Mammary Mittwoch with Bill Ward´s Torchy

I really didn´t want to do this but it seems that even after cutting stuff from the main post various times and skipping a lot of anniversaries I can´t finish it unless I write another spin - off post. So I wanted to put a little spotlight on the late Bill Ward who ended up on the bottom of said post.

And therefore might go unnoticed by a lot of people. Bill is best known for creating Torchy and his knack for drawing the female anatomy. A few years back I ordered The Glamour Girls of Bill Ward from Fantagraphics Books via amazon and because of the price I thought I had ordered a softcover book. Just a few weeks prior I had bought The Pin Up Art of Dan DeCarlo and thought this would also be a manga sized booklet. Imagine my surprise when it was not only in hardcover but the size of european comic albums.

So far I only knew Bill Ward´s pin up work but I recently found a lot of material as well as a lot of links about Torchy so I wanted to write a bit about her. And when I say " write " I mean of course " blatantly copy paste from STEVE LOPEZ BIG BLOG OF FUN " and you can find the link below. So who is this Torchy person ? If you’re a heterosexual male, it’s impossible to stop yourself from getting hooked on Torchy Todd after you’ve seen her.

Plenty of 1940’s comics ran back - up stories which featured beautiful gals. Some were heroines others were comical but none of them could match Torchy, not in the area of the good girl art, nor in the insane amount of very risqué double entendres that Torchy’s publishers got away with.

The original schtick was pretty simple : she regularly lost her job because she was gorgeous, got hired someplace else right away because she was gorgeous, then got fired again because she was gorgeous. Gorgeous isn’t quite the right word; she was hotter than a pawnshop pistol. While this comes and goes throughout her history, her later appearances are simple madcap adventures which just happen to feature this red - hot dish.

Torchy’s characterization changed frequently. Sometimes she was a naive gal who didn’t realize the effect she had on men. Sometimes she kind of understood that effect, but couldn’t quite get her head around the reason why she had it. In still other stories, Torchy deliberately used her assets to her own advantage. In the latter case, she wasn’t the same lovable gal as in other stories so that harsher characterization was rare.

Realistically, I don’t think readers cared much about her characterization and more about her " character ". Torchy is all about the art, which also provides an excuse for loads of hot double - entendres in the dialogue.

And as far as that art goes, all I have to say is “ Holy mazooma ! ” When you look up the term " blonde bombshell ", you’re likely to see Torchy’s picture as an illustration beside it. Torchy tends to appear in nothing but lingerie or a negligee at least once in every story, and even when she’s fully clothed any rabid anti - objectification of women feminists within eyeshot go completely and utterly bonkers. Torchy Todd takes the concept of 40’s good girl art to stratospheric levels. On a scale of 1 to 10 she’s a 14.

For more 1940s good girl art by Bill Ward THE FABULOUS FIFTIES has a plethora of Torchy pages and ATOMIC KOMMIE COMICS has the story Haunted House Date with Torchy while the aptly named TORCHY TODD BLOG probably offers the most stories with her. I haven´t had the time to look through them all but the ones I came across are Cousin Ezra from Doll Man 18 , The Ishmar Gig from Modern Comics 54 and The Reform Party Gig from Modern Comics 78. Also definitely check out IT`S STEVE LOPEZ BIG BLOG OF FUN which has the Torchy stories from Doll Man Quarterly 15 ( the post also includes anything you might ever want to know about Torchy Todd ) and Modern Comics 55 and OMINOUS OCTOPUS OMNIBUS for more Bill Ward Torchy artwork from Modern Comics 75 and Modern Comics 76 .

Today we have a long litany of birthdays I missed since my last post but thankfully I already addressed some of them in previous years so we will only check back with those that have their own post, some where I have something new to add and a few personal favorites. Like in most cases the percentage of fantastically formed female bodies is extremely high but I am trying to include some of my usual counterpoints. That being said we start our raunchy roll call on March the 2nd with one of the sexiest women in italian showbiz as the incredible Federica Ridolfi celebrated her 45th birthday. With her racktastic milkshakes she would have been the perfect candidate to take her clothes off in a Russ Meyer or Andy Sidaris film.

So far all my stuff about Federica is on the posts about italian Über - MILF babe Simona Ventura  since it´s not enough to require a separate post.

I first saw Federica as the front dancer of the ballet of the best tv show about soccer EVER which was the italian show QUELLI CHE IL CALCIO : a sports variety program that was broadcast live from Milan mixing coverage of italian series a soccer in real time with comedy, music and lots of hot women. Yes, in Germany tv programs about soccer are old, balding guys sitting at a table and drinking beer while in Italy it´s all about comedy, movie stars, interviews, music acts, a megahot presenter like Simona and a dance group with various incredibly hot sexbombs helmed by Federica Ridolfi. But Federica was not the only one who had to share a post with Simona, for the longest time Simona was also the host to the Tutti Frutti Girls and brabuster Monique Sluyter who not only had no problem taking off her clothes on tv she also disrobed for various gentleman magazines.

