Vet’s Day

LIFE Magazine photo of American soldiers in Hürtgen Forest, Germany, September 1944.

I didn’t want to let Veterans Day pass without sharing something special. I have in my possession an original paperback book, printed in Italy at the end of World War II. It’s a collection of cartoons by Bill Mauldin.

Click here or on the picture of Willie and Joe to go to the gallery to see selected cartoons from the book. I found this book for a dollar at a used book store many years ago. The inscription is fascinating in itself. Who was Grace? Who was Eugene? Were they just friends, or were they in love? Did they marry?

What immediately catches my eye in Mauldin’s cartooning is his superbly confident and slap-dash brushwork. Keep the photo above in mind when browsing the gallery, and you’ll see that Mauldin’s depiction of ragged and weary soldiers was no exaggeration! Below is a LIFE Magazine photo of Bill Mauldin with his infant son Bruce at the end of the war, probably taken around the time the book was published. More WWII cartoons by Mauldin, posted by Stars and Stripes, can be seen by clicking here.