Bill Mauldin: A Life Up Front (WWII Cartoonist - Willie & Joe)

[RamboLiberal]

Just in time for a patriotic July 4th read, Mt. Lebanon's Todd DePastino, an adjunct professor of history at Waynesburg University, has authored a book about the life of two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Bill Mauldin, the World War II cartoonist and creator of "dogface" combat infantry soldiers, Willie and Joe.

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"You can almost smell the gun powder and feel the mud sucking at the soldier's boots when you look at them," he said.

Calling the cartoons initially published in the Army's Stars and Stripes sardonic and dark, he said they seem anti-Army, with several that have an antiwar tone.

"Mauldin's cartoons are unlike any Americans had seen before," he said. "Usually, soldiers were shown as pious, clean-cut and determined. Mr. Mauldin depicted them as disheveled, mud-soaked and downbeat. It makes you wonder how they ever got past the Army censors."

During the war, when the cartoons were first syndicated on the home front, many civilians became upset and wrote letters complaining to the newspapers. In time, however, they were accepted by the public.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08185/894376-55.stm

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. I remember seeing those cartoons in my childhood...

My whole family loved them, and they were memorable to me...

Thanks for the link!

[hedgehog]

2. I have that book memorized, which leaves me with a lot of

pop culture refernces that no one else gets!

bTW - the cartoon in your OP of the old Calvalry sergeant shooting the jeep with a broken axle was Mauldin's personal favorite!

[eppur_se_muova]

5. "Goodbye Old Paint" nt

[Captain Hilts]

6. "A moving foxhole attracts the eye." Don't get in a tank!

[sarge43]

3. Mauldin said his cartoons got past the censors

because the troops loved them - no rah-rah, they were honest. Mauldin got to the truth.

[eppur_se_muova]

4. misposted, delete

[Captain Hilts]

7. Didn't Patton try to get them stopped?