Charleys War -Colouring Project -Episode 4

Story Pat Mills -Art Joe Colquhoun

 

Episode Foue introduces Mad Mick  and Sgt Bill Tozer in Trevor Howard Rawlenson End makeup -it's the make up for trench raids not meant to be offensive to as it's what would happen  it's a bit League of Gentlemen too comedy and levity is a big part of  Charleys story  the past seems a more surreal place WW1 would appear very surreal to a  1970's kid - not many videos about Charley but if I stay here I'll post documentaries or videos relevant to the episode I'm posting
still the public are having wool pulled over there eyes to serve the people who actually start these conflicts -in truth it was a disater that spawned Hitler , Stalin . Mussolini -theres more truth about WW1 in a three page episode of CW than anything Jeremy Paxman put out around thw 100th year annerversary -with whats happening in Afghanisthan right now pehaps its time to look back and see the causes for these distasters and hold those responsible to account Bush, Rumsfeld , Chaney,Blair those creeps -the hijackers on plane weren't Afghan or Iraqi  but Saudi so seems like a ruse to nick opium a trade the yanks set up cladestinwly in the 80s when the Soviets invaded -"Just Say No "-yeah right? " it saw the collapse of the USSR but also the events you see today-another tragedy-its the fishy business that causes these outcomes rubbish political and financial and damn right criminal decisions ... and still the newsreaders seem to do protect these people -wheres Brian Walden when you need him ?.

Re coloured a page from episode one too as the scan was lousy as were some of my choices of colour this is a bit better

 

Ole Bill Tozers a fascinating character -very Windsor Davis although I doubt he's Welsh sounds like a Cockney to me  -although doubt he's spent much time in the big smoke but on some colonial battleground -Young Bill  would be a neat spin off I can imagine Bill in Hong Kong meeting The Boxers or bumping into Young Winston in South Africa  maybe Mad Mick was with him too like to think those two are old muckers- Bills also very proto Lemmy -I bet he read Battle -he liked 2000ad so it wouldn;t surprise me and his get up I blame Hellman for that

Going back to late 1975 in next story I'm doing real Taxi Driver.Mean Streets colours -get to be a budding Jack Cardiff with these colours -like Mad Mick it keeps me hands busy.

 

 

I better watch this and all may learn a few things although kind of happy finding my own way around  -I kind of rail against the conventional way of doing this -many comics look the same to me with sfx colours-which in truth seems to be a way to cover up flaws - There was this  one guy that used to colour Star Wars Justin Canadian or American  who'd  would slag my work off in forums and I'm learning you see -it's a constant process of learning once you stop learning you become lousy - but he'd put laser beams on AK47s pistols and everything and take forever to do two pages -so he  had no right to criticise me I'd of done 10 pages in that time and learn new things -he's dead now though which is very sad but I  don't l like been criticised when I'm finding my own way around and you really have to as you don't want your work to look like every other colourist-that would be death for me.So I'm gonna do my best to proove that guy wrong coz I  do things differently-plus it looks like a comic to me Thats what I do rather than a series of moody colours with the odd sfx thrown in .

Colouring Project The Eagle Strikes Back -Part 2

 

That's the work I did over the weekend originally published in 1980 -in Battle Picture Weekly  Story Kelvin Gosnell Art Patrick Wright -with these colouring projects wanted to colour as many different styles-feel alot of Arthur Ransom in Pats art both working around then   -so colours a little Button Man influenced on this story.

I guess Mike may of been created to rival Codename Warlord who was an aristocratic Secret Agent who everbody  believed was a coward as he wouldn''t join up except  Kingpin who's like Flints  M  who would send him off on missions -the thing about Sir Peter Flint had an unbelievable war travelling to all corners of the globe -it just didn't cut it with me Mike was more of a believanle SOE agent -kind like the men who inspired Fleming to write James Bond .But Warlord got the whole 70's War Comic thing going and like Battle had it's own classic characters heres a few of my own copies..

The Magic of Ian Kennedy

Always wondered about those Secret Agent Picture Libaries that were all the rage in 60's /70's I'd of done an Avengers one if I could hop back in time and influence publishers lol- Two of the greats First Up Ian followed by Mike Dorey More work on Charleys War today went back a did a second version of the third page as I didn't have a proper scan when I coloured it the first time around

Also coloured Slaine pic a classic by Glenn Fabry -my first Slaine coloured  the piece is originally titled "He did'nt think it too many" something Ineed to remind myself at the bar

 Those Blue stiffs I  think I first heard about them on Wogan when David Icke went a bit random - but they're really Tories .

I hope Glenn see's this he's not well right now wanted to cheer him up a bit maybe my bad use of colour might provide a laugh  

,

All is that Land of the Young stuff reminds me of this

Colouring Project The Sarge Episode 3

 

Episode 3 of  The Sarge in Sicily -Story Gerry Day -Art By Mike Western If I can keep going I'll also try and colour the Sarges platoons exploits in Italy -not sure I'll post them here though -seems fruitless nobody visits here and I'm a bit browned off with the fact -maybe it's google or perhaps blog doesn't work in certain counties -but always put Everythang into Everythang and go nowhere -  then realise I'm going somrwhere and I'm happier that way  dumbasses try  bring me down - but it's bit like Happy Jack when you got something to do that you love and colouring Mikes art brings me back home to been 4 again. 

Dad would buy me a copy of Battle and I'd devour  Joes Coloquhoun pages showing the seige of Leningrad  and the ite Owls - may have a go at Johnny Red one day but I gotta me the master colourist before I try - but back then it wasnt wall to wall  Coronaton Emmerdale Street      but Jack Hargreaves  Out of Town followed by Happy Days and  then Josey Wells been premiered on the box - then I'd get to the Sarge which instantly clicked as I saw I had this box of soldiers

 The Dude who painted these surname is "Post" -there's Roy Huxley but who was this dude both good inspirational figures to have .  

