buddies’ guts to kill the godless Hun. What really makes Charley’s War stand out is it’s honest realism. Both artist and writer have clearly done their research and are intent to bring the readers an unvarnished picture of life as a Tommy. Mills is aware of the social situation and class conflict of the England of WWI, and in his own words, “takes every opportunity to exemplify” this, openly but subtly acknowledging the disparity between the poor, uneducated rifleman in the trench with his increasingly aloof and aristocratic superior officers and politicians further and further to the rear. In typical fashion the poor, left without options, end up at bayonet point, a story sadly repeated throughout history to this day. Remarkably Mills is able to convey this point without complaining or preaching.
As Mills also notes in the foreword of Vol. 1 of Titan’s reprints, WWI is often considered the ugly and unfortunate war, as compared to “just” wars like WWII and Iraq. Still, Mills doesn’t use too heavy of a political tone, instead portraying the tangible everyday issues and subjects of life in the front, without waxing philosophical about war being hell. Additionally he sticks closely to his history, for example contrasting the remarkably disparate architecture of German and English trenches, a historical fact which led to the wholesale slaughter of tens of thousands of British soldiers. Remarkably, it’s an engrossing graphic war story that consciously manages to be anti-war. To the best of my knowledge, the only other comic to achieve this earthy depiction with some honesty was the first 12 issues of Marvel’s ‘Nam.
What could such a carefully researched and lovingly scripted story ask for but an equally devoted artist? Joe Colquhoun’s artwork is nothing short of phenomenal. Unlike most of today’s comics, which are drawn and inked by two often unacquainted people, each beautiful panel of Charley’s War is vividly detailed by Colquhoun in black and white, a format which requires a lot more skill and attention from the artist, attention which Colquhoun has clearly paid in spades.
The current trend of comics seems to be sadly following in the footsteps of the video game industry. My most recent visit to my local shop (Feb 9th) revealed at least 5 war related titles most of which had historical inaccuracies, muscular hero types or outright fantasy on the cover. It’s somewhat ironic that one of the best war comics to ever see the light of day would be re-published at a time like this, even more so considering that Mills himself left the strip over a research budget dispute.
In the words of artist Joe Colquhoun - from a rare interview near the end of Charley’s War - “Finally, and this is only my personal opinion…Charley’s War illustrates a period that was already dying then, when words like Honour, Duty and Patriotism actually meant something… I think most decent kids reading this epoch will have a sneaking almost atavistic feeling that in this present rather sick and selfish world, with violence and amorality seeming to pay dividends, they perhaps are missing out on something. It’s a little bit pretentious, but just think about it.”
