Bill Maudlin Cartoons From WWII

Selected strips from Stars and Stripes. I scanned these from the book Up Front by Bill Maudlin (1945, Henry Holt and Co. The drawings are copyright United Feature Syndicate, if it matters). The strips mainly feature two GIs named Willie and Joe that the author affectionately refers to as "dogfaces", which is just another name for the common infantryman. Of course some of the strips deal with other groups of our fighting men, and naturally there are a few jokes at officers' expense. The text deals with Maudlin's experience traveling with the boys at the front and the cartoons are interspersed throughout the book, sometimes with the author giving the inspiration for the cartoon. Well anyway, on to the strips.

"Just gimme a coupla aspirin. I already got a Purple Heart."  I love this one!

Heh.

"Hell. When they run we try to ketch 'em. When we ketch 'em we try to make 'em run."

"Able Fox Five to Able Fox. I got a target but ya gotta be patient." This one's my favorite.

"I feel like a fugitive from th' law of averages."

And finally, "Wisht somebody would tell ME there's a Santa Claus." Poor guy!

None of the strips in the book would qualify as propaganda, they all just dealt with the day-to-day struggles of the poor saps out fighting the good fight. Actually none of the strips ever showed anyone engaging the enemy at all. Well if you want action and blood and guts, go read a WWII comic book, there's plenty of good ones from which to choose. This one's all about the GIs going out and doing what they had to do, not for any big ideas like freedom and democracy and apple pie, but because you know, somebody's got to do it.