William "Bill" Ward (March 6, 1919 - November 17, 1998) was an American cartoonist best known as one of the most widely published good girl artists, and as creator of the risqué comics character Torchy.

Ward's first known credited works are writing and drawing an episode each of the two-page humor feature "Private Ward" in Fawcett's Spy Smasher #2 (Winter 1941) and Bulletman #3 (Jan. 14, 1942), published closely to each other. His first major job was an issue of Fawcett's Captain Marvel, after having worked on that C.C. Beck feature in Whiz Comics.

Shortly thereafter, Quality Comics editor George Brenner hired Ward to write and pencil the hit World War II aviator feature "Blackhawk"; Ward confirmably did Military Comics #30-31 (July-Aug. 1944), with the next several issues generally but unconfirmably credited to Al Bryant. He also drew some Blackhawk stories in Modern Comics and some issues of the Blackhawk title itself in 1946 and 1947, occasionally afterward, and then often in the early 1950s. His story "Karlovna Had a True Underworld" from Blackhawk #14 (Spring 1947) was reprinted in the book Comix: A History of Comic Books In America (Bonanza Books, 1971)

Except for four years in the U.S. Army himself later, Ward would remain a freelance artist for the remainder of his career.

Following Ward's own drafting into the military, the artist created the ingenue character Torchy Todd for the base newspaper at Brooklyn's Fort Hamilton, where Ward was based. The comic strip in which she starred soon became syndicated to other Army newspapers worldwide.

She made her comic-book debut as star of a backup feature in Quality Comics' Doll Man #8 (Spring 1946), and continued in all but three issues through #28 (May 1950), as well as in Modern Comics #53-89 (Sept. 1946 - Sept. 1949). A solo series, Torchy, ran six issues (Nov. 1949 - Sept. 1950).

Several Torchy stories, including some Fort Hamilton strips, were reprinted in Innovation Comics' 100-page, squarebound comic book Bill Ward's Torchy, The Blonde Bombshell #1 (Jan. 1992). Others have been reprinted in fy Pages #1 (1987); AC Comics anthology 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 in 1994

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