Bill Ward (1) (1919–1998)

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 show more 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. show less

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.