A tale of 2 cities, 2 papers and 2 cartoonists

It’s that six degrees of separation thing, I guess. That

connection that we all have to everything, everywhere.

That’s how I felt after reading the story about cartoon legend

Bill Mauldin, who I learned is sitting in a Newport Beach nursing

home suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and being visited constantly

by fellow World War II vets who credit Mauldin’s drawings with

helping them get through the war.

You see, the Daily Pilot has a connection to Mauldin, who became

famous for his Willie and Joe GI cartoons that appeared in Stars and

Stripes in World War II. And I bet most of our readers probably don’t

even know it.

Former Daily Pilot cartoonist John Sherffius is now employed at

the St. Louis Post Dispatch, sitting in the very office that Bill

Mauldin once occupied, where Mauldin presumably drew the cartoon that

won him his second Pulitzer Prize in 1959.

“People do remember him,” Sherffius said of Mauldin. Sherffius

said he gets calls from people all the time asking if they can get

permission to rerun some of his work and asking where the cartoonist

is now.

He said he has a copy of a Willie and Joe cartoon in his St. Louis

office and a book of Mauldin’s work.

“GIs especially loved that book because it told the war the way it

was,” he said.

I should probably note that Sherffius and I began our careers here

at the Daily Pilot right about the same time in 1990. He and I struck

up a friendship that continues to this day.

Sherffius got the job at the Pilot after he made a name for

himself drawing illustrations for the Los Angeles Times Orange County

Edition. He hooked up with former editor Bill Lobdell to discuss

drawing political cartoons and was soon hired as a graphic

illustrator and cartoonist.

It was the first big break for a guy who I’m positive will be

taking home a Pulitzer Prize himself one day, and whom I love to

tease as the only person I know who draws doodles for a living.

In the beginning, Sherffius, like many cartoonists at small

newspapers, had to do more than just draw cartoons. He was the

Pilot’s art director back then. It was Sherffius who drew all the

helmets for all the local high schools that ran on the Sports pages.

“I remember spending hours and hours getting those right,” he

said.

Sports Editor Roger Carlson still uses Sherffius’ illustration for

his annual Chalk Talk feature during gridiron times.

So back to the Mauldin connection: When I read a story about

Mauldin and his ailing health in our sister paper the Los Angeles

Times last September, I made a note to call Sherffius and catch up.

Many Pilot readers probably remember Sherffius, some fondly, and

some not so. I guess that’s just the way it is for cartoonists --

they strike an indelible image.

Sherffius recalls how he stirred up the Pilot readers with a

cartoon he drew for the opening of the Nixon Library that depicted

former presidents Richard Nixon, George Bush and Gerald Ford looking

respectable while Ronald Reagan was drawing in a coloring book.

Yes, those images are hard to shake. I remember sitting down with

one angry city leader many moons ago. He was complaining about news

coverage and then out of the blue mentioned a cartoon Sherffius had

drawn about him.

Funny thing was, Sherffius had left the paper probably three years

before that.

Sherffius stayed at Pilot only about two years. He went on to draw

cartoons for the Ventura Star-Press and now the St. Louis Post

Dispatch.

The way he got his current job is interesting enough, also.

The Post-Dispatch, which employed Mauldin and legendary

turn-of-the-century cartoonist Daniel Fitzpatrick, was searching for

a replacement to Tom Englehart, the cartoonist who had replaced

Mauldin.

Sherffius answered an ad for the job in the trade magazine Editor

and Publisher just one day before the deadline. He got an interview

and was judged by a panel of four Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonists:

Jim Borgman of the Cincinnati Inquirer, Mike Peters of the Dayton

Daily News, Signe Wilkinson of the Philadelphia Daily News Pulitzer

cartoonist and Pulitzer winner Doug Marlette, who draws for the

Tallahassee Democrat and Tribune Media Services syndicate.

Sherffius got the job out of a nationwide field of candidates. He

is now up to his old tricks, stirring up the readers in St. Louis,

where he lives with his wife, Los Angeles Times staff writer

Stephanie Simon, and their two children, Hannah and Avery. Last year,

he was honored with the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award.

“It’s the most fun job in the world,” he said. “It’s not easy

sometimes. Sometimes, it’s kind of stressful when people are upset

with you, which happens often. Half support you on any given day, and

half are against you. You just know you struck a nerve, and that

comes with the territory, and you just don’t let it bother you too

much.”

His cartoons don’t always leave readers with teeth gnashing.

“The day after 9/11, I did a cartoon of the statue of liberty with

head in hand,” he said. “I knew this image would probably be

repeated. It turns out that many cartoonists across the country did a

similar theme.”

As he drew more and more work about the Sept. 11 terrorist

attacks, something strange happened.

“Readers really responded to that,” he said. “After 9/11, I

received so many calls and letters from people who normally despise

my work. But after 9/11, they felt my cartoons helped them deal with

the crisis.”

Which brings us back to Bill Mauldin once again.

Thousands of cards and letters have poured into Mauldin’s room at

the Newport Beach nursing home since his arrival, administrator Diana

Schilling said. What many of them want is to tell Mauldin how much

his drawings of Willie and Joe helped them deal with the war.

“Ninety-nine percent of the visitors are veterans of World War

II,” she said. “It’s been tremendously emotional to all of us. It’s

been an unbelievable experience.

“I don’t think he will ever know the impact he had on people’s

lives,” she continued. “They all say, ‘he got us through the war.’

The emotion and sentiment is so thick that it’s almost palpable. It’s

been an honor for us to take care of this man and see this happen.”

It makes me proud to know that my former colleague Sherffius is in

some way carrying on that Mauldin tradition, that while his cartoons

can evoke anger and passion, they can also bring some peace and

comfort.

And some day, when Sherffius is picking up that Pulitzer Prize of

his own, Daily Pilot readers and I are going to be able to say, “We

knew him way back when.”

* TONY DODERO is the editor. His column appears on Mondays. If

you have story ideas or concerns about news coverage, please send

messages either via e-mail to [email protected] or by phone at

(949) 574-4258.