Pin-Up Art of Bill Ward Paperback – January 30, 2007

My review is for the Kindle Fire edition. If you are a fan of 40s and 50s "good girl" art you are probably already aware of Bill Ward. Was he the greatest pin up artist? No. Was he one of the most memorable and did he have a style that was uniquely his own? Yes and yes. Guys of a certain vintage, like myself, first encountered Ward's artwork in our dad's stack of "naughty" magazines or his later work in "Cracked." What you find behind the digital cover is a lot of very sexy drawings and A LOT of really lame, sexist jokes. I think I laughed out loud twice. That is beside the point. The artwork is and should be the focus of attention. Sexy burlesque artists, sexy secretaries, sexy "girlfriends" even a few sexy wives. The guys are all either sad sacks or moneybags; its aesthetic is pure "Mad Men." The Kindle Fire allows the reader to expand the images and really study the details. Ward was a spectacular stylist, whose pencil work was probably the best of anyone working in his day. Wanna see what tickled Dan Draper's erotic funny bone? Look no further. For the rest of us it is a stroll down memory lane to an earlier, less enlightened time. In short, a greatly underappreciated artist finally gets his due recognition,

Any book that compiled the art of Bill Ward is going to be magnificent!

Great little book for the pin-up as well as the humor cartoon fan.

Even better than expected -- a wonderful retrospective in a nice, thick chunk of a book. Highly recommend the seller. Will shop here again.

The quality of the reproduced pictures is unacceptable.

very happy

If you're a baby-boomer or older, chances are you've seen Bill Ward's art, even if you didn't necessarily know the name. Ward was one of the premiere and pioneering artists of what came to be known as Good Girl Art in the 40's and 50's. Good Girl Art refers to those comics depicting attractive women in various stages of undress or, quite often, in some form of bondage. These covers were quite popular in both pulp magazines and comic books of the era and are highly prized among collectors today.Ward's most famous creation was "Torchy" Todd, the sexy blonde bombshell who made her first appearance in the mid-1940's. Torchy's run in comics was cut short by the crusade against sex and violence in comics in the 1950's. Leaving comics, Ward moved on to work for editor Abe Goodman's Humorama line of magazines that included titles such as Gee-Whiz, Romp, Snappy, Laugh Riot, and more. There he began his prolific run of sexy one-page cartoons featuring his stunning Good Girl Art.The Pin-up Art of Bill Ward from Fantagraphics packs 260 pages of these classic one panel pin-up cartoons into the book. The Ward female of these cartoons is classic 1950's pin-up: large breasts, thin waist, wide hips, and a round bottom. The classic hourglass figure complete with the pouty lips and eyes that can make any man melt. These women are bawdy and busty and make no apologies for utilizing their physical assets. Fetishists will love Ward's hilarious series of spanking cartoons, which are often girl-on-girl. In one, an angry boss with a black eye is spanking his secretary and telling her, "This will teach you to let my wife catch you sitting on my lap!" In another, a bank President is showing his gorgeous blonde customer what the penalty is at his bank for overdrawing her account.Among the other cartoons in the book is Ward's series of telephone girl gags. These generally feature one of his gorgeous models lying on a bed or sofa in a negligee or other type of lingerie, talking on the phone. There's also a fair share of Ward's burlesque stripper cartoons. In one, two men are ogling a dancer clad only in panties and pasties. One exclaims, "This is one thing television will never replace!"Wardss pin-ups are truly the 50'sand 60's American male view of the perfect female. These classic cartoons and drawings have lost none of their humor even after some fifty years.Reviewed by Tim Janson

I like Bill Ward and I probably would have given this product a better grade if it would have arrived with the cover intact. But the glue had completely seperated from the spine.

If you are a fan of pin up art, this book is a must have item. I have long admired the work of Bamforth`s saucy postcard artwork, as well as the classic pin up artists such as Gil Elvgren. So when I came across this book on Amazon I decided to make the purchase with some of my birthday money. After a fairly brief introduction you are into the pin up illustrations, which are superb. Some, but not all of the pictures have captions, which is a shame, but this does not detract from the impact of each illustration. The first look through took me quite a while, as there is a lot of detail in each picture, and I was trying to work out how Bill had achieved such detail and texture. Even though the women are more cartoon like than realistic, they are very unique and stylised unlike anything I have ever seen. Maybe, if you view this book by today`s PC viewpoint it may not appeal to you. But if you are an artist, illustrator or cartoonist then this book will provide many hours of wonderment, inspiration, and be a valuable body of work to refer to as well as simply enjoy.

Sono sincera, mai sentito parlare di Bill Ward prima d'ora.L'ho comprato come regalino per maritino. A lui non e'piaciuto, a me si, molto.Il librino di 260 pagine e' in bianco nero, stile retro' (non sono un'esperta del genere, please).I contenuti sono delle singole vignette con a volte dei fumetti a volte una frase esplicativa a piè di pagina, stile pubblicita'.Le donnine sono esclusivamente pin-up super sensuali, magrissime, ma formosissime, rigorosamente seminude ...I riferimenti talmente espliciti da essere intelligenti.Da totale ignorante del genere, ribadisco, a me fa piacere sfogliarlo di tanto in tanto.