Battle Action #278, (26 July 1980); Charley's War, pp4

"Telegram, Mrs.Bourne!"

What a thrill to be able assemble a complete story! Charley's War has been called the greatest anti-war war comic in British comics history, a superb marrying of Pat Mill's soap opera humanism, his horror of war, and Joe Colquhoun's endlessly inventive, thematically accurate and professional drawing and inks. This everyday story of WW1 folk never fails to shock, amuse and engage the reader. A true tour de force.

This issue the story adroitly toggles between the apocalyptic violence of the German Judgement Troopers on the Western front to the domestic concerns of Charley's family in Edwardian London. Is our hero really dead this time?

Note the extraordinary level of research by the artist. This is 1980; no Wikipedia, no Google image search. A bus to the public library only!

Pen and ink on cartridge paper
38 cms x 48