just double-checking something here....

The 10 volumes of Charley's War reprinted 282 episodes of CW

BUT

The Fleetway companion has CW [WW1 story only] appearing from 06/01/79 - 26/01/85; this is 2212 days or 316 weeks - so CW could have run for 316 weeks but I'm guessing there must have been a few skip weeks if there were only 282 episodes for Titan to reprint (OR Titan missed 34 episodes - which is the equivalent of one whole extra volume)

Can anyone help? Thanks

I think there were a few periods when Joe Colquhoun was ill so they either featured reprints or put the strip on hold rather than using a different artist.

They were also a few weeks when the comic was not published due to industrial action so that will account for a few of your missing weeks.

All good points, I have no reason to doubt that Titan missed any episodes in their reprint volumes

I've read volumes 1 and 2 of the definitive collection recently released by Rebellion. I will of course be buying #3 shortly. I can't seem to find out how many episodes are printed in these 3 books as I'd hate to think I'd missed some!

I don't believe that the WWII storyline is in volume 3 so I'll have to buy that somewhere.

i dont think they have reprinted the wwII stories have been reprinted by titan or rebellion .but rebellion should release a vol 4

They haven't printed it in vol 3 and so far they have said they aren't printing a vol 4. I must ask Geoff which issues of Battle I need for the post Pat Mills stories

I think there is some legal reason why the WWII story has not been re-printed but i could be wrong. I think the story starts pretty soon after the WWI sorry ended in battle. I only have a few issues with it in. It didn't last to long and we then went back to re-prints of the WWI story right up till when the Eagle went to its glossy format in the mid 90's. Both the re-prints of Johnny Red and Charley's War in the Eagle where cut short so it not a complete re-print of the whole story.

I think the WW2 run ended with Charley returning home from Dunkirk, after which they went to reprints, starting again at the very beginning. In my opinion the scripts (by Scott Goodall?) weren't a patch on Pat Mills' - possibly because of an editorial decision to make the series into more of a 'traditional' war story - but Joe Colquhoun's art was as good as ever.

Hi Charley, there wasn't any legal reason. It was just that they got panned so badly by the readers at the time and few except us old timers are interested in those episodes so it does not make any economic sense to reprint them.

I'm not sure but I thought Joe Colquhoun's health was the main reason for winding it up rather than any poor reaction from the readers. Also, it's worth noting that Mills' dialogue was horribly edited for the reprinted episodes that followed.

Hi, Adam, the Charley's War World War Two series with Scott Goodall's scripts start with Battle's cover-dated issues February 2nd 1985 through to October 4th 1986. Thereafter, with October 11th issue, the reprints from Charley's First World War started which followed on with Battle's merger with Eagle. As regards Charley's initial run in Battle, the strip performed very well from its debut (first week of 1979 - issue 200) through to 22/12/79 - cover date issue wherein it only missed one issue and that was the 10/11/79 issue after 44 consecutive weeks - a good total considering that many Battle series were taking an invariable rest in this time to accommodate complete stories. I'm afraid, my work on Battle only extends to the last week of 1979 at the moment; therefore, I can't comment on what other issues that Charley wasn't present. Hope this helps.

Damnit. I was looking for a like button as I am always impressed to see other comic fans doing some rock solid research into the hobby.

You're a star Geoff! Thanks loads for that. I think I'll try and buy those comics now as I've loved the definitive collection.

(For Colin)

if you can get hold of a copy of 'The Fleetway companion' by Steve Holland you'll find it' ace at answering this sort of question Adam