Secret History: Charley's War Successors Part 2

Brothers In Arms and Dead Man's Dump - collaborations with David Hitchcock.

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.

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Last week was Part 1 of Charley’s War Successors where I talk about Rebellion 1920, Dougie’s War, Liontamer and Fred’s War.

And now let’s crack on with Part 2.

5. BROTHERS IN ARMS. A development of Fred’s War, it featured soldiers of all the warring nations whose paths cross on the Western Front. 2014. Once again, great sample cover by David Hitchcock.

So our British hero Fred meets a German soldier during the Christmas Truce of 1914 and again later in the war. Through Fred’s French girlfriend he makes friends with her brother, a French poilu. There is even a Russian soldier because Czarist troops were also serving on the Western Front. When the Bolshevik revolution began, they too rebelled, and were massacred by the French. And there’s Fred’s brother Ned covering the Anzac side of the conflict.

The dramatic potential for this interplay between the different nations was huge. Great War scenes that have never featured anywhere before were included, such as the controversial ballet Parade shown in Paris in 1917, with Fred and his French soldier comrades in the audience. The ballet was bringing common street entertainment to the elite with controversial ragtime sequences. The music was by Eric Satie and the costumes were by Picasso, helped by futurist Giacoma Balla. The costumes look like the wildest science fantasy imaginable!  

Set and costumes by Pablo Picasso for Parade, 1917. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

Once again I drew a blank with publishers. A leading comic and book publisher really liked the proposal, but said, ‘We already have a WW1 author on our books and it wouldn’t be fair to him to have another in our catalogue.’ I was starting to get the message.

6. DEAD MAN’S DUMP. Dramatisation of a poem by Isaac Rosenberg. Art: Dave Hitchcock. Script: Pat Mills. Included in a comic strip adaption of WW1 poems: Above the Dreamless Dead. Edited by Chris Duffy. Small book format.  Published by First Second 2014. Other creators included Eddie Campbell, Hunt Emerson, George Pratt,  Stephen Bissette and Garth Ennis. I featured the trenches and General Haig, so Dave’s earlier WW1 work was now put to excellent use.