Cracked Takes a Seat at Custer's Last Stand

Bill Ward was an acclaimed "good girl" comics artist and cartoonist. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he grew up in Ridgewood, New Jersey. After his education at the Pratt Institute, he got a job with an ad agency in 1941. He ventured into the field of comic books as one of Jack Binder's assistants, working on such features as 'Captain Marvel' and 'Bullet Man' for Fawcett Publications. He eventually joined Quality Comics, where he took over 'Blackhawk' from Reed Crandall. He then created numerous romance strips, the most famous of which was 'Torchy'. The character started in a back-up feature in Doll Man and Modern Comics from 1946, and had her own title in the 1949-1950 period. After Dr. Wetham's 'Seduction of the Innocent', Ward moved from comics to his best known works, his countless pin-up cartoons (some of which also starred 'Torchy'). His best work appeared from 1957 to 1963 in the Humorama line of digest magazines, but he was also a regular in Cracked magazine. Occasional comic stories included 'The Adventures of Pussycat' in the men's magazines of Martin Goodman, and contributions to the 1980s underground comic Weird Smut Comics. Throughout the years, Ward's work became more and more erotic and even pornographic, like his illustrated stories for the men's magazines Leg Show and Juggs, and his illustrations for the porn books published by William Hamling. Text (c) L