Willie & Joe: The WWII Years

During WWII, the closest most Americans ever came to the war was through the cartoons of Bill Mauldin, the most beloved enlisted man in the U.S. Army.

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. 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.

Presented in a deluxe, beautifully designed two-volume slipcased edition of over 700 pages, this tome is edited by Todd DePastino, Mauldin's official biographer. Willie & Joe contains 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).

The complete WWII cartoons of the greatest cartoonist of the Greatest Generation, in a beautiful, oversized, two-volume slipcased set.

Presenting the complete WWII cartoons of Bill Mauldin, the greatest cartoonist of the Greatest Generation

During WWII, the closest most Americans ever came to the war was through the cartoons of Bill Mauldin, the most beloved enlisted man in the U.S. Army.

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. 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.

Presented in a deluxe, beautifully designed two-volume slipcased edition of over 700 pages, this tome is edited by Todd DePastino, Mauldin"s official biographer. Willie & Joecontains 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).

Born in 1921, Bill Mauldin squeezed several lifetimes into his eighty-one 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 in 2003.Todd DePastino is the author of Citizen Hobo: How a Century of Homelessness Shaped America and Bill Mauldin: A Life Up Front, and the editor of the cartoon collections Willie & Joe: The WWII Years and Willie & Joe: Back Home. He teaches history and writes and lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.