There's Nothing Funny About a Screaming Memee

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	• Up Front Bill Mauldin W. W. Norton, 2000 - 240 pages average customer review:based on 37 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Mauldin's Cartoons Are Timeless

It's amazing how Mauldin's cartoons, which were written 60 years ago, could have just as easily been written about American soldiers today.

Up Front was given to me by my grandfather on the occasion of my commission in the army. I think he hit the nail on the head with the inscription: "Enjoy the book. You will find it both humorous and instructional. Good fortune when you have to command your own Willie & Joes."

This book will be enjoyed by anyone who has ever spent a few years in the army because they will see some of themselves and their buddies in Willie and Joe.

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A Treasure

I have an orignal edition that I got from Grandafather who, although he wasn't an infantryman, still saw the dirty side of the war in Europe. Growing up with this book allowed to me to see the war with far more clarity than I could have through John Wayne movies. Now that I'm older and studying diplomatic history Mauldin's wonderul cartoons and stories keep the human side of history front and center. I'll always treasure my copy for both the value of its cartoons and the tie it represents to a fading generation.

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Charming look at the ironies of war

Bill Mauldin's best work was done at the front. His cartoons for Star and Stripes were irreverent, topical and right on the money. In "Up Front," he combines a selection of these cartoons with his humane and perceptive textual descriptions. Mauldin clearly loved the infantrymen who fought in WWII. His work was done to give them a morale boost. Heaven knows that after enduring shelling from the enemy and red tape from the rear, they needed to know someone "got it." Mauldin captures the ironies of the battlefield with aplomb. His Willie and Joe characters endure sore feet, exhausting marches, mud-splattering convoys, distrustful MPs and angry locals. They also revel in the little pleasures - a cache of "vino," drinking milk from a cow sharing their sleeping quarters, the ministrations of medical aids and the occasional letter from home. Mauldin explains as well as anyone else how the boys mostly just wanted to win the war and get home. There is little graphic violence n the book, and not much mention of actual fighting. Mauldin looks for the homely moments when the fighting is over and his fatigued, spent subjects have a few moments to consider the little insanities of their situation.

Mauldin's work, done under dangerous conditions, with improvised artistic supplies and with the not infrequent displeasure of "the brass," is always real, heartfelt and compassionate toward those whom he draws. This book is a treasure not only of his art, but of the creaking, groaning, cussing and fighting machine that was the US Army in WWII.

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There's Nothing Funny About a Screaming Memee

This is a nice book about Bill Mauldin's experience in Europe, written in Europe during World War II. He spent some time in the infantry, I gather, but spent a lot more time drawing cartoons, first for a regimental paper and then for "Stars and Stripes." The gritty cartoons showed how Mauldin viewed the war. Rubble was strewn everywhere like it was rubble, uniforms were torn and rumpled and modified. Only the best of his WWII cartoons make the cut in this book. If you just want the cartoons, then pick up Bill Mauldin's Army, which also includes the demobilization process. However, the text in Up Front is what makes this book worth picking up.

Mauldin talks about his experiences, what it was like at Anzio, how much combat medics were appreciated, how people in the rear absconded with gear, and so on. These stories are all very similar to stories from the Pacific theater, except Mauldin also describes how the experiences affected his cartoons. I'm not sure why it isn't as bloody as the Marine memoirs With the Old Breed and Goodbye, Darkness, whether it's military censors or temporal proximity or the European theater, but you never get the feel of the meat grinder that makes the others so inspiring.

I'll end by paraphrasing what I found to be the funniest line in the book:

I never drew a cartoon about a screaming memee.

There's nothing funny about a screaming memee.

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Review for Up front

What Bill maudlin said about the attitudes of combat soldiers in WWll still resonates today with todays generation fighting for us today during the global war on terrror.

reviews: 1, 2, page 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

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