Friday Fun DOLL MAN QUARTERLY "Torchy"

Here's the premiere tale of one of the best-known "good girl art" comic strips of the Golden Age...

...which according to the Grand Comics Database, has (surprisingly) never been reprinted!

From this debut in Quality's Doll Man Quarterly #8 (1946) onward, writer/artist Bill Ward's Torchy kept gaining fans with each appearance, continuing in Doll Man until the book's cancellation as of #47 in 1953 as well as simultaneously branching out into Modern Comics from #53 (1946) to #102 (1950) and a six-issue run of her own self-named comic in 1949-50!
The strip established Ward, who had been doing work in every genre, solidly as a "good girl" artist, which he utilized when the comics business collapsed in the mid-1950s to get assignments from men's magazines.

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Torchy #0

(which, despite the misleading cover featuring a "modern" interpretaion of Torchy, features a strip by Bill Ward detailing how the Torchy series was created!)

Haunted House Reading Room TORCHY "Haunted House Party"

We end this week's Haunted House Reading Room-fest with one of the most popular...

..and politically-incorrect female characters of the Golden Age!

Torchy Todd wasn't quite a stereotypical blonde bombshell!
She did have a brain, and could extricate herself from most situations!
But her main attribute was how often she could end up in "cheesecake" poses, usually showing off her legs!
Created by noted good-girl writer/artist Bill Ward, Torchy had a long career during the Golden Age as a back-up strip in Quality's Modern Comics, Doll Man Quarterly, and her own 10-issue title!
Eventually, Ward moved away from the strip and others (including Gill Fox, who wrote and illustrated this never-reprinted tale from Modern Comics #98 [1950]) tried to fill his high-heeled shoes!

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Glamour Girls of Bill Ward

PG-13/NO Nudity

"Good Girl" Artist Bill Ward Goes Black!

Though known for his...stimulating...renditions of buxom (and usually blonde) women...

...Bill Ward was one of several well-known comic artists who provided Playboy-style cartoons featuring Black women (and men) to Duke, a 1950s magazine intended to attract the young, male, African-American audience that other male-oriented mags didn't (yet) cater to!

You'l note that while the men are clearly African-American, the women have more of a "look" like Dorothy Dandridge (here as seen in her only genre film, Tarzan's Peril).

Since some of the cartoons in the issue showed both men and women as Black...

...we're not sure if it was editorial choice or Ward's lack of ability to portray attractive Black women with more "ethnic" features...
I don't know if Ward contributed any illustrations for the remaining five issues of the mag's run.

If anybody can provide more info, please contact me!

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Wonderful World of Bill Ward

King of the Glamour Girls

Reading Room: PUSSYCAT "Cool & Carefree Capers of a Curvy, Cuddly Chick!"

We showed you HERE how Phantom Lady handled terrorists at the 1948 Olympics...

...now, as the real Olympic Games wind down, look at how Agent PussyCat dealt with danger in a similar situation 20 years later (and 44 years ago)!

This tale originally appeared in Male Annual #5 (1967), but this is from the one-shot PussyCat (1968) that reprinted her stories from the various "laddy" magazines published by Martin Goodman, who also owned Marvel Comics at the time.

The writer is officially-unknown, but the scripter is probably Stan Lee or Larry Lieber, and the artist is pretty clearly good-girl legend Bill Ward with inking by Bill Everett.

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PussyCat: Agent of S.C.O.R.E.

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Reading Room: PUSSYCAT "Madly Mirthful Misadventures of a Lively Little Lass!"

If Austin Powers had a sister in the Swingin' 60s, she would have been...

...our favorite, funtastic, femme Agent of S.C.O.R.E.!

This tale originally appeared in Male Annual #4 (1966), but this is from the one-shot PussyCat (1968) that reprinted her stories from the various "laddy" magazines published by Martin Goodman, who also owned Marvel Comics at the time.

The writer is officially-unknown, but the scripter is probably Stan Lee or Larry Lieber, and the artist is pretty clearly good-girl legend Bill Ward with inking by Bill Everett.

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PussyCat: Agent of S.C.O.R.E.

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Reading Room: Pussycat: Agent of S.C.O.R.E. in "Merry Mixed-Up Miss"

Didn't know Austin Powers had a sister, did you?
Actually, he doesn't.
Pussycat preceded Austin by several decades, but we'll save the background for our next entry.
Enjoy this titillating tale, written by Stan Lee and drawn by Wally Wood and Bill Ward!

...for now!

But, Pussycat will return...

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