Drawing Fire: The Editorial Cartoons of Bill Mauldin

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.

Todd DePastino is author of the award-winning Bill Mauldin: A Life Up Front and several other books. He has a Ph.D. in History from Yale University and currently serves as executive director of the Veterans Breakfast Club, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to sharing veterans’ stories with the public.

Tom Hanks has received two Academy Awards for Best Actor. Other accolades include the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence in Film, the Kennedy Center Honors, the 2016 Presidential Medal of Honor, and the French Legion of Honor for his support of World War II veterans. His lead role in Saving Private Ryan and his work writing, directing, and producing the miniseries Band of Brothers were inspired by and deepened his appreciation of military service. He’s proud to be an honorary member of the United States Army Rangers Hall of Fame.