Bill Mauldin - Willie and Joe The WWII Years

I finally found a copy of this two volume set at a reasonable price. Bill Mauldin is probably my favorite editorial cartoonist. I cut my teeth on his book Up Front and have loved his Willie and Joe characters ever since.

This particular set contains a bit of biographical information, and actual traces his cartoons from his early forays in the field up through the end of WWII. I have turned to his work for diorama ideas as well although most of his cartoons don't translate well since the punchline is what ties everything together.

If you can get your hands on these I highly recommend them. Vol I contains the bio stuff and early cartoons and really shows how Mauldin evolved during the period. Vol II is all WWII work and is probably my favorite, although you can see jokes sometimes returning from the early period into the later WWII period.