![]() ![]() Along the way, he invented Willie and Joe. As a roving full-time soldier-cartoonist, he bumped across the bloodiest sectors of Italy, France and Germany, producing six cartoons a week for the G.I. In March 1944, the Fifth Army gave Sergeant Mauldin his own personal jeep, which he outfitted as a traveling studio, complete with electric light and drawing board. ![]() Mauldin listened to his fellow dogfaces in their foxholes and sketched quickly, sometimes rendering finished work on the back of whatever scrap he could find in the rubble. On July 10, 1943, he stumbled ashore, pistol drawn, in the Allied invasion of Sicily and went on to fight in the Italian campaign while turning the raw material of the front into captioned panel cartoons, often at the expense of superiors in the rear. Then came Bill Mauldin, an impish rifleman from the 180th Infantry Regiment, who volunteered as a cartoonist for The 45th Division News. Until surprisingly late in World War II, Army cartooning consisted of gags about mean old drill sergeants and raw recruits on K.P. ![]()
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