Bill Ward is a famous pin-up artist who drew the kinds of comics you might find in Playboy or its forgotten men’s magazine predecessors. The most interesting thing I learned from this collection is that he drew with a conté crayon and his originals were huge as a result.

He definitely had a knack for drawing glossy black leggings on absurdly exaggerated statuesque women. Less successful were the gag captions, which I only rarely found funny, probably because they’re from a different era but also because the jokes were clearly not the point.

This volume also makes it clear that Ward had a few go-to poses and settings, and most of his comics were variations on a handful of themes. His work probably stands up slightly better in an uncollected form, which essentially means that this collection only diminishes it. ( )

I'm glad this book exists because Ward worked hard in cartooning for a long time, although I do find it overly-art directed (sorry Mr. Covey). However, I just can't really bring myself to LIKE Ward's style. Some of the captions (most?) were obviously just hacked out and barely relate to the drawing.

Also, I read it the day I got it in the mail from Fantagraphics and the cover separated from the text block. ( )