In the cartoons he drew for military newspapers, he depicted the life of the ordinary foot soldier the way it was. The most famous of them was Up Front, in which Mauldin also writes about his World War II experiences drawing his bedraggled dogface characters Willie and Joe. Mauldin’s cartoons have been published in books before this. That was the first war he cartooned about he would cartoon about four more, ending with the first Gulf War. Mauldin drew political cartoons for about 40 years and he drew cartoons about ordinary foot soldiers (“dogfaces”) in World War II as a 5-year prologue. Which means his cartoons are given greater display herein than they ever got in the newspapers that initially published the cartoons. Classic Mauldin cartoons are an entertaining bonus.JUST ABOUT EVERY PAGE in the 226 7x10-inch page Drawing Fire: The Editorial Cartoons of Bill Mauldin (2020 Pritzker Military Museum hardcover, $35) has a Mauldin cartoon on it. Thoroughly researched and sprightly written, DePastino's balanced biography is a solid introduction to an American original. After the war, Mauldin published bestselling cartoon collections, worked briefly as an actor, ran unsuccessfully for Congress and ended his career with two Pulitzer Prizes for editorial cartooning. George Patton, who threatened to throw Mauldin in jail for his characters' indolence. Willie and Joe became soldiers' heroes and anathema to brass such as Gen.

In 1944, while on staff at the GI newspaper Stars and Stripes, Mauldin created his signature characters, the weary and disheveled infantrymen Willie and Joe.

Deployed to North Africa in 1943, Mauldin participated in the invasions of Sicily and Italy. Mauldin then became the 45th Division News's cartoonist. After studying at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts for one year, he joined the newly mobilized 45th Infantry Division of the Arizona National Guard.

Mauldin (1921 2003) grew up in Depression-era New Mexico in a dysfunctional family.

Historian DePastino (Citizen Hobo) eloquently memorializes cartoonist Bill Mauldin, who won fame as 'the leading spokesman for the American combat soldier' during World War II, in this authoritative biography.

Bill mauldin a life up front