William Hess Ward[1] (March 6, 1919 – November 17, 1998),[2] was an American cartoonist notable as a good girl artist and creator of the risqué comics character Torchy.

[2] Ward graduated in 1941, and through the university's placement bureau obtained a Manhattan art-agency job at $18 a week, sweeping floors, running errands and serving as an art assistant.

[2] Still rooming at his college fraternity house, he received a call from Pratt regarding another job, assisting comic book artist Jack Binder.

[3] Shortly thereafter, Quality Comics editor George Brenner hired Ward to write and pencil the hit aviator feature Blackhawk of World War II.

[3] Ward turned to magazine cartooning afterward, doing humorous spot illustrations, some featuring Torchy, for such publications as editor Abe Goodman's Humorama.

[3] Ward wrote and illustrated erotic stories for such men's magazines as Juggs and Leg Show — an article a month for the former in his later years.