But the blow up sex doll from the Netherlands was not only in PLAYBOY multiple times she also was a big factor in my obsession on blondes with giant breast like Power Girl with her impersonation of Marilyn Monroe .

Regular readers of this blog already know that I cast her as Fire a.k.a. Beatriz da Costa in the Andy Sidaris Special of my popular Casting the Justice League of America movie series and I also kept mentioning her in all kind of post like the annual re - posts about italian mega soccer MILF Simona Ventura until I decided to give Monique and the Tutti Frutti girls their own post which I re - posted in 2016 in a new and better version.

We are staying with teen heartthrobs although we make the jump from stripper flicks to cult tv shows as David Faustino turned 45. He has been in everything from The X - Files to Batman Beyond and The Legend Of Korra  but he is best known as Bud Bundy on hit tv show Married With Children.

Speaking of Married With Children and Bud Bundy, one of my pet peeves is giving proper credit to all the unsung heroines who give their all to provide us viewers with entertainment. For years I have searched for information about the Busenwunder who plays Roxanne, the classmate with the big double airbags Bud lusts after when he celebrates his 18th birthday. If you have pondered the question yourself I can disclose that the girl´s name is Gina Puzo and apparently she quit showbiz after this.

Hope Marie Carlton celebrated her 53rd birthday and she became the Playmate Of The Month for July in 1985. She is best known for playing Taryn in the Andy Sidaris movies where she was later replaced by Roberta Vasquez. Who not only was more curvaceous than her but also contrasted nicely with Dona Speir. I don´t know, the whole combination of the busty blonde with a bustier blonde did not work for me as well as the formula of busty blonde and even bustier raven haired latin sex pot. As coincidences would have it Hope Marie Carlton also appeared on Married With Children.



A few years ago I bought the DVD box set of the complete series but I haven´t had the time to watch it yet. But the series is absolute worth it for the female guest stars alone which include Playmate Of The Month in April 1986 Teri Weigel who was on two episodes and a very young Pamela Anderson who was just starting out and who appeared in an episode with Becky Mullen and Becky and Teri both starred in Andy Sidaris movies.

Andy Sidaris was probably THE BEST director of action movies for adults and his cast read like a WHOS´S WHO of playmates : Roberta Vasquez , Ava Cadell , brunette Cynthia Brimhall, Dona Speir , Pandora Peaks , Julie Strain , Shae Marks, Samantha Phillips and Julie K. Smith to name just a few.

Usually I just copy / paste the part about Becky Mullen into the posts but I am trying to keep this one short so I will skip it. For those who haven´t read my previous Andy Sidaris posts there is the main post where I wrote a bit about one of my unsung heroes , the Ava Cadell solo post , the Dona Speir post ( with re - posts in 2017 and in 2018 ), the Sybil Danning post and the Becky Mullen post ( which I reposted in 2016 ) where you can find tons of links to other cult sirens like Janet Jones Gretzky and real live Power Girl Leslie Easterbrook who had her breast scene in Police Academy 4 - Citizens On Patrol where she emerges from a pool in a wet t - shirt .

Speaking of women who get wet easily, Hope Marie Carlton also was in A Nightmare On Elm Street 4 : The Dream Master and Ghoulies III : Ghoulies Go To College and was one of the finalists in the very first Bikini Open.




Which brings us to the birthdays of Today which as always has a bit of the old and some new things. I try to switch up things every year but that highly depends on if I have something new to say or add about a previous candidate so I hope I keep things interesting for my old and new readers.

We are starting with Michael Bernd Schmidt´s 51st birthday and the name may not be familiar to many people but at least my german readers should know more if I tell you that he also goes by the name of Smudo and is a member of Die Fantastischen Vier and I am not talking about Marvel´s first family here. The german rap band ( yes, there are german rappers ) has written the soundtrack for an entire generation at this point and for the special occassion I have picked a clip from their excellent second Mtv Unplugged concert which is one of the best concerts I have ever seen.



Tom Arnold turns 60 who was in True Lies with the stunning JaMILF Lee Curtis. Jamie was not always a sex symbol and started out in horror movies like Halloween and The Fog where she quickly became famous for her impressive set of lungs as one of Hollywood´s scream queens. Although she later became quite literal famous for her impressive set of lungs as her boobs had busted out and she quickly got the nickname " freezeframe " because her scenes in movies like Trading Places or Perfect became the most paused on the vcr thanks to her 34C - 22 - 34 measurements. Today she is best known for her incredibly hot striptease on True Lies, the best striptease in movie history - at least according to a poll conducted in 2007.

