Description
The definitive selection of the complete WWII cartoons of the greatest cartoonist of the Greatest Generation, now in paperback.
Right through WW II, the closest most Americans ever came to combat was once through the cartoons of Bill Mauldin, the most beloved enlisted man in the U.S. Army.
This new paperback edition of the 2008 two-volume, deluxe hardcover set brings together Mauldin’s complete works from 1940 through the end of the war under one cover. This selection of over 600 cartoons, most never before reprinted, is more than the record of a really perfect artist: it’s an crucial chronicle of The united states’s citizen-soldiers from peace through war to victory.
Bill Mauldin knew war because he was once in it. He had created his characters, Willie and Joe, at age 18, before Pearl Harbor, whilst training with the 45th Infantry Division and cartooning part-time for the camp newspaper. His brilliant send-ups of officers were pure infantry, and the men loved it. Mauldin’s cartoons and captions recreated on paper the fully realized world of the American combat soldier.
Willie & Joe is edited by Todd DePastino, Mauldin’s official biographer. Willie & Joe comprises an introduction and running statement by DePastino, providing context for the drawings, pertinent biographical details of Mauldin’s life, and occasional background on specific cartoons (such as the ones that made Patton howl). 704 pages of black-and-white cartoons