Number 2499: My torch still burns for Torchy

Modern Comics #102 (1950) was the last issue of the comic that began as Military Comics. One of its features, Torchy, had been created by artist Bill Ward during World War II. After the war she became a character in Modern Comics, which cover featured Blackhawk. Later Ward got busy doing Quality Comics’ love comics, and Torchy was turned over to Gill Fox, who, like Ward, could draw a pretty girl.

The blue-nosed censors wanted to get rid of all comic books featuring such “unsavory fare.” Torchy had her own comic book for six issues, but Quality Comics dropped that, and after the last issue of  Modern Torchy was then featured in Doll Man, the place where she started her career. Gradually other artists took over and that is when my torch for Torchy gets extinguished. The story here is, as usual, silly, but I am sure the drawings were why most readers looked at it. Did anyone read it? I did, which is why I know it’s silly, but who cares, now or in 1950? Torchy’s sex appeal affected without apology. 

The Grand Comics Database credits Gill Fox for both the story and art.

 

Number 1973: Queen Torchy

Oops! Torchy can’t resist the impulse to try on an ancient Egyptian queen’s clothes — and yikes! what clothes! — and turns on the wrong guys, who see in her the reincarnation of their ancient queen.

This funny, beautifully drawn (mis)adventure of cute, sexy Torchy, is early in the series. It was the fourth Torchy story published, appearing in Modern Comics #54 (1946). The artwork is by Torchy’s creator, Bill Ward.

Number 1868: Torchy and Nanny

Bill Ward (1919-1998) drew pretty girls. They were his specialty. Not just pretty girls, but eye-popping sexy girls. In his comic book career he spent time on drawing the non-sexy elements of comic art, too. Like cars, buildings, and men. In his last couple of decades Ward’s girls were the focus of his cartoons and artwork, and everything else looks like it just wasn’t as important.

Here are Torchy, as represented from her second story, drawn by Ward for Doll Man Quarterly #9 (1946), and a much later story from Cracked #179 (1981) featuring the sexy Nanny Dickering in one of a continuing series of interview satires. The Nanny strip appears not to use any reference material...the dog in the first panel, the poorly done caricatures of stars (and why a photo of Bo Derek instead of a drawing?), and even using Linus (of Peanuts) instead of Charlie Brown, who is mentioned in the the speech balloon. Who does not know the difference between Charlie Brown and Linus?! (Imagine Pappy in an outraged huff .)

Okay. I took a short walk and I feel better. At least Ward spent time with Nanny, rendering her lovingly, as he did with all his pin-up girls. I like the airbrush effects on Nanny, including her patterned nylons in the splash panel. They disappear after that panel, which is just one more complaint. That’s too many, even for me, so I’m going out for another walk.

Number 1787: Favorite Females Week: Torchy

This is a theme week, where I will show three stories featuring favorite female comic characters of mine. First up, the beautiful Torchy.

According to Don Markstein’s Toonopedia, Torchy was introduced by cartoonist Bill Ward, then a member of the U.S. Army,  in the base newspaper at Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn, New York. After the war, Quality Comics publisher Everett Arnold asked Ward to come up with a backup feature, and he re-introduced Torchy to the world.

This is that re-introduction, from Doll Man Quarterly #8 (1946). Torchy looks different than she did later, which is not uncommon in many features. The usual humorous situations are there, with guys falling all over themselves at the sight of her. Ward left comic books a few years later, and Torchy remained under his ownership. For the rest of his life Ward made his living drawing pretty girls.

Before you ask me if the last page is missing, no, it is not. Page five is the last page...the end being Torchy’s lovely rear end.

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I got an email the other day. A reader asked what I actually do on this blog. I decided to share it publicly:

I just wanted to drop a line and say I have been reading your blogzine posts for years and have enjoyed your well thought out and extremely informative posts. Your wealth of knowledge of the golden age of comics and its creators is amazing and inspiring. I was just curious how you go about picking the topics of your posts? What is your process like? With all of the creators and characters from the golden age i'm sure it is quite the task!

Best,
Dave Harding
Catasauqua, Pa

Thanks for the note, Dave. I appreciate your questions.

The work that goes into choosing what stories to show is fairly easy...I just try to keep a variety. To do that I go through old comics, looking for something that interests me. I figure if I like it someone else will like it also. Not always true. But I am always trying. My process is a set of tasks I do to get the projects completed. I work two months ahead and when I make my choices of what I want to show I keep a log of upcoming posts.

The log page for August, 2015, which I completed in late May. I do my notations in pencil, because I erase and move listings around while scheduling. I have to have something to keep track, even something as low-tech as pencil on paper.

My computer equipment is ancient. My desktop PC is from 2010, the newest thing I have. The software I use and my flat-bed scanner are from 2003. They are all growing old with me. The most time consuming part of my job is preparing scans of the comic book pages which I do with the help of a couple of old photo-editing programs.

As I have found when checking my counters, the posts that are the most popular with readers are sex (as in the Torchy post above) and superheroes. If all I did was show pictures of superheroines with huge boobs I would probably have the most popular comics blog on the Internet. Although I have few scruples, the ones I have prevent me from such obvious pandering. I try to make my pandering a little less obvious.

I own a lot of literature about comics, collected over decades. If I had to go through magazines and books to do the comic book research for the blog I would never get anything else done. Websites like Grand Comics Database, Toonopedia, and Public Domain Superheroes help me tremendously. It isn’t possible with every post, but I try to have something interesting to say about the story, the artist, or something historical to put the story in the context of its time.

And finally, yes, there are a lot of creators and characters from the Golden Age, but they all helped to create the art form. I have my favorite comics and artists, and show them more often (that’s called “heavy rotation” when playing popular songs on the radio). But every comic, every artist or writer, no matter if they are excellent, good, bad or indifferent, deserves to be recognized for adding to the history of the comics. By showing a lot of different comics in many different styles I believe I am helping to keep that history relevant.

Best wishes, Pappy

Number 1401: Blackhawk and Torchy

These two stories are from the next to last issue of Modern Comics. The title had changed from Military Comics, and it was in issue #1 that Blackhawk was born of World War II. The character and his gang survived the war, and became international troubleshooters and soldiers of fortune. [SPOILER ALERT: The Blackhawks also came up against plots where some fantastic trickery is involved, including this one where a spaceship and creatures from outer space are faked. Stories like these ignore the costs of such deception, which include creating and building, and in this one, the technology involved in making functioning robots with built-in microfilm cameras. Even if such a plot were to work the end result could not be worth what has been put into it. We accept the ridiculous flim-flam because it's a comic book. Just sayin'. END OF SPOILER] The artists are unknown to the Grand Comics Database, but William Woolfolk gets the nod for the script.

I’m also including the Torchy story from the issue. It’s drawn by Gill Fox. Torchy is fooled by an antique word and comedy results. The word, “gaiters,” I didn’t know, and I spend a lot of time with my nose in old books. See, comics can be educational as well as entertaining.

From Modern Comics #101 (1950):