His division, the 45th Infantry Division, was federalized just two days later. Shortly after returning to Phoenix in 1940, Mauldin enlisted in the Arizona National Guard. later became a journalist and a bureau head for Life magazine. While in Chicago, Mauldin met Will Lang Jr. Bill did not graduate with his class (he was later granted a diploma in 1945) and in 1939 he took courses at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts where he studied political cartooning with Vaughn Shoemaker.

It was there that he began his career in editorial journalism-writing for PUHS's Coyote Journal.

After his parents' divorce, Bill and his older brother Sidney moved to Phoenix, Arizona in 1937 and attended Phoenix Union High School. Bill's grandfather by way of his father's adoption, for whom Bill was named, had been a civilian scout in the Apache Wars. His father, Sidney Albert Mauldin (né Bissell, but adopted after being orphaned) served as an artilleryman in World War I. Mauldin was born in Mountain Park, New Mexico, into a family with a tradition of military service. However, his second Pulitzer Prize was for a cartoon published in 1958, and possibly his best-known cartoon was after the Kennedy assassination.

His cartoons were popular with soldiers throughout Europe, and with civilians in the United States as well. He was most famous for his World War II cartoons depicting American soldiers, as represented by the archetypal characters Willie and Joe, two weary and bedraggled infantry troopers who stoically endure the difficulties and dangers of duty in the field. William Henry Mauldin ( / ˈ m ɔː l d ən/ Octo– January 22, 2003) was an American editorial cartoonist who won two Pulitzer Prizes for his work.

Up Front by Bill Mauldin