Bill Mauldin cartoonist

1. Among the some • 1,500 cartoons • Mauldin has drawn • during his career, he • acknowledges only • one favorite. It • annoys him that • none of his fans has • been moved to rave • over it. This drawing • a captionless one – • shows an old • cavalry sergeant • pointing his revolver, • in grief, at the • radiator of his jeep, • which has a broken wheel. 'I think that's really funny,' says Mauldin." Bill Mauldin cartoonist William Henry Mauldin (1921-2003), better known to the world as Bill Mauldin, was one of the most popular and influential cartoonists of the twentieth century. He passed away on January 22, 2003 after a long career dedicated to caricature and cartoon. In 1975, Bill Mauldin gave his papers and 1,700 original cartoon drawings dating from 1938 to 1965 to the Library of Congress, a generous gift to the American people from a man who had touched the hearts and souls of a generation of enlisted men during World War II. He later shaped the minds of thousands in his political cartoons. He won two Pulitzer Prizes in Editorial Cartooning for his work: the first for his work in Stars and Stripes in 1945 at the age of 23, and the second in 1959 for a cartoon published by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "Joe, yestiddy ya saved my life an' I swore I'd pay ya back. Here's my last pair of dry socks." "Run it up th' mountain agin, Joe. It ain't hot enough." The USPS describes stamp: With this stamp, the U.S. Postal Service honors Bill Mauldin, one of America’s favorite cartoonists. During World War II, military readers got a knowing laugh from Mauldin’s characters Willie and Joe, who gave their civilian audience an idea of what life was like for soldiers. After the war, Mauldin became a popular and influential editorial cartoonist. The stamp goes on sale in March. U.S. Postal Service art director Terry McCaffrey chose to honor Mauldin through a combination of photography and an example of Mauldin’s art. The photo of Bill Mauldin is by John Phillips, a photographer for Life magazine; it was taken in Italy on December 31, 1943. Mauldin’s cartoon, showing his characters Willie and Joe, is used courtesy of the 45th Infantry Division Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. NOTE: For those that still don’t get it. In the days of the Cavalry when a soldiers horse became lame (broken leg) as this soldiers jeep is with the broken axel, then the soldier would take on himself the task of putting the animal out of its misery. Mr. Johns Bill Mauldin, center, meets "Willie and Joe" on Heartbreak Ridge in Korea in 1952. Left is Pfc. John ("Willie") Owens; at right is Pvt. Lawerence ("Joe") Reid. "Bill Mauldin at work: Cartoonist Bill Mauldin, in his fur-lined mountain cap, surrounded by his combat trophies, sits in his office on the fourth floor of Il Messagero building in Rome-one floor above the main editorial offices of The Stars and Stripes. Bill mostly worked at night, until the wee hours, on drawings made from innumerable sketches made up front with the combat troops. Here, drawing with his left hand, he takes time out to grimace at the intruding photographer." http://news.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978088455 http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/03/07/greene.mauldin.stamp/?hpt=C2 http://www.stripes.com/02/nov02/mauldin/ http://www.awon.org/willie/willie2.html http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=12650 http://gocomics.typepad.com/rcharvey/2009/03/willie-and-joe.html http://aaugh.com/wordpress/?p=268 http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/swann/mauldin/mauldin-intro.html http://www.45thdivision.org/Veterans/BirdA160.htm

2. His characters Willie and Joe, created for the 45th Division News in 1940, extended to the Mediterranean edition of the Stars and Stripes in November 1943. Mauldin officially transferred to the Mediterranean edition of Stars and Stripes early in 1944 and his editor arranged for syndication by United Feature Service as Up Front at the same time. He won his first Pulitzer for cartooning in 1945. Mauldin always called it as he saw it. During the war that led him to more than one confrontation with the military brass, including a famous one with General George Patton. In 1944, while technically AWOL in Paris, Mauldin was set up to meet the famous general who did not appreciate the scruffiness of Willie and Joe. In March 1945, he drove up to Luxembourg, to Patton's quarters. Mauldin recounts the meeting in The Brass Ring, in which Patton harangued him: In a June 1945 magazine article, Time described Bill Mauldin and his jeep named for his wife Jean: In a jeep named "Jeanie" he covered the fronts, commuting between Cassino and the Anzio beachhead, making his left-handed sketches with India ink, which he got from the engineers, and three carefully guarded worn-out brushes. Unlike Patton, Gen. Mark Clark was a real Willie and Joe fan, and made a jeep permanently available to Mauldin to go anywhere he wanted to meet the troops and get inspiration for future panels. In 1940, when he was 18, Mauldin joined the Arizona National Guard, and went on active duty with it as a rifleman in the 45th Infantry Division. He accompanied the 45th through the Army camps in the United States, and in 1943, as a sergeant, went overseas with the division to Sicily, where he later switched from the unit's paper, the 45th Division News, to the Stars and Stripes, with an assignment to cover the war in cartoons. His cartoons, expressions of muted rebellion against the Army system, featured a young enlisted man, a clean shaven, nameless recruit who evolved into the dirty, dull-eyed, bearded Joe of the combat-weary team of Willie and Joe. While most of the Army brass favored the cartoons as outlets for the average GI's pent-up rancor, a few objected to the bedraggled and grimy, although realistic, public image Willie and Joe were projecting of American fighting men. Mauldin was occasionally lectured, but never suppressed. Plenty of other Generals, including Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, recognized the cartoons' worth. Mauldin earned at Purple Heart at Cassino. He did not spend all of his time cartooning and working for the 45th Division News during the war. He made sure he spent time with K Company, his fellow infantrymen. “When you hit the water, swish yer feet around. They kin use it.” The cartoon that won Mauldin the Pulitzer Prize in 1945 was typical. Captioned "Fresh, spirited American troops, flushed with victory, are bringing in thousands of hungry, ragged, battle-weary prisoners" it depicted wretched, drenched infantrymen slogging through a downpour. "Now then, sergeant, about those pictures you draw of those god-awful things you call soldiers. Where did you ever see soldiers like that? You know g%&*$#n well you're not drawing an accurate representation of the American soldier. You make them look like g%&*$#n bums. No respect for the army, their officers, or themselves. You know as well as I do that you can't have an army without respect for officers. What are you trying to do, incite a g%&*$#n mutiny? You listen to me sergeant, the Russians tried running an army without rank once".... "Sergeant," he said, "I don't know what you think you're trying to do, but the krauts ought to pin a medal on you for helping them mess up discipline for us." When exactly Willie & Joe first came into being is debatable. Some say it was September-1943, June 1944, or even sometime in 1945 (which seems unlikely). When ever they came into being the impact they made is beyond doubt. They saw it all and lived through it. “Spring is here.” Part of the FORWARD from the 1982 Stars and Stripes book that included these and a number of other cartoons by Mauldin, and several others: "Mauldin's cartoons of Willie and Joe, the two mud-covered, dry-humored infantrymen who typified the front-line soldier to all our combat troops, won for him a 1945 Pulitzer Prize and the reputation as WWII's outstanding cartoonist.