Doug Wildey
Encyclopedia
Douglas S. Wildey was a cartoonist
and comic book
artist best known for his co-creation of the 1964 animated television series, Jonny Quest
for Hanna-Barbera Productions.
Doug Wildey was born and raised in Yonkers
, New York
, adjacent to New York City
. He did World War II
military service at Naval Air Station Barbers Point
in Hawaii
, where he began his art career as a cartoonist
for the base newspaper. He recalled his professional start as freelancing for the magazine and comic-book company Street and Smith Publications in 1947. Because comic-book writer and artist credits were not routinely given during this era, the earliest confirmed Wildey works are two signed pieces in this publisher's Top Secret #9 (June 1949): a one-page house ad and the 10-page adventure story "Queen in Jeopardy", by an unknown writer.
He went on to draw primarily Western
stories for Youthful Magazines comics including Buffalo Bill
, Gunsmoke (unrelated to the later television series
), and Indian Fighter. He also contributed to the publishers Master Comics, Story Comics, Cross Publications and possibly others, puckishly observing that he'd worked for every publisher except EC, "the good one".
In 1952, Wildey moved his family — wife Ellen and daughters Debbie and Lee — to Tucson
, Arizona
. Two years later, he began a regular stint at Atlas Comics
, the 1950s forerunner of Marvel Comics
, where he drew dozens of Western
stories through 1957, primarily four- and five-page tales in such titles as Frontier Western. His art also appeared in in the Atlas horror
-fantasy
comics Journey into Unknown Worlds, Marvel Tales
, Mystery Tales, Mystic, Strange Tales, Uncanny Tales
, and others.
Historian Ken Quattro describes Wildey's most "noteworthy" Western as the 19-issue Atlas series Outlaw Kid
, "his take on the classic Western antihero", in which Wildey illustrated three to four stories per issue:
Much of this work was reprinted by Marvel from 1970 through 1974, exposing his work to a later generation.
After an Atlas Comics retrenchment in 1957 — during which the company mixed a trove of inventory stories by Wildey and many others with new material for two to three years — Wildey freelanced on a small number of standalone anthology stories for two other publishers: Harvey Comics
, in the science fiction
/fantasy
titles Alarming Tales #3-5 (Jan.-Sept. 1958), and Black Cat Mystic
#62 (March 1958), Hi-School Romance #73 (March 1958) and Warfront #34 (Sept. 1958); and DC Comics
, in Tales of the Unexpected
#33 & 35 (Nov. 1958, March 1959), House of Secrets #17 (Feb.1959), My Greatest Adventure
#28 & 32 (Nov. 1958 & June 1959), and House of Mystery
#89 (Aug. 1959). He also later drew the first issue of Dell Comics
' TV series spin-off Dr. Kildare
(a.k.a. Four Color #1337, June 1962).
In either 1959 or 1961 (sources vary) he took over the art for writer Leslie Charteris
' long-running New York Herald Tribune Syndicate comic strip
The Saint. Some of there strips were inked by Dick Ayers
as the deadlines of producing a daily and Sunday strip proved daunting. The strip ended in 1962. Adding credence to the latter date is Wildey spending part of 1960, possibly only a month, penciling his idol Milton Caniff
's famed Steve Canyon
comic strip and trying unsuccessfully to launch his own syndicated strip.
