Bill Ward Original Art

Cartoonist Bill Ward is known for his risqué comic-strip illustrations of pinups and “good girls” that catered to the imaginations of heterosexual male audiences during the so-called golden age of American comics of the 1930s–50s. Ward attended Pratt Institute and soon after began working for the influential comic book publishing house Quality Comics. While serving in the army during World War II, Ward was commissioned to create a comic strip for the base newspaper to boost morale. The statuesque blond he created later evolved into Torchy, an icon of the Good Girl Art genre and one of the few overtly sexy characters in mainstream comics. Ward’s later Conté crayon drawings appeared in men’s magazines such as Juggs and Leg Show from the 1950s to the ’70s.