Bill Ward@100

#BillWard100

Today March 6 2019 is 100th birth anniversary of Bill Ward (William Hess Ward) 6/3/1919- 17/11/1998

“....Like many artists of the time, Ward moved between several companies, and around 1946 worked for “Busy” Arnold, Quality’s publisher, who also hired Cole. When Arnold asked Ward if he had any ideas for a new story for his Modern Comics anthology, Ward suggested Torchy—the strip about the dizzy blonde he’d created while in the Army. Torchy was a stripping morale booster for troops, in much in the same way as its U.K. counterpart, Jane. The strip became a huge success and got its own title, while Ward’s particular skill at drawing women got him moved over to Quality’s massively popular romance comics...

... Ward’s women were caricatures from the start; with enormous breasts and miniscule waists, they seemed to totter about effortlessly on 12” heels in skintight cocktail dresses. “Like a lot of folks I’ve spoken to over the years, I’ve had conflicting feelings about the man’s art. Certainly, he produced lusciously gorgeous depictions of the female form, but frankly, a lot of what I’ve seen from Ward slipped over the line from sexy to crass, particularly much of his later work, where his ladies were often festooned with a grotesquely gargantuan bosom,” said an uncharitable fellow cartoonist, Fred Hembeck....

... Ward produced an incredible 30 cartoons a month for Goodman and was paid a mere $7 for each one. It’s estimated that Ward drew or painted over 10,000 pin-up cartoons during his life, more than any other artist before or since. His influence is still felt today and he is regarded very much as an artist’s artist...”

(‘Erotic Comics: A Graphic History: Volume 1’ by Tim Pilcher, 2008)

महाराष्ट्रातील कित्येक माजी-आजी कलावंतांवर बिल वॉर्ड यांचा प्रभाव असल्याच जाणवत...

Artist: Bill Ward