 FEATURED
Willie
& Joe: The WWII Years
Presenting the complete WWII cartoons of Bill Mauldin, the
greatest cartoonist of the Greatest Generation.
"The real war," said Walt Whitman, "will never get in the books."
During World War II, the closest most Americans ever came to the "real
war" was through the cartoons of Bill Mauldin, the most beloved
enlisted man in the U.S. Army. Here, for the first time, Fantagraphics Books brings together Mauldin's complete works from
1940 through the end of the war. This collection of over 600
cartoons, most never before reprinted, is more than the record of
a great artist: it is an essential chronicle of America's
citizen-soldiers from peace through war to victory.
Bill Mauldin knew war because he was in it. He had created his
characters, Willie and Joe, at age 18, before Pearl Harbor, while
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.
After wading ashore with his division on the first of its four
beach invasions in July 1943, Mauldin and his men changed - and
Mauldin's cartoons changed accordingly. Months of miserable
weather, bad food, and tedium interrupted by the terror of intense
bombing and artillery fire took its toll. By the year's end,
virtually every man in Mauldin's original rifle company was
killed, wounded, or captured.
The wrinkles in Willie's and Joe's uniforms deepened, the bristle
on their faces grew, and the eyes - "too old for those young
bodies," as Mauldin put it - betrayed a weariness that would
remain the entire war. With their heavy brush lines, detailed
battlescapes, and pidgin of army slang and slum dialect, Mauldin's
cartoons and captions recreated on paper the fully realized world
of the American combat soldier. Their dark, often insubordinate
humor sparked controversy among army brass and incensed General
George S. Patton, Jr.
This is first of several volumes publishing the best of Bill
Mauldin's single panel strips from 1940 to 1991 (when he stopped
drawing). His Willie & Joe cartoons will be presented in a deluxe,
beautifully designed two-volume slipcased edition of over 600
pages. The series is edited by Todd DePastino, whose Mauldin
scholarship will be on full display in a biography of the artist
coming in February 2008 from W. W. Norton. Willie & Joe will
contain an introduction and running commentary 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).
About the Author
Born in 1921, Bill Mauldin squeezed several lifetimes into his 81
years. In addition to cartooning, he acted in Hollywood movies,
ran for Congress, piloted airplanes, wrote several books and
hundreds of articles, and won two Pulitzer Prizes, the first for
his wartime cartoons. He died on January 22, 2003. Todd DePastino
is the author of Citizen Hobo: How a Century of Homelessness
Shaped America (2003). He also edited and introduced a lost
classic, The Road by Jack London (2006). His biography of Mauldin,
titled Bill Mauldin: A Life Up Front, will be published by W. W.
Norton in 2008. He teaches history and writes in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. (Amazon.com) |
