Bill Mauldin William Henry " Bill " Mauldin ( October 29 , 1921 – January 22 , 2003 ) was a two - time Pulitzer Prize - winning editorial cartoon ist from the United States . He was most famous for his World War II cartoons depicting American soldiers , as represented by the archetypal characters " " Willie and Joe " " , two weary and bedraggled infantry troopers who stoically endure the difficulties and dangers of duty in the field . These cartoons were broadly published and distributed in the American army abroad and in the United States . Childhood and youth . 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 artillery man in World War I . After growing up there and in Phoenix , Arizona , Mauldin took courses at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts under the tutoring of Ruth VanSickle Ford . While in Chicago , Mauldin met Will Lang Jr . and became fast friends with him . Mauldin entered the US Army via the Arizona National Guard in 1940 . World War II cartoonist . While in the 45th Infantry Division , Mauldin volunteered to work for the unit ' s newspaper , drawing cartoons about regular soldiers or " dogfaces " . Eventually he created two cartoon infantrymen , Willie ( who was modeled after his comrade and friend Irving Richtel ) and Joe , who became synonymous with the average American GI . During July 1943 , Mauldin ' s cartoon work continued when , as a sergeant of the 45th Division ' s press corps , he landed with the division in the invasion of Sicily and later in the Italian campaign . Mauldin began working for " Stars and Stripes " , the American soldiers ' newspaper ; as well as the 45th Division News , until he was officially transferred to the " Stars and Stripes " in February 1944 . By March 1944 , he was given his own jeep , in which he roamed the front , collecting material and producing six cartoons a week . His cartoons were viewed by soldiers throughout Europe during World War II , and were also published in the United States . The War Office supported their syndication , not only because they helped publicize the ground forces but also to show the grim and bitter side of war , which helped show that victory would not be easy . Willie was on the cover of " Time Magazine " in the June 18 , 1945 issue , and Mauldin himself made the cover in the July 21 , 1961 issue . While in Europe , Mauldin befriended a fellow soldier - cartoonist , Gregor Duncan , and was assigned to escort him for a time . ( Duncan was killed in Anzio in May 1944 . ) Those officers who had served in the army before the war were generally offended by Mauldin , who parodied the spit - shine and obedience - to - order - without - question view that was more easily maintained during that time of peace . 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 at all times , even in combat . But Dwight Eisenhower , Supreme Commander European Theater , 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 . GIs often credited him with helping them to get through the rigors of the war . His credibility with the common soldier increased in September 1943 , when he was wounded in the shoulder by a German mortar while visiting a machine gun crew near Monte Cassino . By the end of the war he also received the Army ' s Legion of Merit for his cartoons . ( Mauldin wanted to have Willie and Joe be killed on the last day of combat , but " Stars and Stripes " dissuaded him . ) Postwar activities . In 1945 , at the age of 23 , Mauldin won the Pulitzer Prize . The first civilian publication of his work , " Up Front " , was a best - seller . The cartoons are interwoven with an impassioned telling of his observations of war . After World War II , Mauldin turned to drawing political cartoons expressing a generally civil libertarian view associated with groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union . These were not well received by newspaper editors , who were hoping for more apolitical Willie and Joe cartoons . But Mauldin ' s attempt to carry Willie and Joe into civilian life was also unsuccessful , as documented in his memoirs , " Back Home " , in 1947 . In 1959 , he won the Pulitzer Prize again for a cartoon depicting " Doctor Zhivago " author Boris Pasternak in a Soviet Gulag prison camp with the caption " I won the Nobel Prize for literature . What was your crime ? " He abandoned cartooning for a while , working as a film actor , freelance writer , and illustrator of articles and books , including one on the Korean War . He drew Willie and Joe only a few times afterwards : for the funerals of Omar Bradley and George C . Marshall , both of them considered " soldiers ' generals " ; for a " Life Magazine " article on the " New Army " ; and to memorialize