Here I've posted some scans of WWII cartoons by famed combat artist Bill Mauldin, out of my original copy of Up Front! (These were originally published in Stars & Stripes,the GI-published unofficial newspaper of WWII, and then reissued with commentary in a single volume.)

The first time I saw his work, I thought it was blasphemy. It was the polar opposite of John Wayne, or Victory at Sea, or any other popular rendering of The Good War over the past 60 years of media. And it was, unfortunately, real. No denying that Willie, Joe, and their creator Sgt. Mauldin, were thereand in the know -- thus raising doubts about the veracity of the WWII mythos.

Now? I'd make anyone thinking of enlisting read it through, until they got every single one of the punchlines. Not one of them wouldn't have made sense to Civil War soldiers, nor to Alexander's men, if you substitute elephants for tanks...

Go and buy Up Front! as soon as you can afford it. Read it and learn it by heart. When you understand all the jokes, you will have a far better inside understanding of WWII, the military, and war as waged by standing armies, than you will get from any documentary or textbook.

(It will also help you get through school, or any other situation where you're stuck at the mercy of people out-of-touch in a world gone critically out-of-control. This is either a bonus, or a primary reason for acquiring Up Front!)

Mauldin also happens to be a great artist, and master of the understated line. You might perhaps remember his name from classic Peanuts: on Armistice Day, the Sopwith Camel Pilot would go hoist a few commemorative lemonades with Bill. 'Sparky' was also a WWII veteran, though this fact is not always recalled.

And if you think these few samples are a travesty of WWII, just wait'll you see Willie and Joe throwing tomatoes at General Patton's victory parade . . .