By Bill Mauldin (W.W. Norton)
ISBN13: 978-0-39305-031-8
During World War II a talented and thoughtful young man named William Henry “Bill†Mauldin (29/10/1921 -22/01/2003) fought “Over There†with the 45th Division of the United States Infantry as well as many other fine units of the army. He learned to hate war and love his brother soldiers – and the American fighting man loved him back. During his service he began creating cartoons for Stars and Stripes, the US Armed Forces newspaper and his cartoons were reproduced in papers in Europe and America.
They mostly featured two slovenly “dogfaces†– a term he popularised – giving a trenchant and laconic view of the war from the very tip of the Sharp End. Willie and Joe, much to the dismay of the brassbound, spit-and-polish military doctrinaires, became the permanent and lasting image of the ordinary soldier, and they showed the conflict in ways the upper echelons of the army would prefer remained secret. Willie and Joe even became the subject of two films (Up Front -1951 and Back at the Front – 1952) whilst Willie made the cover of Time magazine in 1945, the year 23 year old Mauldin won his first Pulitzer Prize.
In 1945 a collection of his drawings, accompanied by a powerfully understated and heartfelt documentary essay, was published by Henry Holt and Co. Up Front was a sensation, telling the American public about the experiences of their Sons, Brothers, Fathers and Husbands in a way no historian would or did. This volume (with a new forward by Stephen Ambrose) is an anniversary re-issue of that publication. A biography, Back Home, followed in 1947. A Liberal and free-thinker, Mauldin’s anti-war, anti-idiots-in-charge-of-War views became increasingly unpopular in Cold War America.
Despite being a War Hero his increasingly political cartoon work drifted out of favour and he left the business to become a journalist and illustrator. He was a film actor for awhile (appearing in Red Badge of Courage with Audie Murphy among other movies) and after an unsuccessful try for a seat in Congress in 1956 returned to newspaper cartooning in 1958. He retired in 1991, after a long and glittering career. He only ever drew Willie and Joe four times in that entire period (for an article on the “New Army†in Life magazine, for the funerals of “Soldiers Generals†Omar Bradley and George C. Marshall and to eulogize Milton Caniff). His fondest wish had been to kill the iconic dogfaces off on the final day of World War II, but Star and Stripes vetoed it.
Up Front is one of the most powerful statements about war ever to come out of America. The Willie and Joe cartoons and characters are some of the most enduring and honest symbols of all military history. Every Veterans Day in Peanuts from1969 to 1999, fellow veteran Charles Schulz would have Snoopy turn up at Mauldin’s house to drink Root beers and tell war stories with an old pal. When you read Sgt. Rock you’re looking at Mauldin’s legacy.
The issues, mordant wit and desperate camaraderie of his work is more important than ever in an age where increasingly cold and distant brass-hats and politicians send ever-more innocent lambs to further foreign fields for slaughter. With this volume and the forthcoming Fantagraphics Willie & Joe: The WWII Years, we should be well on the way to restoring the man and his works to the forefront of graphic consciousness, because tragically, his message is never going to be out of date…
Illustrations © 1944 United Features Syndicate. Text © 1945, 2005 the Estate of Bill Mauldin. All Rights Reserved.