fellow cartoonist Milton Caniff . Congressional candidate . In 1956 , he ran unsuccessfully for the United States Congress as a Democrat in New York ' s 28th Congressional District . Mauldin had this to say about his run for Congress : " I jumped in with both feet and campaigned for seven or eight months . I found myself stumping around up in these rural districts and my own background did hurt there . A farmer knows a farmer when he sees one . So when I was talking about their problems I was a very sincere candidate , but when they would ask me questions that had to do with foreign policy or national policy , obviously I was pretty far to the left of the mainstream up there . Again , I ' m an old Truman Democrat , I ' m not that far left , but by their lives I was pretty far left . " Return to cartooning . In 1958 , he returned to cartooning on the editorial pages of the " St . Louis Post - Dispatch " . The following year , he won a second Pulitzer Prize and the National Cartoonist Society Award for Editorial Cartooning . In 1961 he received their Reuben Award as well . In 1962 he moved to the " Chicago Sun - Times " . One of his most famous post - war cartoons appeared in Chicago in 1963 , following the assassination of President John F . Kennedy . The cartoon shows the statue of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial , his head in his hands . In 1969 , Mauldin was commissioned by the National Safety Council to illustrate the booklet on traffic safety , which the council published every year . These pamphlets were regularly issued without copyright , but for this issue it was pointed out that Mauldin ' s cartoons " were " under copyright even though the rest of the pamphlet was not . Mauldin remained with the " Sun - Times " until his retirement in 1991 . He was inducted into the St . Louis Walk of Fame on May 19 , 1991 . On September 19 , 2001 , Sergeant Major of the Army Jack L . Tilley presented Mauldin with a personal letter from Army Chief of Staff General Eric K . Shinseki , a hardbound book with notes from other senior Army leaders and several celebrities to include Walter Cronkite , Tom Brokaw and Tom Hanks . He also promoted Mauldin to the honorary rank of first sergeant . In 1998 , Mauldin drew " Willie and Joe " for publication one last time , as part of a Veterans Day strip for the popular comic , Peanuts . The creator of Peanuts and a World War II veteran himself , Charles M . Schulz , had long described Mauldin as his hero . He signed the strip " Schulz , and my Hero , " and then had Mauldin sign his name underneath . Mauldin died on January 22 , 2003 , from complications of Alzheimer ' s disease and a bathtub scalding . He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery on January 29 , 2003 . Married three times , he was survived by seven children . ( His daughter Kaja had died of Non - Hodgkins Lymphoma in 2001 . ) On March 31 , 2010 , the United States Post Office released a first - class denomination ( $ 0 . 44 ) postage stamp in Mauldin ' s honor depicting him with Willie & Joe . In 2005 , Mauldin was inducted into the Oklahoma Cartoonists Hall of Fame in Pauls Valley , Oklahoma by Michael Vance . The Oklahoma Cartoonists Collection , created by Vance , is located in the Toy and Action Figure Museum . Bibliography . In April 2008 , Fantagraphics Books released a two - volume set of Mauldin ' s complete wartime Willie and Joe cartoons , edited by Todd DePastino , titled " Willie & Joe : The WWII Years " ( ISBN 978 - 1 - 56097 - 838 - 1 ) . " Peanuts " . From 1969 to 1998 , cartoonist Charles M . Schulz ( himself a veteran of World War II ) regularly paid tribute to Bill Mauldin in his " Peanuts " comic strip on Veterans Day . In the strips , Snoopy , dressed as an army vet , would annually go to Mauldin ' s house to " quaff a few root beer s and tell war stories . " By the end of the strip Schulz had depicted 17 of Snoopy ' s visits . Schulz also paid tribute to Rosie the Riveter in 1976 , and Ernie Pyle in 1997 and 1999 . Filmography . The films " Up Front " ( 1951 ) and " Back at the Front " ( 1952 ) were based on Mauldin ' s Willie and Joe characters ; however , when Mauldin ' s suggestions were ignored in favor of making a slapstick comedy , he returned his advising fee ; he said he had never seen the result . Mauldin also appeared as an actor in the 1951 films " The Red Badge of Courage " and " Teresa " , and as himself in the 1998 documentary " America in the ' 40s " . He also appeared in on - screen interviews in the Thames documentary " The World at War " . Footnotes . ^ Rob Stolzer , Gregor Duncan : Pictures of Life , 2010 External links . Most of these links also include examples of Mauldin ' s cartoons :