Willie & Joe: The WWII Years Paperback – August 2, 2011

When I ordered this book, I did not imagine that it would have so much content. It gave the background of the artist and all the cartoons drawn during WWII, including the ones published in Stars and Stripes, a widely distributed service magazine. Not only that but the book looked almost brand new. The seller described it as 'Used, good' condition. There were no damaged or missing pages, the spine was perfect, as was the cover. That is a very reliable seller.

I missed WWII, but I was in the Army during Viet Nam. Bill Mauldin's work could have been drawn aboutthe people that I served with. It has such a timeless quality. We spent nights washing fatigues because anofficer was offended that we got dirty crawling through mud day after day after day. I still share Mauldin's opinion of officers.The introduction to the drawings is priceless history. The US Army described without propaganda.Don't misunderstand. The enlisted men of the US Army were never treated with more respect. Ernie Pyle was a fan andso am I. We share our high regard of Bill Mauldin's work with literally thousands of rank and file grunts.I am amused that Willie was supposed to be Bill Mauldin but Mauldin drove around with the press. He had his ownjeep and permission to go anywhere. Still he ran into George S. Patton. Sparks flew until Eisenhower personallytold Patton to back off.I have not idea if any of this applies to the people who served recently in Iraq and Afghanistan. Each generation has its ownstory to tell. Maybe someday we will find out if they had their own version of Mauldin.

Bill Mauldin was one America's great commentators. Using both prose and drawings as media of expression, Mauldin presents in this work the views, trials, pleasures, and--and most importantly--the point of view of the footsoldier, the dogfaces (later the grunts in Vietnam). Like many common infantrymen, Mauldin does share in the "glory" of generals and politicians. You may not always agree with his works or ideas, but the cartoons are funny as well as poignant.This book contains all his World War II cartoons published in both military and civilian press although many drawings can be found in books like UP FRONT. It's a large book, making the cartoons large and easy to see. Quality is reproductions are mixed, for many original Mauldin drawings are lost and the book prints copies of newspaper prints and some from books. The paper of the book is sturdy but is not the best for artistic reproductions. Despite all this, this definitive work, with a short but good introduction, is a great buy. Having all the drawings in a single book is a great deal.

The reprinted comics look great, and there's some very interesting commentary on the comics and Mauldin's life etc. as well as some of the early anti-Native racism his comics featured (which changed as he grew, matured, and met more people who weren't like him including Native soldiers he served alongside). However, I'm deducting a star because some cartoons are missing. I don't know if it's a rights issue or what, but they're some of my faves. I'm going to have to track down his memoirs so I have access to them.

I was surprised when this book arrived! I expected a selection of Bill Mauldin's cartoons, but in its almost 700 pages, the editor tried to print each and every known work of his. The book begins with a good concise bio of Mauldin's printed like a WWII official document, very helpful to understand his work. His cartoons form a unique view of the daily life of the lowly grunt, the sons of families impoverished due to the Depression, who often joined the service because they thought it would be less rough than the jobs they could find as civilians, only to find themselves thrown in the maelstrom of the biggest war ever. I have the honor of having made friends with some members of that Greatest Generation, and their stories sound very familiar to the situations shown in Mauldin's cartoons.

My dad was a paratrooper in WWII as was an uncle. Another was a Seabee. I read the Stars and Stripes while stationed overseas. Bill Mauldin was a genius. I still have a vivid visual of the grizzled ole dogface about to shoot his dead Jeep. He had a career after the war as a political cartoonist and did a memorable take on the desegregation on the little Rock schools. I had many of these in an old paperback but it was disintegrating.

Massive and heavy, I wasn't able to read this one in bed. Well, maybe, some, if I read something else until I finished nibbling peanuts. It took two hands. Also includes Mauldin's pre-war work, what they could find of it. One disappointment: many of the best cartoons I had seen many years earlier in mass-market paperbacks -- too few that were both new to me and good. Final thought: anyone who angered General Patton cannot be bad.

This ended up being a gift for a WWII vet who is a Battle of the Bulge survivor, now living in a nursing home in Powell, WY. I haven't been back to see how he liked it. However, there were cartoons in the book, that he remembered and told me about before I ordered the book and found when I had the chance to read it. I am sure he was very pleased to get it.