I helped out a miniscule amount on the collection of cartoons, and ComicsDC contributor Warren Bernard helped out more so we'll call this ComicsDC news - Todd DePastino Wins 2009 Sperber Prize for his Biography of World War II Cartoonist Bill Mauldin, Pittsburgh, PA (PRWEB) November 27, 2009. Both books are well worth reading.

In a few minutes (local time), we'll hit 11/11/11 or, the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month when World War 1 ended. This was known as Armistice Day until a second world war led to the change to Veteran's Day in the US. Following the lead of Charles Schulz, who often mentioned Bill Mauldin in Peanuts, we present a sketch the great soldier cartoonist did in a copy of his book The Brass Ring, many years after his World War 2 service.

My buddy Masteribid sends in this link where Jeff Danziger updates a classic Bill Mauldin cartoon. I've seen Danziger speak a couple of times in DC - he's usually fairly quiet, but he does make some strong points when he speaks up. I really like his style as well.

Doug reads comics too, and here's his review of the direct-to-video cartoon Superman: Doomsday.

Longtime readers may recall that last summer I was trying to help out Todd DePastino and Gary Groth with scanning images for Fantagraphics' reprint project on Mauldin's Willie & Joe: The WWII Years. In the end I didn't accomplish much, although I did find a picture of a meeting between Mauldin and Sad Sack's Baker that Todd had missed. Fantagraphics kindly gave me an acknowledgement (another 15 seconds of fame!) and sent me a comp copy of the book - which is just lovely. Raise a glass to Gary and Kim Thompson and Eric Reynolds and the rest of the Fantagraphics crew - the books they're doing with Peanuts money are astounding. And Todd's work on this and the biography of Mauldin that came out earlier is fantastic as well.

For a good review of the book, see "'Willie & Joe': Bill Mauldin's Wartime Classic: Ken Tucker cracks open this newly released two-volume compilation of landmark cartoons about WWII grunts," EW.com May 13 2008.