sWILLIE AND JOE by Bill Mauldin 2 books, 8.5 x 10.5, HC, 600 pages, PC NEW VALUE PRICE $45.00 ISBN 978-1-56097-838-1 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 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. *Starred Review* To the generation that lived through World War II, Mauldin’s iconic infantrymen Willie and Joe personified the beleaguered, resigned dogface who won the war. Mauldin began drawing for his division’s newspaper shortly after joining the army in 1940. Three years later he landed in Sicily, and his work began appearing in the military newspaper Stars and Stripes as well as on the home front. His bristle-faced foot soldiers endured life on the frontlines with heavy-lidded weariness and resigned humor. Mauldin’s ink-laden drawings conveyed the harsh conditions the troops endured, although military censorship prevented him from showing the true horrors of combat. While his cartoons were beloved by the soldiers, he frequently ran afoul of the brass, most famously General Patton, who thought that Mauldin’s goal was to “create disrespect for officers.” His battlefield efforts were recognized stateside when Mauldin became the youngest Pulitzer Prize winner in history, and they launched a career as an editorial cartoonist that continued four decades after the war. These two lovingly designed, khaki-green, slipcased volumes collect all 600-plus Mauldin WWII cartoons. They’re an essential complement to editor DePastino’s Bill Mauldin: A Life Up Front (2008)—and to every good WWII collection. --Gordon Flagg “Bill Mauldin was my first artist hero, and Willie & Joe: The WWII Years reminds me why.” - Steven Heller, The New York Times Book Review “These gritty, existential cartoons―everything Mauldin published during the war that still exists is compiled here―are the real deal and then some.” - Laurel Maury, NPR “Mauldin’s characters were bluntly honest: War was dirty, absurd, bitter hardwork.” - Todd Leopold, CNN “Mauldin's drawings of his muddy, exhausted, whisker-stubbled infantrymen Willie and Joe were the voice of truth about what it was like on the front lines.” - Bob Greene, CNN.com “[An] amazing and beautiful collection.” - Rick Kogan, Chicago Tribune “There’s a sad wisdom on virtually every page here.” - Jeff Salamon, The Austin American-Statesman “First and foremost, Willie & Joe are funny. …[I]t's an absorbing glimpse into the day to day life of soldiers while it was happening and the end not known. It's easy to identify with: employees in any capacity gripe about their bosses. But the more specific Mauldin is, the more biting and fascinating his work is.” - Michael Giltz, The Huffington Post “This compilation of his cartoons helps bring Mauldin’s talent and his life at the front lines both to historians and a new generation.” - Samuel M. Baker, ARMY Magazine “Many World War II veterans would surely appreciate seeing these strips again, and anyone who studies that conflict ought to be fascinated by Mauldin's unglamorous take on the drudgery, fear and absurdity of Army life.” - David Allen, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin “Cartoonist Bill Mauldin was a genius at bringing the experiences of World War II home to the moms and dads, kids, wives or girlfriends of the GIs on the front lines in a very human way. ... To my knowledge, none of our wars since has produced a chronicler anywhere near the greatness of Mauldin.” - Wesley G. Hughes, San Bernadino County Sun “The cartoonist’s humanistic brush pai