Bill Mauldin
Bill Mauldin
William Henry "Bill" Mauldinwas an American editorial cartoonist who won two Pulitzer Prizes for his work. He was most famous for his World War II cartoons depicting American soldiers, as represented by the archetypal characters Willie and Joe, two weary and bedraggled infantry troopers who stoically endure the difficulties and dangers of duty in the field. These cartoons were widely published and distributed in the American army, abroad and in the United States...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCartoonist
Date of Birth29 October 1921
CityMountain Park, NM
CountryUnited States of America
I drew pictures for and about the soldiers because I knew what their life was like and understood their gripes. I wanted to make something out of the humorous situations which come up even when you don't think life could be any more miserable.
I feel like a fugitive from the law of averages.
Certainly none of the advances made in civilization has been due to counterrevolutionaries and advocates of the status quo.
Patton was living in the Dark Ages. Soldiers were peasants to him. I didn't like that attitude.
'Peace' is when nobody's shooting. A 'just peace' is when our side gets what it wants.
My outlook on warfare is best illustrated by a cartoon I did some thirty-odd years ago of a soldier in an Italian foxhole reading about the Normandy invasion and observing to his buddy that: "The hell this ain't the most important hole in the world . I'm in it.
The American public highly overrates its sense of humor. We're great belly laughers and prat fallers, but we never really did have a real sense of humor. Not satire anyway. We're a fatheaded, cotton-picking society. When we realize finally that we aren't God's given children, we'll understand satire. Humor is really laughing off a hurt, grinning at misery.
When we realize finally that we aren't God's given children, we'll understand satire. Humor is really laughing off a hurt, grinning at misery.
The surest way to become a pacifist is to join the infantry.
I'm convinced that the infantry is the group in the army which gives more and gets less than anybody else.
Look at an infantryman's eyes and you can tell how much war he has seen.
Humor is really laughing off a hurt, grinning at misery.
A soldier's life revolves around his mail. Like many others, I've been able to follow my kid's progress from the day he was born until now he is able to walk and talk a little, and although I have never seen him I know him very well.
I was a born troublemaker and might as well earn a living at it.