Celebrating 50 years of Battle in 2025, Pat Mills, the creator of 2000AD, has launched his successor to “Charley’s War” - “Ragtime Soldier”, drawn by Gary Welsh and Phillip Vaughan, which first appeared in an eleven-page story in the Great War Dundee anthology, published in 2019. A 48 page adventure in the style of “Charley’s War” the ground-breaking anti-war story first published in Battle.. Includes cover art print! “The Successor to ‘Charley’s War’ – At Last!” Pat enthuses. “There was a ruthless media black-out on any anti-war stories or films during the centenary of World War One. There was censorship like I have never seen before in my entire career, even within the comic community! The disastrous and tragic Battle of the Somme – featured so strongly in ‘Charley’s War’ – was proclaimed a ‘great victory’ by revisionist, military historians. These revisionists set out to excuse and justify the deliberate massacre of a generation. “The reality of the conflict in my best-selling saga ‘Charley’s War’, that reached generations of young readers, and changed their minds about war, was obscured by a monstrous lie. “So it became – for me – a matter of great importance, to pick up where ‘Charleys’ War’ left off and continue to show the truth of the Great War. It was not easy. Not least to find an artist who would have the same artistic talents as the great Joe Colquhoun, the artist-creator of ‘Charley’s War’. Finally, I hit gold with Gary Welsh and Phillip Vaughan. Their brilliant work has the same affection, authenticity, drama and, above all, emotion that we all remember from Joe’s ground-breaking and unique art. “And so, at long last, I’m delighted to say we are working on our first 48-page volume of Ragtime Soldier released as a Kickstarter, and for general publication, later this year. “In it, we begin the saga of Robbie McTaggart, a young soldier in Dundee’s legendary Black Watch, and his comrades who laughingly called themselves ‘The Ragtime Infantry’: ‘We cannot fight, we cannot shoot, what earthly use are we?’, even as they fought heroically and suffered terrible casualties at the Battles of Loos and the Somme. This is a pre-order and will ship in August 2026, after Kickstarter rewards have been fulfilled
