Charley befriends black American soldiers: the Harlem Hellfighters and the editor imposed the most abhorrent censorship which he has since denied, but which I stand my ground on. On the front page we see Lonely rejoining the ‘lost platoon’, after shellshock has caused a breakdown. So that new generations today will believe that the Great War was a just war, that Britain was ‘the good guy’, and the generals and politicians were heroes, not the mass-murderers of our forefathers. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. years after the event, these young guys have yet to earn a pardon and don’t look likely to in the near future*.

To aid Big Brother in this Orwellian fantasy around the centenary, any film, comedy (like Blackadder Goes Forth ) or drama that maintained a critical view was rarely shown on television. You would think this would be important and centre-stage rather, than some of the trivia presented in Portillo’s documentary. As the winter of 1916 approaches, Charley is caught in a desperate fight for survival against the 'Judgment Troopers'.

Charley’s War humours those expectations only to subvert them, all the time speaking in a language its readers will instantly understand. The obvious point here is that the comic is quietly illustrating how the rules cease to apply at times of establishment crisis. I wish I’d know that when I was writing Charley and his comrades going over the top on July 1 st 1916. Mills could have written a simple story about World War One: indeed, such was the skill of Joe Colquhoun as an artist that he could have easily carried a lazy script and it still be successful to some degree.

As we’ve seen, the futility of a War promoted by the ruling classes was the main message running through Charley’s War. In Charley, at least, you will have the satisfaction of seeing the merchant of death cringing in his hellish factory, saying ‘I’ve got to get away. Another plotline, which was pretty radical, was the virtually unknown story of the only mutiny the British Army has ever had, at Etaples training ground otherwise known as ‘The Bull Ring’, in France in 1917. They would analyse what I had done, and apply the same story and character principles to other wars such as Vietnam or the Falklands or even World War Two. A young nurse who lost her fiance at Gallipoli in 1915 and who tends to Charley when he is hospitalised in early 1918 with an accidental self-inflicted wound.I discovered there was widespread collusion and trading between the British, French and German governments during the conflict. T. Colyer commented: “We were not expecting to travel first or even second class on the train, but we thought we might have a reasonable chance of 3rd. There were specially selected pages of Joe’s art on display at the entrance to each section of the museum.