Secret History: Charley's War – Judgement Troopers

The Somme was so obviously a disaster, I never thought the day would come when today’s leading historians would hail it as a victory. But I’m afraid they do.

Welcome to my Secret History of Comics: my new book serialised on Substack. The first section was on Marshal Law: now it’s all about Charley’s War.

If you’re joining me for the first time, you can read the intro to the Secret History here, it’s available for everyone, and so is the intro to Charley’s War.

Every subsequent post has a free preview, but if you want access to my entire rant post, you’ll need to subscribe. Full access to ALL of my Secret History of Comics as I release them every week (plus other benefits, check them out), will set you back just £5 per month or £50 per year, and it helps me to continue giving you my best writing. I even have a free seven-day trial on Iconoblast, so you can try it first.

Before we get into it, I’ve got a small selection of signed copies of the Titan edition of Charley’s War for sale over on my Gumroad store. They’re not mint condition as they’ve been on my shelves and in boxes for a few years, so the covers have the odd scuff or scratch, but the interior pages are in good nick.

Now let’s get on with the story.

Judgement Troopers

The Judgement Troopers story begins with some poignant scenes of a mule getting stuck and dying in the mud. I don’t think any film director could have evoked such reality and pathos as the scene where Charley and Titch drag a reluctant mule, laden with trench props, up to the front line. This is where comics – in the hands of a master like Joe – easily have the edge over movie-makers.

Originally, I had Charley shooting Titch, rather than letting him drown in the mud. Such events happened in the war, but I was censored here by the editor. In retrospect, what I should have done was have Charley try, and find he was unable to shoot Titch.

And then Titch drowns.

But that would have taken up more space to do it justice, and the three-page episode structure could be very cramping. Instead, the editor had Charley rescuing Titch and reassuring him he’ll be sent home. Fat chance! We see that subsequently, with Doctor ‘No’ rejecting all soldiers’ excuses as malingering. Including being dead. I still wince when I read the censored scene. It’s the kind of bullshit we should not be exposing young readers to. They need to know the truth.