World War II "Willie and Joe" Prints - Me Buttons is in th' Way

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Bill Mauldin
World War II "Willie and Joe" Prints - Me Buttons is in th' Way
2006

About the Item

Limited edition editorial print from Mauldin's "Willie and Joe" collection-- "Drop them cans in th’ coffee gentl,e Joe-we got a chicken stewin’ in th’ bottom. Maybe Joe needs a rest. He’s talkin’ in his sleep. Tell th’ ol’ man I’m sittin’ up wit’ two sick friends. This damn tree leaks." Born in 1921, Bill Mauldin came of age in the People’s Century, when ordinary men and women grappled with the global crises of depression and war. He chronicled their lives in cartoons and, in so doing, ennobled both his subjects and his craft. “I was born a troublemaker and might as well earn a living at it,” he reasoned at age 17 when he decided to take up political cartooning as a career. In 1940, the unemployed cartoonist joined the Army, where he cartooned one afternoon a week for the 45th Division News, rapidly becoming a 45th Division celebrity by the time he landed in Sicily in July 1943. The strain of combat soon engraved itself on his cartoons, as it did the men. After his transfer to the Stars and Stripes in early 1944, Bill created two war-weary “dogfaces” named Willie and Joe who captured the sardonic humor of the front. In 1945, the twenty-three-year-old cartoonist returned home the youngest Pulitzer Prize winner in history, the author of a best-selling book, and the most famous enlisted man in the United States Army. Bill Mauldin retired from cartooning in 1991 after an injury to his drawing hand. Stricken by Alzheimer’s disease, he entered a nursing home in 2002. In the months before he died, old veterans and their relatives sent him over 10,000 cards and letters. They thanked him for keeping their humanity alive during that most savage of wars. These tributes, more than any honor or award, rank Bill Mauldin as one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century. Bill Mauldin died on January 22, 2003. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Creator:
Bill Mauldin (1921 - 2003)
Creation Year:
2006
Dimensions:
Height: 12 in (30.48 cm)Width: 15 in (38.1 cm)
Medium:
Ink
Period:
Mid-20th Century
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Chicago, IL
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU112825436291