Secret History: Charley's War – The publishing history

I had to make a decision: allow the series to go ahead so that its subversive message could reach new generations of readers? Or kick up such a fuss that it might jeopardise the whole series?

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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The original Titan edition

I thought it would be interesting to create a rundown of the publishing history of Charley’s War. It kicks off with Titan Books.

1. The original Titan editions. Two volumes, 1982

They appeared at the same time as Judge Dredd, Robo-Hunter and ABC Warriors were being published by Titan Books. It was exciting new territory, pioneered by Nick Landau, the publisher. Hitherto, British comics were ephemeral; disposable. The fact that Charley was published so soon after appearing in Battle was undoubtedly because of Nick’s and other comic fans’ appreciation of the series. The covers were beautifully painted in full colour by Joe and the price was £3.50. The first cover showed Charley looking down at a grave, the second cover had a gas-masked horseman. 

Sadly, they didn’t sell in sufficient quantities for the series to continue. Regular Battle readers probably weren’t aware of them, or couldn’t afford that price. Science-fiction and 2000AD fans were the principal buyers of these exciting new books, so Charley didn’t continue.

Charley was reprinted in Battle itself but editorial declined to tell me about this event  which was probably just as well as I gather there were further stupid censorship changes. So the less I know about their idiocy, the better. Not least because they didn’t pay Joe and I a reprint fee.