Another of Mill’s play on words was Charley’s surname ‘a proper Charley born”(geddit?). All his family are here – his Mum, who worked in a munitions factory not far from their home in Silvertown in the east end of London, his Dad who was a special Policeman, his sister Dolly (who married Oliver), and troublesome younger brother Wilf. Smith 70 and young Albert where two characters who added some vital humour into the story, at times that it was very dark-although they appeared so infrequently that it never turned the story into parody. They cropped up usually with some mad scheme of Smithy’s like the ‘water listening device’ or the famous ‘killer rats’. Matthew: That must have been hard for Pat; to move away from something that he’d invested so much work in and hand it over to another writer. My understanding is that happened because of an argument over the strip’s research budget, although I might have got that wrong. A terminally pessimistic soldier with a morbid fear of being gassed. He becomes one of Charley's regular companions during Etaples and Passchendaele. He is later killed by a sniper. In Dunn’s The War the Infantry Knew this happened with the Jones’s in the regiment (a Welsh one)! so I think it’s probably how Smithy got his name.

Everyone assumed that young readers were only interested in action. Charley’s War proved them wrong. It was the No 1 story in Battle for its entire run, which is amazing because it’s such an anti-war story.” The strip follows Charley's life in the trenches and his experiences during the war. Colquhoun put a meticulous level of research into the already well-researched scripts which Mills provided. The strip rarely flinched from providing an extremely frank portrayal of the horrors of war, so much so that in some later reprintings some of the artwork was censored. Mills added a political slant in the strip not seen in British war comics and avoided the standard heroics common in war comics generally. Charley's War was the subject of a display dispersed around the Musée de la Grande Guerre du Pays de Meaux in France (from 16 October 2014 to 4 January 2015). [3] Plot summary [ edit ] The mutiny happened just as the third battle of Ypres was beginning causing major concern to the British High Command. The official files on the Etaples mutiny and Percy Toplis are not released until 2017. When the BBC screened the excellent drama of Toplis’s life and death (monocled mutineer starring Paul Magann) there was outrage from the establishment and questions were raised in parliament. The programme has never been repeated for that reason. Information is still being surpressed, the public being deemed as not in need of the truth. Pat Mills says “Charley’s War was great because we slipped through the net, we got away with it, after all who would bother to look in a comic?, and that, of course, was always my intention.”.Old Bill: Bourne – get your kit on and get on the bridge as part of the armed guard to make sure this rabble don’t break out and enter the town” If it hadn’t been for Charley’s War, I doubt many people today would even be aware of this unwarranted invasion of a sovereign nation. Note the narrative: in its handful of words, it covers the horrific use of high explosive as a weapon, the suddeness of death, and the grief and loss of a friend. It’s truly brilliantly handled and very moving. Snell always reminds me of Julian Grenfell, the aristocratic young officer who famously wrote of the War as “An absoulute bloody picnic, great fun” and recorded the thrill of “Killing Huns with rifle at 50 yards, great sport”. Charley is, at times seen wallowing in apathy, bitterness, hatred and occasionally severe depression. The cause of this state of mind being the very thing that other ‘Heroes’ of the genre are there for: Death, Destruction, and War.

Long-time readers of comics will be given a nostalgic look at some of their favourites,” said Molcher. “While more recent fans will gain an insight into how their favourite medium has developed over the years.” He was a brilliantly crafted character that worked because he was based on a Lost Generation of real, courageous, straight-forward, working-class heroes’, who tragically never returned to their homes. Meticulously researched by both writer and artist, the story shows the brutal reality of the WW1 trenches through the eyes of an unusual hero – an illiterate, underage boy who joins up in the fervour of recruitment. Mills had seen the film Oh What A Lovely War many times and could see a great comic story in it. It was inspired by letters home from ordinary soldier. He wanted readers to identify with Charley- a typical working class boy of the time. Molcher says Charley’s War, featured in the exhibition, is “regarded as one of the greatest war comics ever”. It is still in print today, in collected editions put out by Rebellion.

The film was directed by Mike Nichols (his final film) and written by Aaron Sorkin, who adapted George Crile III's 2003 book Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History. It stars Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, and Philip Seymour Hoffman, with Amy Adams and Ned Beatty in supporting roles. It earned five nominations at the 65th Golden Globe Awards, including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, and Hoffman earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the 80th Academy Awards.