Charley's War Vol. 1: Boy Soldier: The Definitive Collection: Volume 1

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In 2019, Pat Mills wrote a lengthy and damning post about the way Rebellion treats him and other creators.

Crimes which – as long as they remain unacknowledged – are a dark curse on our country’s national karma, poisoning the present and the future. An old pre-war Regular soldier, he was one of the BEF's ' Old Contemptibles' who fought at Mons in August 1914. I’m sure I don’t need to point out the irony of having to talk about economic exploitation in a review of a book that is, at least in part, about the exploitation of the working class Tommy. Despite his misgivings over Blue's desertion, Charley cannot help but feel a kinship with him due to their common resentment of the military hierarchy and Charley's realisation that, with less fortunate circumstances, he could have easily ended up the same way.This shifting of emphasis away from the crimes of the Germans and onto the more unpalatable conduct of one’s own side was unheard of in British comics, its peers and the period that Charley’s War comes from. Another remarked that the experience convinced him that the: “Army have no consideration for the men at all”.

These two movies were shown to American troops to psyche them up for battle the night before they began their first invasion of Iraq.I had no idea at the time of writing just how terrible the occupation was and that’s something I’d like to have added to my account of Charley and his fellow Tommies fighting the Bolsheviks. The third viewpoint was unheard of until recent years and is still barely known today, not least because of the cognitive dissonance it causes in all of us. I use the word ‘murdered’ deliberately, because ‘manslaughter’ does not do justice to that evil event. Mills added a political slant in the strip not seen in British war comics and avoided the standard heroics common in war comics generally. Another censorship tactic – conscious or unconscious – is to allow limited opposition to the status quo.