Willie and Joe
Willie and Joe are stock characters representing US infantry soldiers, drawn by Bill Mauldin from 1940 until 1946, with occasional infrequent drawings until 1998.
History
Mauldin was an 18 year old soldier training with the 45th Infantry Division in 1940. He cartooned part-time for the camp newspaper. Near the end of 1941 the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor occurred and the USA was brought into World War II Mauldin was sent off to combat, influencing his cartoons, which gradually became darker and more realistic in their depiction of the weariness of the enduring miseries of war The bristles on their faces grew and the eyes - "too old for those young bodies", as Mauldin put it - showed how much Willie and Joe suffered. In most cartoons, they were shown in the rain, mud, and other dire conditions, while they contemplated the whole situation.