The Pin-Up Art of Bill Wenzel

by Bill Wenzel, Alex Chun, Jacob Covey

No other pin-up cartoon artist over a 30-year period was as prolific or as omnipresent as Bill Wenzel. Virtually every humor and men's magazine, ranging from Judge in the mid-'40s to Sex to Sexy in the '60s and '70s, boasted two, if not a dozen, of Wenzel's pin-up cartoons. Quick with pen and ink, Wenzel was equally adept with the brush, and nowhere was this more evident than in his work for the Humorama line of girlie digests. The digests, which sported titles like Gaze, Joker, Jest, Comedy and Stare, were crammed full of marginally risque single panel pin-up cartoons and cheesecake photos featuring the likes of Bettie Page, Irish McCalla, and even Sophia Loren, and as a long-time contributor to the Humorama digests, Wenzel was part of an artistic fraternity that included the likes of Bill Ward, Playboy's Jack Cole, and Archie's Dan DeCarlo. Though wasp-waisted long-legged women were de rigueur in the digests, Wenzel set himself apart from the rest of the best with his decidedly more Rubenesque rendering of the female form. And whether they were aloof secretaries biding their time waiting for their bosses to ditch their wives or smoldering vixens preparing for a night on the town, Wenzel's women carried their weight well, the better to hold up their ample chests. Without a doubt, Wenzel is the most overlooked of all the pin-up cartoon artists of his era, but with this volume, which features a selection of his sexiest and most sensual ink-wash images, Wenzel takes his rightful place among Humorama's top artists.

Genres: Art, Comics

216 pages, Paperback

First published August 8, 2005

About the author

William Michael Wenzel was an American cartoonist best known as a widely published good girl artist for men's magazines.

His bawdy cartoon spot illustrations were published over the course of several decades, from such publications as Judge in the 1940s to Sex to Sexty in the 1960s and 1970s, and particularly for the Humorama division of publisher Martin Goodman's variously titled corporations.

Wenzel's work, which featured busty, big-eyed, yet innocently risque young women, was published in such magazines and digests as Gaze, Joker, Jest, Comedy, and Stare. Most captions were written by the artist himself. In 1967 Wenzel drew illustrations for the book Coffee, Tea or Me? that, according to the author Donald Bain, "contributed significantly to the book's success".

In 1979, after having lived almost 30 years in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey, Wenzel and his family moved to Naples, Florida, where he died in 1987 of lung cancer.

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

LOL, I really enjoyed this book full of political incorrect witticism and caricature. Bill Wenzel has a keen eye for the detail. His type of women stands out with a clear feature. If you know his sketches, like the style as presented on the cover and if you are into rather old fashioned humour definitely worth picking up. Really recommended!

[David Walkerton · Rating 4 out of 5]

ham and cheese

Loved it from front to back. The introduction contextualized it, the art and gags sold it. Any sense of nostalgia for those years is well worth it.

[Rufino Gomez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very nice drawings

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny mid-century cartoons about sex.

[Cvelas_123]

I like Bill Wenzel