American cartoonist (1921-2003). He was born in
Mountain Park, New Mexico. He had always wanted to be a cartoonist and enrolled in
Chicago's
Academy of Fine Art after getting out of high school. Soon afterwards, however,
World War II got started, and Mauldin found himself a member of the
U.S. Army's
45th Division.
In 1940, Mauldin created his
cartoon soldiers,
Willie and Joe, for the division's
newspaper. The cartoon quickly grew in
popularity, and by 1944, Mauldin was working for "
Stars and Stripes" as a full-time cartoonist. After his cartoons got mentioned in one of
war correspondent Ernie Pyle's columns, Mauldin's work was soon
syndicated by
United Features.
Mauldin's frequently anti-
authority cartoons sometimes got him in trouble with the
brass. In 1945, General
George S. Patton wrote the Stars and Stripes and threatened to
ban the paper from his
Third Army unless they quit printing Mauldin's cartoons. General
Dwight D. Eisenhower didn't mind the cartoon at all and arranged a
meeting between Mauldin and Patton. They met,
argued, and didn't change each others' minds. Mauldin stated later that he thought Patton was a
nut but a great
soldier and said he thought they parted as
friends, though it's suspected that Patton carried a
grudge, since he later threatened to have Mauldin
jailed.
In 1945, Mauldin received his first
Pulitzer Prize for newspaper cartooning (at 24, he was the youngest prize winner) and published "
Up Front," a
book which reprinted many "Willie and Joe" cartoons, along with comments about the situations that
inspired each cartoon. He also wrote a number of
short stories and published "
Back Home" in 1947, "
Bill Mauldin in Korea" in 1952, and "
The Brass Ring" in 1971, among others. He even appeared in the 1951
film version of "
The Red Badge of Courage" as Tom Wilson (the
loud soldier) and in "
Teresa" as Grissom that same year. He won a second Pulitzer in 1959 and received a
Reuben Award from the
National Cartoonists' Society in 1969. After many years as an
editorial cartoonist (his cartoons were heavily critical of
McCarthyism, the
KKK, and the
Vietnam War), he finally
retired from cartooning in 1992.
Mauldin died on
January 21, 2003 of complications from
Alzheimer's disease, including
pneumonia, at a nursing home in
Newport Beach, California.
Sources:
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/ARTmauldin.htm
http://www.toonopedia.com/mauldin.htm
http://www.imdb.com
trainman reminds me: "What, no mention of Snoopy going to Bill Mauldin's house to 'quaff root beers' every Veteran's Day?" Can't believe I forgot that!