WWII Cartoon Sketchbook & Postwar Career - Master Sergeant Ralph Duzan Pollard (1911–1992)_Page 5

Top cartoon (Mine detector)
Dialogue (verbatim):

Soldier 1: “WHY AIN’T NOBODY MINE DETECTIN’ ?”

Soldier 2: “DON’T WORRY, IF THERE’S A MINE WITHIN 100 YDS. IT WILL GO OFF WHEN THE OLD SARGE MAKES A MOVE.”

Reading notes:
Gallows humor under fire: the squad cracks that their sergeant is a “human mine detector,” a joke about risk, weight, and rank that soldiers would tell only among themselves. Pollard uses the marching column, rain lines, and slumped posture to sell the fatigue of patrol life while the punchline undercuts the dread of unseen mines.

Bottom cartoon (Postcards, m’suh?)
Dialogue (verbatim):

Vendor popping from trench: “POSTCARDS, M’SUH ?”

Reading notes:
Absurdity meets combat: a hawker materializes in a shell-swept trench, offering souvenirs at the worst possible moment. Pollard is lampooning the friction between commerce and combat—and the way soldiers still craved tokens to send home—even as incoming rounds and muddy parapets make the scene ridiculous.

Note: For Pollard’s service timeline and his postwar P&G/Art Directors Club career, please see the Books Gallery bio reference.