Memorial Day 2024: The memes of the greatest generation.

One-panel cartoons were the ‘memes’ of the men and women fighting in WWII, they speak volumes for that generation.

There are certain reference books that you like to keep around, one of these is Up Front, by Bill Mauldin, the cover features the image of Willie and Joe, the two main characters in his one-panel cartoons.  They represent the infantrymen of the greatest generation, the rank-and-file foot soldier - the ‘dogfaces’ - that took the brunt of the fighting of the war and came back to raise another that now wants to erase their sacrifices.   The book is a commentary and background for his drawings that showed the humorous, dark, and gritting side of that part of the war.

We call those cartoons the memes of the greatest generation because that is in essence what they are.  Fulfilling the same function in a slightly different form, but well worth a look on this particular occasion.