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From The Stars And Stripes

William Henry "Bill" Mauldin (October 29, 1921 – January 22, 2003) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist of the United States. Mauldin was born in Mountain Park, New Mexico. His grandfather had been a civilian cavalry scout in the Apache Wars and his father was an artilleryman in World War I. Mauldin took courses at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. While in Chicago, Bill Mauldin met Will Lang Jr. and became fast friends with him. Bill Mauldin entered the U.S. Army in 1940 to fight in World War II. Bill Maudlin was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame on May 19, 1991.

While in the U.S. 45th Infantry Division, he began drawing cartoons about regular soldiers, called dogfaces. Eventually he created two cartoon infantrymen, Willie and Joe, who became synonymous with the average American GI. Mauldin began working for Stars and Stripes, the American soldiers' newspaper, and his cartoons were viewed by soldiers all over Europe during World War II, and also published in the United States. Willie was on the cover of Time Magazine in 1943 and Mauldin was there in 1958.

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Army officers who were raised in the peacetime army of spit and polish and obedience to orders without question were offended. General George Patton once summoned Mauldin to his office and threatened to "throw his ass in jail" for "spreading dissent". This after one of Mauldin's cartoons made fun of Patton's demand that all soldiers must be clean-shaven and wear ties at all times, even in combat. But Dwight Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander, told Patton to leave Mauldin alone, because he felt that Mauldin's cartoons gave the soldiers an outlet for their frustrations. Mauldin told an interviewer later, "I always admired Patton. Oh, sure, the stupid bastard was crazy. He was insane. He thought he was living in the Dark Ages. Soldiers were peasants to him. I didn't like that attitude, but I certainly respected his theories and the techniques he used to get his men out of their foxholes."

Mauldin's cartoons made him a hero to the common soldier. They often credited him with helping them to get through the rigors of the war. Mauldin himself served on the front lines, landing at Anzio, and receiving a Purple Heart for being wounded. He attained the rank of sergeant and was awarded the Army's Legion of Merit for his cartoons.

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Sgt. Bill Mauldin (1921-2003) appears to us over here to be the finest cartoonist the war has produced. And that's not merely because his cartoons are funny, but because they are also terribly grim and real.

Mauldin's cartoons aren't about training-camp life, which you at home are best acquainted with. They are about the men in the line - the tiny percentage of our vast army who are actually up there in that other world doing the dying. His cartoons are about the war.

Mauldin's central cartoon character is a soldier, unshaven, unwashed, unsmiling. He looks more like a hobo than like your son. He looks, in fact, exactly like a doughfoot who has been in the lines for two months. And that isn't pretty.

Mauldin belongs to the 45th Division. Their record has been a fine one, and their losses have been heavy. Mauldin's typical grim cartoon soldier is really a 45th Division infantryman, and he is one who has truly been through the mill.

- Ernie Pyle IN ITALY, January 15, 1944

In 1942, Dick Wingert was hired by the London-based team of the American army magazine, Stars and Stripes. Here, he created the character of Hubert, the stereotype of a simple soldier.

Hubert premiered in Stars and Stripes in 1942 as an illustration, combined with dialogue or a phrase. The big-nosed private was a hit with servicemembers and even edged out Up Front in some popularity polls.

In 1945, Hubert was turned into a daily comic, distributed by King Features Syndicate. Wingert gave up the military theme and Hubert became a civilian. Dick Wingert drew the series until 1994 and, throughout the years, he created several other characters for the comic, like Hubert's wife Trudy, his daughter Elli and the dog Freddy.

David Breger (April 15, 1908 - January 16, 1970) was the American cartoonist who created the term and comic strip "G. I. Joe" during World War II. Growing up in Chicago, where he was born, Breger had encounters with the local gangsters while he was working in his father's sausage factory. Breger graduated from Northwestern University where he was honored in 1946 with an Alumni Merit Award for distinguishing himself in his field of endeavor. During the 1930s, Breger began selling his cartoons to several newspapers. By the time he entered the United States Army during World War II he was a nationally recognized cartoonist through his contributions to The Saturday Evening Post.

King Features syndicated Breger's gag panel, Private Breger, but this syndication meant that when he began doing the character for Yank, the Army Weekly, a new name was necessary. He came up with the title G.I. Joe from the military reference Government Issue, and it began June 17, 1942 in Yank. He immediately became one of the most famous and widely read of the WWII cartoonists, and the term "G.I. Joe" was adopted first by soldiers and then the homefront as the popular term for the American foot soldier. Breger also produced GI Jerry, satirical cartoons about Adolf Hitler and others in the Nazi regime.

Private Breger was also seen on post cards. The character remained a private throughout WWII while Breger himself was promoted through the ranks to corporal, sergeant and eventually lieutenant. Returning to civilian life after WWII, Breger became a founding member of the National Cartoonists Society in 1946, and Private Breger was altered to become Mister Breger, a gag panel for King Features. Breger and his wife Dorothy settled in West Nyack, New York where they had three children -- Dee, Lois and Harry,

Milton Arthur Paul Caniff (February 28, 1907-May 3, 1988) was an American cartoonist famous for the Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon comic strips. In 1932, Caniff traveled to New York City and was hired by the Associated Press to produce the adventure fantasy strip Dickie Dare. The strip was an action serial with a young male hero and was the prototype for Caniff's later work.

In 1934, Caniff was hired by the New York Daily News to produce a new strip, Terry and the Pirates, the strip which made Caniff famous. The comic, which featured realistically drawn intrigue and adventure in the far east, was unlike anything else that had been seen in the funnies up until then. Readers watched young Terry grow up amid exotic locales and among colorful characters such as soldier of fortune Pat Ryan, George Washington Confucious ("Connie"), and the mysterious and beautiful Dragon Lady. Like Dickie Dare, Terry began the strip as a boy. But over the years the character aged and by World War II he was old enough to be portrayed as serving in the Army Air Force, where his knowledge of underground activity in Asia brought him on a number of exciting missions. In addition, Caniff created the character of Miss Lace, who appeared in the comic strip.

During the war, Caniff began a second strip, a special version of Terry and the Pirates without Terry and featuring a female star named Burma. Caniff donated all of his work on this strip to the armed forces -- the strip was only available in military newspapers. After complaints from a paying customer, the Miami Herald, the strip was renamed Male Call and premiered in 1942. Male Call was something different altogether — a pinup strip whose main character, the sexy and sublime Miss Lace, constantly reminded its readers what they were fighting for. It featured more adult situations than Terry and the Pirates, including the character of Miss Lace, an attractive woman who was often drawn in sexually suggestive poses. A dark-haired beauty with Bettie Page bangs who dressed as seductively as Caniff could get away with, Miss Lace was every servicemember's pal, and the readers adored her. The artist drew Male Call for free for members of the armed forces during the war. Caniff ended Male Call in 1946.

The year 1946 also saw the end of Caniff's association with Terry and the Pirates. While the strip was a major success, it was owned by the newspaper not Caniff. Caniff decided to start a new strip based on characters which he would own. Caniff produced his last strip of Terry and the Pirates in December 1946 and introduced his new strip Steve Canyon in the Chicago Sun-Times the following month.

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Male Call The first complete collection of the uninhibited adventures of every World War II, GI's dream girl-Miss Lace. Cartoon, comic strip with text and illustrations by Milton Caniff. The basic purpose of the cartoon was to give service people of all branches a comic character that would be exclusively theirs. For this reason the comic was never released to civilian publications and ended in 1946. This new, edition compilation is the second instance of Lace's appearance outside the WWII service papers.

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