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Mauldin: decidedly not maudlin

September 18th, 2008 Barbara - Alicia Ashman

Bill Mauldin’s single-panel Army cartoons featuring the everyman infantrymen, Willie & Joe, are instantly recognizable to many people (even those of us born well after WWII).  Mauldin’s 1945 book Up Front was one of the biggest best-sellers of the time and is still in print.

Willie & Joe: The WWII Years is a handsome, two-volume set of Mauldin’s complete works. Volume One covers the homefront, from 1940-1943. Volume Two contains the overseas cartoons, created between 1943-1945.  The 18 page introduction, playfully gussied up as a declassified war memorandum, provides a tantalizing overview of Mauldin’s life and career.

Ex-GIs recognize Bill Mauldin’s characters, Willie and Joe, at a glance. I learned this because volume one was sitting next to me on the reference desk, and three different men who were passing by noticed and commented favorably about Mauldin — their eyes caught by the small, black drawing on the book’s dark green cloth cover.

For even more information, the Library of Congress hosts a gorgeous online tribute in a web exhibition, Bill Mauldin: Beyond Willie & Joe or you might check out Todd De Pastino’s new biography, Bill Mauldin: A Life Upfront.

Entry Filed under: Graphic Novel, Nonfiction