11. A Spit-and-Polish General’s Take on Slovenly Cartoon Characters
While working for Stars and Stripes, Bill Mauldin created his most famous cartoon characters, Willie and Joe, two frontline GIs. They frequently found themselves caught between the horrors of war, and the sometimes ridiculous expectations and directives and pressure Army higher ups. The irrepressible duo thus struggled from one cartoon to the next, in order to triumph over both the Wehrmacht and their own rear echelon officers. Something about the bedraggled duo did not sit well with the spit-and-polish General Patton. To say that he disliked Mauldin and his cartoon creations would be an understatement. Willie and Joe’s slovenly appearance was the opposite of the ramrod straight and soldierly image fetishized by Patton. On top of that, the duo often pointedly jabbed at the fatuousness of the military hierarchy.
