"Don't be a dope! Handle equipment right" — 1943 WWII Maintenance Poster by Will Eisner

When the Stukas begin to attack, ain’t the time to make up for a lack of cleaning your gun—which won’t shoot at a Hun with a month’s gummy dust on its back.

Created in 1943 by legendary cartoonist Will Eisner as part of the U.S. Army’s “Joe Dope” series, this poster drove home a simple but life-saving message to troops: maintain your weapons or pay the price. Eisner, already a master of sequential art, used sharp humor and relatable everyman characters to cut through the noise of wartime training materials.

In the scene, Joe Dope and his crew man a .50-caliber machine gun mounted on a half-track, enemy aircraft streaking overhead. One soldier oils the gun while tracer rounds and bullets tear straight through him— a grim, unforgettable punchline to the importance of routine care.

Printed from a high-resolution Library of Congress scan onto archival paper — a faithful reproduction of the public-domain original, made for your wall and not for a vault.

Product features

- Giclée prints with bright, fade-resistant color

- Three paper choices: Fine Art (textured archival), Semi-Glossy (satin photo finish), Matte (lighter, non-reflective)

- Multiple sizes and horizontal/vertical orientations available

- Paper weights range from ~180–285 g/m² depending on option and source

- Shipped rolled for protection; blanks sourced from USA and Japan

Care instructions

- If the print does gather any dust, you may wipe it off gently with a clean, dry cloth.