The Glamour Girls of Bill Ward [ILLUSTRATED] (Hardcover)

~ (Illustrator), Alex Chun (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Ward's drawings were provocative and alluring, the subjects exploiting power over men that their sexuality granted. -- The New York Times --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Description

Renowned pin-up artist Bill Ward gets the full coffee table treatment in a lavish, oversized, full-color collection of his most polished 1950s illustrations. Imagine, if you will, an innocent but stunning young woman boasting the most unlikely Barbie-like proportions—and then some—poured into a wisp of lingerie or clingy cocktail dress, silky opera-length gloves, and sheer thigh-high stockings, perched precariously but not inelegantly atop a pair of dangerously high stiletto heels, and you've got the recipe for the quintessential Wardian glamour girl. Ward's girls became staples of countless men's and humor magazines where he shared the pages with cult models like Bettie Page and fellow "good girl" artists such as Dan DeCarlo and Jack Cole. Ward became the standard bearer and justly famous through the '50s and '60s for his angular, high-sheen images of improbably busty glamour girls, a kind of low-rent Charles Dana Gibson. What set Ward apart—and above—his talented contemporaries was his use of a medium called the conte crayon. When drawn on a simple newsprint stock, this potent combination created a charcoal-like effect and color that gave Ward's original art an elegant sepia-tone quality. This volume features the best of Ward's Humorama work, including a selection of Ward's infamous telephone girls. Tame by today's standards, Ward's telephone girls were considered provocative at the time, caught as they were in various states of dress or, more often, undress.

The majority of the images in this volume were drawn between 1956 and 1963 when Ward was at the height of his skill, shot from original art and printed in full color. This book not only reproduces over a hundred beautifully rendered illustrations, but captures a more innocent moment in American pop culture. 72 pages color.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Fantagraphics Books; illustrated edition edition (May 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560975318
• ISBN-13: 978-1560975311
• Product Dimensions: 12.5 x 9.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #413,032 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Conte crayon king, January 21, 2004

By	Robin Benson - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I don't think Bill Ward sits easily with what are generally considered pin-up artists like Elvgren, Petty, Vargas and the few dozen others who created the genre over the last seventy years but his huge output from 1950 to 1975 (which is the basis of this handsome book) means his work has to be considered.

Examples of Ward's comic art, shown in several color covers (Love Diary, Love Confessions, Love Scandals, Heart Throbs, Flaming Love and Torchy) clearly show how good a draughtsman he was but the clean-up of the market in the early fifties meant he had to find another publications to work for. Abe Goodman's Humorama titles solved the problem. These were cheaply-printed digest size magazines full of bad jokes, cheesecake photos and girlie cartoons. The author Alex Chun says Ward produced thirty cartoons a month for Humorama titles and over twenty-fives years probably drew an amazing 9,000 pin-ups.

Ward's Humorama art was probably the only reason anyone bought these tacky publications. Because he had to produce so much work quickly he developed his own unique style of using Conte crayon to draw pin-ups. This had the advantage of showing tonal quality almost like an airbrush and when the originals (up to eighteen by twenty-four inches) were reduced to the digest size pages they looked impressively slick.

There are 117 whole page Ward pin-ups, all from his Humorama period, in this book. The majority are printed in four-color sepia with white highlights (the front of the book has an essay and examples of his early comic and color pin-up work) and the sexually suggestive, exaggerated females with their black stockings, filmy negligees, skin-tight dresses, coiffure hair and impossibly high stilettos leap of the page. If you are interested in this little corner of American male pop culture I doubt there will be a better book of Bill Ward's voluptuous art.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well Done, April 7, 2004

By A Customer

This is a great book for fans of Bill Ward's pin-up art and features numerous full-page illustrations of his distinctive beauties. Most of the pin-ups are black and white Conte crayon drawings done on a beige colored paper. There are a few color pin-ups shown as well. The beginning of the book contains a concise biography of Ward along with samples of his comic-book art. There are several nice romance covers shown here. The book is printed on quality paper and the pin-ups shown at a nice size. This is an A+ effort. The only thing you could have asked for is more art, but at around 100 pin-ups this is a great tribute to Bill Ward.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars $159 already?! Well, worth every penny!, April 26, 2007

By	Joseph A. Admire (Manassas, VA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I bought this book back in 2003 when it was freshly in print and it was, h'mmmm, $28.95 list (just checked the dust jacket). The $159 I referred to is what Amazon Marketplace dealers are asking for it as of late April 2007 - and that's the _least_ expensive price. Take it from me, though; this book is well worth the cost (and if you keep it in good condition, you'll find it appreciating further!) The first part of the book is given over to a comprehensive overview of Ward's life and career, with many illustrations (mostly in color). The heart of this volume, though, is the 130-some full-page reproductions, in B&W and sepia, of Ward's best cartoons featuring his sexy and elegant beauties from what I consider to be his finest body of work in the 1950's and 1960's. The theme-oriented chapters have headings such as "Phone Girls Part 1", "The Mating Game", "Working Girls", "Husbands and Wives", and all provide a splendid overview of Ward's unique "conte" drawing style and his fascination with the accouterments of feminine dress such as high heels, seamed stockings, figure-hugging dresses and gowns, picture hats and opera-length gloves. Compare and contrast with Taschen's new _The Wonderful World of Bill Ward_, which I will also be reviewing in the near future. Highly recommended, particularly in the hardback version (if you can afford it!!)