MovieChat Forums > White Christmas (1954) Discussion > Who drew those 'Army Life' cartoons...

Who drew those 'Army Life' cartoons...

posted 11 years ago by FeloniousMunk
1 reply | jump to latest

...that appear on the backdrop/curtain during the "Gee, But I Wish I Was Back In The Army" number? I have watched this movie countless times, but it wasn't until the last couple of viewings that I started wondering: "Where have I seen cartoons about soldiers like that before?"

Maybe because I got some books on WWII-era cartooning as gifts...one was about the work of Bill Mauldin ("Willie and Joe")...the other was about the wartime comic strips by Roy Crane ("Buz Sawyer")...and I started to wonder.

Were those images just something done in generic WWII-era style by an anonymous studio artist at Paramount? Or were they professionally done by a well-known graphic artist or cartoonist?

I stopped the film and looked more closely...they resemble something out of Fifties comic books..."Beetle Bailey" (by Mort Walker) and "The Sad Sack" (by George Baker) come to mind.

Anyone else notice those drawings...and wonder who drew them? They are very well-done cartooning. They even show a soldier reading a comic book. Inside joke, maybe?

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[–] jackboot 11 years ago

I have always loved taking a moment to marvel at the cartoons of Army life drawn on the curtain in that number. I wish I knew who had done them, but I don't. The first thing I thought of was Bill Mauldin's work. But it doesn't really look like his work. I'm sure there must have been a lot of guys who drew cartoons during the war. One I know of was a local artist whom had served during the war in the Pacific Theatre and did the cartoons for a local (to where his unit was) paper. He created a cartoon pin-up he named "Rice Blossom." I have some of his original sketches of his cartoon work. His name was Robert Stark. His signature was a drawn five-point star with a K in the middle.