Coolest thing you’ll see today
if you’re an old fart like me
The Post office prints Bill Mauldin stamps.
When I was a kid, I used to play with my uncles old army gear. He had uniforms and packs piled in boxes in his garage, and his kids and i would dress up and run around the yard yelling at the neighbors, who happened to be korean, but were Japanese looking enough for us, and always got to be the “Nips”
Evenings, though, we’d sit in the shed and paw through the copies of ‘Stars and Stripes” and read the cartoons, mostly. None of the rest of the shit meant anything to us. So by the time I was ten, I knew who Bill Mauldin was, and when he died in 03, a little bit of me died with him.
Now, philately gets me nowhere- but when I get a piece of mail that had a Bill Mauldin stamp on it, I had to see if they still did, and they do! So yes, you can bet your ass I’ll be buying some, and sending out mail with them.
When I was little I read and reread my parent’s copy of “Up Front”. Several years ago I found a copy for myself in a Goodwill store as well as a copy of “The Brass Ring”. I can’t believe people let those books go.
He was an excellent cartoonist.
Had to be around 13 or so when I frist came across Bill Mauldin’s work. Like Steve I also got a copy of both Mauldin’s books, quickly reading same from cover to cover. Though others wrote grander epics of the war (Uris’s “Battle Cry for example … and well worth the read) Mauldin’s cartoons and Ernie Pyle’s correspondence will be what best captures the spirit of the American fighting man, durring WWII.
I remember his stuff from when I was a kid during the fifties and early sixties.
I’ve loved him since finding his books at the Navy base library, where many a hot summer day was spent as a child.
And I used to be totally into philately.