 

 But Yeah Mr Rock  was big with us 4 year olds back in 77 too- wonder howhe  adjusted to civilian life-should do a follow up as him been a cool Dad in the fiftys-picket fences and all.

 

I would never look at this art as propaganda -rather more a really well told story - all the good war comics like to tell the truth as oppossed to wave a flag for some undeserved cause.. it would be about individuals trapped in a nightmare situation and through experience and good soldiering they would endure untill the next episode -You could sense both Jim Masters and Sgt Rock were based upon real people and real events although no platoon would every face such a hairy war it felt like snapshots of true experiences - Joe's the man!

 

Dude put in alot of Work I gotta be the same -finish off with a nod to the first wave of liberators of Europe in 1943 The Sarge and Sgt Rock did hook up sorta - except it was in North Africa might colour that story someday.

Colouring Project -Charleys War Episode 3 (1979)

 

 Story Pat Mills-Art Joe Colquhoun Lettering John Aldrich and Jim Campbell

First time read this episode I knew this story was quality from start to finish I think I first became aware of Charleys War around the time of The Judgement Trooper episodes so I'm about 6 -I read this episode a few years later after Joe had a heart attack and they reprinted the first episodes until he recovered so that's when I first read this particular episode -really great story telling in just 3 pages and very emotional , 

 I haven't coloured Charley since about 2011 so it's been a good ten years -hopefully my colouring style is a bit more under control -Episode 4 will follow in a couple of weeks as I'll be colouring Judge Dredd The Cursed Earth(I needed to get away from Khaki and Mud and Blood  inbetween days  where I don't feel like     WW1 OR 2 ) so I'll post the odd page here and there on FB as I work on episode 3 of The Sarge in Sicily and The second episode of The Eagle Strikes Back,- so Busy which is  good for me .

Also coloured this Dredd page during The Olympics got it completed just as the closing ceremony was going on but it's connected to Dredds Luna 1 Marshal days It's the wrong uniform here -but I guess people would recognise Brian's Classic Dredd more as it was only issue Two of the Eagle reprints so fair do's ,, sadly this cover bodes true today..

Luna War -Brian Bolland,

I'm very happy with reaction over first two episodes of Charley especially from David Hunt -without who Charley may of never seen print -so this interview is a good way of finding out about editoral world in comics in the 60's all the way to the 90's - fascinating stuff to nerd over .

I'll leave last word to Pat-still knocking it out the celestrial park with Space Warp

Revolution Summer 2021

A Mainstream esque virtual Festival by my standards but goes to show how lame true lamestream is these days  but  still best show in town and this dimenson  -No headliners we are all headliners -Begins with Scott ends with Curtis -SuperFly hats  from End to End.

Full Line Up for Revolution Summer 2021 (usually don't bother with this )

Sonic's Rendezvous Band,Scott Morgane with The Sights and Powertrane, The Rationals,Heaven 17, The Supremes and The Temptaations,Elvis Costello and The Attractions,Squeeze,New Order, The New Order,Motor City Bad Boys with GG Allin,and The Jabbers, Johnny Thunders and Brother Wayne Kramer ,Half Man Half Biscuit,Julian Cope,Parliament,Funkadelic,Madness, The Specials, Gorillaz,Georgie Fame (with a smidgen of Van)The Impressions and Curtis Mayfield 

 

Colouring Project-"The Eagle Stikes Back"-Part 1

Mike Nelson-Codename Eagle SOE Agent by Carlos Ezquerra (grabbed this off a cover really liked Carlos take on Mike kinda 1983 lets dance era Bowie although this was drawn about 77-78)

I think I first read Mikes adventures in a Annual Battle for me arrived in 77 when I was 4 (about that age you get obsessessed with comics as there were no space invaders or pac man as we have today lol- so I missed Rogue Eagle which this story refers to in it's firat page First story I saw was Death Heads Dossier with some lovely Geoff Campion artwork - but when people think back to the character Mike Nelson most people will think of Pat Wright who drew the first episode and the last . This stories a prequel and my favourite as it has all the ingrediants of a Where Eagles Dare , James Bond ; Rogue Male and the end is bitter sweet  to me as a 8 year old reader,-The title might be a blatant rip of Empire Strikes Back which was out in cinemas at the time then again I think there was a The Saint Strikes Back (way back in 1939)

Back to 1980/1944 and The Eagle Strikes Back ! Story Kelvin Gosnell -Art Patrick Wright -Letters Nigel Eaton

Tend to think of these stories in black n white -I hope I haven't gone too Rogan Josh or anything, My take I guess is to try and colour it like a film that came out in 1980 

I'd cast Bowie as Mike but only if he switched to a Iggy sytle health regime and buffed up a little - 

Bowie was to appear in the Eagle Has Landed (could of made a good Steiner ) but he went for the role of Colonel Radl -guess he was method acting around the time of  the Thin White Duke and saying stupid things  glad he got off the Charley -Killgore;Tom Hagan  got the role instead but does make you wonder 

 

Mike wouldn't exist with Alan's Dad Eric who helped in the research on The SOE    and wrote first episode  so this is a great informative interview. Pat Wright's Dad also was a master illustrator as you can see here https://www.carol-day.com/

Seeing as it's title of first Mike Nelson story it had to be done

 

Hyp Tv 106

"I'm all smiles got my Crocodiles!"
 That's one Cool Croc ! kinda the Fonz of the gatorworld  - Neat Tv  from  the Johnoverse

 

 

Later Gators !