Product Description

The definitive collection of the complete WWII cartoons of the greatest cartoonist of the Greatest Generation, now in paperback. During WW II, the closest most Americans ever came to combat was through the cartoons of Bill Mauldin, the most beloved enlisted man in the U.S. Army.

This new paperback edition of the 2008 two-volume, deluxe hardcover set brings together Mauldins complete works from 1940 through the end of the war under one cover. 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 Americas 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. Mauldins cartoons and captions recreated on paper the fully realized world of the American combat soldier.

is edited by Todd DePastino, Mauldins official biographer. contains an introduction and running commentary by DePastino, providing context for the drawings, pertinent biographical details of Mauldins life, and occasional background on specific cartoons (such as the ones that made Patton howl). 704 pages of black-and-white cartoons