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Pin-Up Art of Bill Ward
The Pin-Up Art of Bill Ward continues Fantagraphics' dedication to showcasing the best of the classic pin-up artists. Culling through thousands of images, editor Alex Chun has selected the best of Ward's Conte crayon pin-ups, including many of his infamous telephone girls, many of which have not seen print in almost half a century.
When Ward passed away in 1998, he left behind a body of work that spanned six decades and by all accounts, more than 10,000 pin-up cartoon illustrations. Though he is best known for creating comics' Golden Age blonde bombshell Torchy in the 1940s, Ward's strongest work was produced in the late 1950s and early 1960s for the Humorama line of digest magazines.
In those countless cheap and long forgotten men's humor magazines, Ward's voluptuous "girly" drawings shared the pages with photos of Bettie Page and Mamie Van Doren, and pin-up cartoons by the likes of Archie's Dan DeCarlo and Playboy magazine's Jack Cole.
Thumbing through those digests, it quickly becomes evident that Ward was Humorama's dominant pin-up cartoon artist. His mastery of the Conte crayon allowed him to produce unparalleled textures, including the wonderful sheen on satiny curve-hugging dresses and on black thigh-high stockings that became Ward trademarks.
Ward's other trademark, of course, was his penchant for drawing extremely well endowed women accentuated by tiny waists, and whether playing the role of office secretaries, arm candy at cocktail parties or vamping it up in a boudoir, his women played to multiple fetishes adorned in opera-length gloves, lacy lingerie, and five-inch stiletto heals. Sometimes bawdy, but never tawdry, Ward's top-heavy Humorama women always managed to maintain their allure, innocence and glamour that made Torchy so popular.
The Pin-Up Art of Bill Ward is presented in the same attractive sotfcover format as The Pin-Up Art of Dan DeCarlo and The Pin-Up Art of Bill Wenzel.
When Ward passed away in 1998, he left behind a body of work that spanned six decades and by all accounts, more than 10,000 pin-up cartoon illustrations. Though he is best known for creating comics' Golden Age blonde bombshell Torchy in the 1940s, Ward's strongest work was produced in the late 1950s and early 1960s for the Humorama line of digest magazines.
In those countless cheap and long forgotten men's humor magazines, Ward's voluptuous "girly" drawings shared the pages with photos of Bettie Page and Mamie Van Doren, and pin-up cartoons by the likes of Archie's Dan DeCarlo and Playboy magazine's Jack Cole.
Thumbing through those digests, it quickly becomes evident that Ward was Humorama's dominant pin-up cartoon artist. His mastery of the Conte crayon allowed him to produce unparalleled textures, including the wonderful sheen on satiny curve-hugging dresses and on black thigh-high stockings that became Ward trademarks.
Ward's other trademark, of course, was his penchant for drawing extremely well endowed women accentuated by tiny waists, and whether playing the role of office secretaries, arm candy at cocktail parties or vamping it up in a boudoir, his women played to multiple fetishes adorned in opera-length gloves, lacy lingerie, and five-inch stiletto heals. Sometimes bawdy, but never tawdry, Ward's top-heavy Humorama women always managed to maintain their allure, innocence and glamour that made Torchy so popular.
The Pin-Up Art of Bill Ward is presented in the same attractive sotfcover format as The Pin-Up Art of Dan DeCarlo and The Pin-Up Art of Bill Wenzel.
- GenresArt
256 pages, Paperback
First published February 26, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 19, 2018
If you think about it Playboy is really just The Horny New Yorker.
September 1, 2019
Bill Ward is a famous pin-up artist who drew the kinds of comics you might find in Playboy or its forgotten men’s magazine predecessors. The most interesting thing I learned from this collection is that he drew with a conté crayon and his originals were huge as a result.
He definitely had a knack for drawing glossy black leggings on absurdly exaggerated statuesque women. Less successful were the gag captions, which I only rarely found funny, probably because they’re from a different era but also because the jokes were clearly not the point.
This volume also makes it clear that Ward had a few go-to poses and settings, and most of his comics were variations on a handful of themes. His work probably stands up slightly better in an uncollected form, which essentially means that this collection only diminishes it.
He definitely had a knack for drawing glossy black leggings on absurdly exaggerated statuesque women. Less successful were the gag captions, which I only rarely found funny, probably because they’re from a different era but also because the jokes were clearly not the point.
This volume also makes it clear that Ward had a few go-to poses and settings, and most of his comics were variations on a handful of themes. His work probably stands up slightly better in an uncollected form, which essentially means that this collection only diminishes it.
October 1, 2013
I'm glad this book exists because Ward worked hard in cartooning for a long time, although I do find it overly-art directed (sorry Mr. Covey). However, I just can't really bring myself to LIKE Ward's style. Some of the captions (most?) were obviously just hacked out and barely relate to the drawing.
Also, I read it the day I got it in the mail from Fantagraphics and the cover separated from the text block.
Also, I read it the day I got it in the mail from Fantagraphics and the cover separated from the text block.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews