GUEST: I brought with me a number one issue of "Torchy," I think it's the original art, from Bill Ward 1949. I bought it for my wife, thought she'd like it, because we like this kind of stuff in our house. But she's a redhead, and this one's a blonde, so it's been sitting in my room for a while.
APPRAISER: What did you pay for it?
GUEST: $800.
APPRAISER: Well, Bill Ward was a very famous comic illustrator. He studied at Pratt Institute. And during the war, they asked him to create a kind of risqué comic for the armed forces, and that was Torchy. And she was kind of the ditzy blonde. This is the cover image for "Torchy" Number One. And burst your bubble, just to tell you that he did a lot of reprints.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: And this is an original by Bill Ward, but a reprint done later.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: If this was the original drawing for the first Torchy, there'd be no color...
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: It'd be only a line drawing. It's hard to say when the reprint was done. He did them anywhere from the '70s to the late '80s when he died. The good news is that it's still very collectible. And as a reprint, collectors are still going to pay for this original recreation $3,000 to $4,000.
GUEST: Wow, good. That's nice.
APPRAISER: If this were "Torchy" One....
GUEST: Yeah?
APPRAISER: The original drawing, it would be upwards of $30,000.
GUEST: Wow.
