Bill Mauldin was born in Mountain Park, New Mexico, in 1921, andstarted drawing young. He took a few courses at the Chicago Academy ofFine Arts and, in 1940 entered the Army and was assigned as anillustrator for the military's newspaper, The Stars & Stripes. Hecreated two characters for which he will always be remembered: a pairof plain, tired but determined infantrymen named Willie and Joe. Thetwo clicked with the average GI almost immediately, one of the reasonsbeing that the brass hated them. Gen.George S. Patton despised them andtried to have the panel removed (and Mauldin court-martialed), but theybecame so incredibly popular among GIs that Time magazine actuallyfeatured them on its cover, and eventually Patton relented.

After the war Mauldin did a panel for United Features Syndicatefeaturing Willie's and Joe's trials at home, dealing with social issuesand attacking the Red Scare hysteria and the paranoia of the McCarthyera. In 1949 Mauldin was hired by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, wrotebooks and even appeared in two motion pictures:Teresa (1951) andThe Red Badge of Courage (1951)(starring another World War II icon,Audie Murphy. In 1962 Mauldin washired by the Chicago Sun-Times, where he stayed until he retired in1991. Mauldin's work was for ordinary people who read the papers,trying to show reality spiced with humor. He was a supporter of civilrights and the environment, and took a strong stand against the war inVietnam. When he won his first Pulitzer prize, Mauldin was the youngestman (at age 24) to ever win it. He won the Pulitzer again, and washonored with degrees from Connecticut Wesleyan University, WashingtonUniversity (St. Louis), and Albion College.

Mauldin married Norma Jean Humphries in 1942. They had two sons, Bruce Patrick and Timothy. After a divorce in 1946, Mauldin married Natalie Sarah Evans in 1947. They had four sons, Andrew, David, John and Nathaniel. Mauldin died in Newport Beach, California in 2003.