Todd DePastino, PhD

Drawing Fire: The Editorial Cartoons of Bill Mauldin

From the publisher

The first career-spanning volume of the work of two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Bill Mauldin, featuring comic art from World War II, Korea, Vietnam and Operation Desert Storm, along with a half-century of graphic commentary on civil rights, free speech, the Cold War, and other issues.

Army sergeant William Henry “Bill” Mauldin shot to fame during World War II with “Willie & Joe” cartoons, which gave readers of Stars & Stripes and hundreds of home-front newspapers a glimpse of the war from the foxholes of Europe.

Lesser known are Mauldin’s second and even third acts as one of America’s premier political cartoonists from the last half of the twentieth century, when he traveled to Korea and Vietnam; Israel and Saudi Arabia; Oxford, Mississippi, and Washington, DC; covering war and peace, civil rights and the Great Society, Nixon and the Middle East. He especially kept close track of American military power, its use and abuse, and the men and women who served in uniform.

Now, for the first time, his entire career is explored in this illustrated single volume, featuring selections from Chicago’s Pritzker Military Museum & Library.

Edited by Mauldin’s biographer Todd DePastino and featuring 150 images, Drawing Fire: The Editorial Cartoons of Bill Mauldin includes illuminating essays exploring all facets of Mauldin’s career by Tom Brokaw, Denise Neil, Cord A. Scott, G. Kurt Piehler, Jean Schulz, and Christina Knopf, with a Preface by Tom Hanks.

Reviews

“This compilation of his cartoons helps bring Mauldin’s talent and his life at the front lines both to historians and a new generation.” – Samuel M. Baker, ARMY Magazine

“Many World War II veterans would surely appreciate seeing these strips again, and anyone who studies that conflict ought to be fascinated by Mauldin’s unglamorous take on the drudgery, fear and absurdity of Army life.” – David Allen, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

“Cartoonist Bill Mauldin was a genius at bringing the experiences of World War II home to the moms and dads, kids, wives or girlfriends of the GIs on the front lines in a very human way. … To my knowledge, none of our wars since has produced a chronicler anywhere near the greatness of Mauldin.” – Wesley G. Hughes, San Bernadino County Sun

WWII has been the subject of many discussions. Here are three more past discussions to watch:

• Catherine Musemeche — Lethal Tides: Mary Sears and the Marine Scientists Who Helped Win World War II

• Damien Lewis — Churchill’s Great Escapes: Seven Incredible Escapes Made by WWII Heroes

• Jamie Holmes — 12 Seconds of Silence: How a Team of Inventors, Tinkerers, and Spies Took Down a Nazi Superweapon

[Broadcast on June 03, 2021 and rebroadcast on April 2, 2026; Recorded earlier]