''Torchy'' is a

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

and, primarily, a series of

comic books A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

featuring the ingenue Torchy Todd, created by the

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

good girl art Good Girl Art (GGA) is a style of artwork depicting women primarily featured in comic books, comic strips, and pulp magazines. The term was coined by the American Comic Book Company, appearing in its mail order catalogs from the 1930s to the 1970 ...

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...

Bill Ward during 1944. The character was ranked 97th of the 2011 ''

Comics Buyer's Guide ''Comics Buyer's Guide'' (''CBG''; ), established in 1971, was the longest-running English-language periodical reporting on the American comic book industry. It awarded its annual Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Awards from 1983 to circa 2010. The public ...

's'' "100 Sexiest Women in Comics" list.

Publication history

After Bill Ward's drafting into the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

military, the artist created the tall, blond, busty ingenue Torchy Todd for the base

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

Fort Hamilton Fort Hamilton is a United States Army installation in the southwestern corner of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, surrounded by the communities of Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights. It is one of several posts that are part of the region which is ...

, where Ward was deployed. The

in which she featured soon became syndicated to other Army newspapers worldwide. Torchy made her comic-book debut as main character of a backup feature of

Quality Comics Quality Comics was an American comic book publishing company which operated from 1937 to 1956 and was a creative, influential force in what historians and fans call the Golden Age of Comic Books. Notable, long-running titles published by Qualit ...

' ''

Doll Man Doll Man is a superhero first appearing in American comic books from the Golden Age of Comics, originally published by Quality Comics and currently part of the DC Comics universe of characters. Doll Man was created by cartoonist Will Eisner a ...

'' #8 (Spring 1946). Her feature was later published in all but two issues through #30 (September 1950), resuming in #35 (August 1951) through #47 (October 1953), as well as in ''Modern Comics'' #53–102 (Sept. 1946 – Oct. 1950). A solo series, ''Torchy'', had six issues (Nov. 1949 – Sept. 1950), some with art by

Gill Fox Gilbert Theodore Fox (November 29, 1915 – May 15, 2004) was an American political cartoonist, comic book artist and editing, editor, and animator. Biography Fox began his career in animation at Max Fleischer's studio, but left due to labor unr ...

. Several Torchy stories, including some Fort Hamilton comic strips, were reprinted in

Innovation Comics Innovation Publishing (also known as Innovation Books and the Innovative Corporation) was an American comic book company based in Wheeling, West Virginia. It was co-founded by David Campiti in 1988 after writing a business proposal and raising U ...

' 100-page, squarebound trade paperback ''Bill Ward's Torchy, The Blonde Bombshell'' #1 (Jan. 1992). Others have been reprinted in '' The Betty Pages'' #1 (1987);

AC Comics AC Comics (formerly known as Paragon Publications and Americomics) is a comic book publishing company started by Bill Black.

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors. In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically categ ...

''Good Girl Art Quarterly'' #1 (Summer 1990), #10 (Fall 1992), #11 (Winter 1993), and #14 (Winter 1994), and in AC's ''America's Greatest Comics'' #5 (circa 2003). Comic Images released a set of Torchy

trading cards A trading card (or collectible card) is a small card, usually made out of paperboard or thick paper, which usually contains an image of a certain person, place or thing (fictional or real) and a short description of the picture, along with other ...

in 1994. Ward drew an original cover featuring Torchy for Robert M. Overstreet's

annual Annual may refer to: * Annual publication, periodical publications appearing regularly once per year **Yearbook ** Literary annual * Annual plant * Annual report * Annual giving * Annual, Morocco, a settlement in northeastern Morocco * Annuals (b ...

book '' The Comic Book Price Guide'' (#8, 1978).

Character biography

Torchy Todd is a ditsy but goodhearted young blond woman who frequently finds herself in humorous, mildly risqué encounters with lustful men.

References

{{reflist

External links

ComicStripFan.com: Bill WardThe Uranium Cafe (June 18, 2007): "The Sexy and Patriotic Cartoon World of Bill Ward"Did You Know? (Dec. 24, 2003) Torchy
1944 comics debuts 1946 comics debuts 1950 comics endings Adult comics Female characters in comics Quality Comics characters Comics characters introduced in 1944 Comics characters introduced in 1946 Humor comics American comics characters