 

Which is all the more impressive if you keep in mind that Jamie Lee Curtis was 36 at the time. So she did her best movie scene when her body was in remarkable shape - she exercised every day for this - and I can´t even begin to imagine how epic it would have been if she hadn´t kept on her underwear and gone full monty frontal nudity. Because James Cameron had seen her in A Fish Called Wanda and wrote the role of Helen Trasker specifically to see her nude body. A lot of other actresses auditioned for the role and while I could definitely see Demi Moore in that part ( who got her own entry in the Top Ten Movie Stripteases thanks to her spectacular performance in Striptease ) or even Kim Basinger, Michelle Pfeiffer, Geena Davis, Rosanna Arquette, Madonna, Jennifer Jason Leigh and possibly Lea Thompson or Sharon Stone I thank God that it wasn´t given to Emma Thompson, Melanie Griffith, Debra Winger, Anette Benning or Joan Cusak.

I have already done a number of posts on JaMILF Lee Curtis : the original post which mostly contains pictures with links to animated GIFs , one post with all the pictures I could find , a re - posted version with a few GIFs added and the post I did on her in 2016 which has lots of spectacular GIFs.

Speaking of spectacular GIFs, the reason why I am mentioning Demi Moore - besides the opportunity to feature her - is I wrote a new version of her cult siren entry ( part 1 / part 2 ) with more GIFs of Demi girating her booty than you can shake .... okay, I´m not going to finish the sentence.

It´s back to comics again with Al Milgrom who turns 68. He has been everything from penciler to inker - he inked some of Kieron Dwyer´s issues of Captain America - to writer and even editor and besides his eight year stint as inker of X - Factor he is best known for his work on the Whackos how the West Coast Avengers are lovingly referred to by fans.

A few years back I wanted to buy the first omnibus as a birthday present for my brother since it was offered at a very low price but because he said he was not interested in that kind of material I let the opportunity pass by. Since then I have gotten volume two ( mostly because I want to read the famous time travel story ) and the Avengers by John Byrne omnibus but so far I have not found the time to read it. I guess I was still hoping to find the first omnibus at a reasonable price but since the success of the Avengers movies the prices for those seem to go rather up than down.

Speaking of John Byrne, another centerfold that showed up on Married With Children is superbusty sexbomb Petra Verkaik, Playmate of December 1989 a.k.a the most published woman in PLAYBOY history.

Petra who was also voted Playboy Lingerie Readers´ Choice Model of the Year 1997 not only could have easily starred in a Russ Meyer movie with her - all natural - 37HH ( !!! ) bust she DID actually star in a movie with Kevin Bacon. But her biggest claims to fame are her Lara Croft video that was all the rage on the internet and serving as a blueprint for John Byrne´s version of Jennifer Walters a.k.a. the Sensational She - Hulk.

Besides over a dozen PLAYBOY videos and her appearance on Married with Children buxom Petra Verkaik starred in rather obscure movies like Pyrates, Speedway a.k.a. The Last Road or Love Potion Number Nine.  



I was looking for a video about Al Milgrom but it seems there is not much love for the West Coast Avengers even though there have been a few iconic storylines. But I guess as long as we don´t get a movie version of it ( of which I´m actually afraid of after the last few Disney movies ) the closest thing we got to an West Coast Avengers cartoon is Avengers - United They Stand from 1991. I know that some readers have dreaded this but by this time you should know my sick fascination with everything pop culture / comic book related that is generally considered to be bad taste.



Since this spin - off post started with Bill Ward´s Torchy I wanted to include a movie from the same time period and I found one that is based on a comic strip. Yes, there have been comic movies long before Marvel or DC but they usually get ignored whenever the media writes about comic book movies because nobody remembers them. I am a big fan of all these old black and white flicks where they convey so much mood with the lighting. Every ongoing comic book artist should study these. I don´t remember if I mentioned this before but if I was in charge of a tv company I would do one channel just with black and white movies. Old and new.



To close things out here is a complete Torchy story since I only posted a few selected pages from various stories in this post. Maybe next year I can do a full post on Bill Ward since this one was a bit improvised. But I think I will wait with that until I find a few more examples of his pin up and glamour art in good quality. Oh, yes, I don´t know if there are any reprints of Torchy out there ( I think there are a few mini comics available ) but definitely get The Glamour Girls of Bill Ward from Fantagraphic Books.



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I hate my life. Can´t eat, can´t sleep, can´t bury my wife in the backyard.