An iconic image from the antiwar story “Charley’s War” has been brought to life as a splendid diorama – and a new Finnish language edition will be available soon.
Inspired by the Battle strip “Charley’s War” created by Pat Mills and Joe Colquhoun, diorama maker Marcus White recently created a stunning 3D version of the a gas masked cavalryman, based on the cover of the second collection of the strip published in the 1980s.
The completed diorama features in one of several diorama videocasts he has posted on YouTube, some of them also with World War One themes.
Marcus White’s 1/35 work depicts World War One British cavalry and horse in gas masks, riding through a damaged war torn graveyard.
“A scene from hell,” he notes. “The lance and other details are slightly fictitious, but I’ve tried to replicate the image from the comic as best I can.”
Titan Books published two collections of “Charley’s War”, the acclaimed World War One anti-war story, long before the release of its 10-volume series, superseded now by the more recent Rebellion collections. We have a guide to these releases here on downthetubes, and a guide to the French edition, published by Delirium, here.
The most recent collections of Charley’s War, arriving in a slipcase edition after a successful crowdfunding campaign raising over €36,000, smashing its €25,000 target, is in Finland by KVAAK Kirja and Zum Tufel, the project organised by Tiero Mielonen.
This Finnish edition of the Rebellion editions is accompanied by some wonderful tribute illustrations to the saga by artists that include Hunt Emerson, Bryan Talbot and Petteri Tikkanen.
Keep and eye on the Turun sarjakuvakauppa web shop at sarjakuvakauppa.fi if you are interested in acquiring a copy of this edition.
Over the last few years downthetubes has incorporated a semi-official Charley’s War micro site, originally established by Neil Emery, a project which originally helped generate enough renewed interest in the World War One comic strip by Pat Mills and Joe Colquhoun to persuade Titan Books to reprint it thnks in part to Neil’s efforts.
I hope you’ll find the pages gathered here about Charley’s War and other war comics of interest.
In 2022, Pat Mills began to chart his own history of the powerful anti-war strip, which he co-created with artist Joe Colquhoun. His “Secret History” account of the series creation features as part of his ongoing subscription-based Iconoblast newsletter, the first two chapters available as free-to-read introductions, here and here. We have included links to all the posts to date on the index page of the Charley’s War micro site.
• British Comic Characters Profiled | Charley’s War
• Charley’s War Volume 1: Boy Soldier: The Definitive Collection
Published by Rebellion 19th April 2018 | 320 Pages
• Charley’s War Volume 2: Boy Soldier: The Definitive Collection
Published by Rebellion 17th May 2018 | 320 Pages
• Charley’s War Volume 3: Boy Soldier: The Definitive Collection
Published by Rebellion 14th June 2018 | 320 Pages
• La Grande Guerre de Charlie (Charley’s War in French)
French publisher Delirium has published French language editions of Charley’s War (as La grande guerre de Charlie). Check out their catalogue, which also includes 2000AD titles and Bryan Takbot’s Grandville, here
Thanks to Pat Mills for highlighting Marcus White’s diorama and the Finnish “Charley’s War” on his Iconoblast Substack
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The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: British Comics, British Comics - Collections, Charley's War, Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes Micro Sites, downthetubes News
Secret History: Pat Mills begins his guide to the making of “Charley’s War”