Two such proposed strips would help provide a character name and some narrative background to Wildey's later animated television series, Jonny Quest. As he described in 1986,
comic strip in 1962, Wildey found, through an ad in the National Cartoonists Society
newsletter, what was initially a one-week television
animation
job in Los Angeles
, California
, working under artist Alex Toth
on Cambria Productions
' 1962 animated series Space Angel
. Wildey eventually worked on the series for "about 12 or 14 weeks", after which, he recalled in 1986,
Wildey wrote and drew a presentation, using such magazines as Popular Science
, Popular Mechanics
, and Science Digest
"to project what would be happening 10 years hence", and devising or fancifully updating such devices as a "snowskimmer" and hydrofoil
s. When Hanna-Barbera could not obtain the rights to Jack Armstrong, the studio had Wildey rework the concept. Wildey "went home and wrote Jonny Quest that night — which was not that tough." For inspiration he drew on Jackie Cooper
and Frankie Darrow movies, Milton Caniff
's comic strip
Terry and the Pirates
, and, at the behest of Hanna-Barbera, the James Bond
movie Dr. No
. Hanna-Barbera refused to give him a "created by" credit, Wildey said in 1986, and he and studio "finally arrived on 'Based on an idea created by', and that was my credit."
The prime-time TV animated series Jonny Quest
debuted on ABC
on September 18, 1964. As comics historian Daniel Herman wrote,
Wildey did not design the more cartoonishly drawn comic relief
pet dog, Bandit, which was designed by animator Dick Bickenbach.
Wildey went on to work on animated series including Herculoids, Jana of the Jungle
, Return to the Planet of the Apes
(1975), The Godzilla Power Hour
(1978), Mister T
(1983), and Chuck Norris: Karate Kommandos (1986).
s, drawing stories for the premiere issues of Harvey Comics
' Thrill-O-Rama, Unearthly Spectaculars (both Oct. 1965 series) and Double-Dare Adventures (Dec. 1965). Most significantly during this time, he collaborated with writer Gaylord DuBois
on Gold Key Comics
' licensed series Tarzan
when that long-running comic, which had been reprinting stories drawn by Russ Manning
, began producing new work beginning with issue #179 (Sept. 1968). The duo's work appeared through issue #187 (Sept. 1969).
After a hiatus from comic books, broken only by three 1971 stories for Skywald's black-and-white horror-comics magazines Psycho and Nightmare, plus the Haunted Tank story "The Armored Ark" in DC Comics
' G.I. Combat
#153 (May 1972), Wildey created the comic strip
Ambler, which ran from 1972 to 1975. Syndicated
to newspapers by the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate
, the contemporary strip chronicled the adventures of an itinerant folk music
ian.
Afterward, Wildey returned to comic books to do stories for Archie Comics
' horror-humor anthology series Mad House, Gold Key's Mystery Comics Digest, and DC's Our Army at War
and Sgt. Rock, among other titles. Returning to his Western roots, he drew the feature "Jonah Hex
" in DC's Weird Western Tales
#26 (Feb. 1975) and co-created with writer Larry Lieber
the feature "Kid Cody, Gunfighter" in Atlas/Seaboard Comics
' Western Action #1 (Feb. 1975).
As both writer and artist, Wildey created his own Western feature, "Rio", that ran in Eclipse Comics
' Eclipse Monthly #1-10 (Aug. 1983 - July 1984), and he returned to his most prominent creation that decade with a Jonny Quest
comic-book series published by Comico
. Wildey wrote and drew the stories in Jonny Quest #1 (July 1986) and Jonny Quest Classics #1-3 (May–July 1987), and provided several covers. Comico also reprinted several of his Rio stories in a June 1987 one-shot, and Wildey produced new Rio stories for Dark Horse Comics
' two-issue miniseries
Rio at Bay (July-Aug. 1992).
His last original comics work was the painted art for the eight-page Western tale "The End of the Time of Leinard" by writers Faye Perozich and Harlan Ellison
in Dark Horse's Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor Special (Jan. 1995).
, Nevada
, on October 5, 1994.
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
and comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
artist best known for his co-creation of the 1964 animated television series, Jonny Quest
Jonny Quest (TV series)
Jonny Quest – often casually referred to as The Adventures of Jonny Quest – is an American science fiction/adventure animated television series about a boy who accompanies his father on extraordinary adventures...
for Hanna-Barbera Productions.
Early life and career
Yonkers, New York
Yonkers is the fourth most populous city in the state of New York , and the most populous city in Westchester County, with a population of 195,976...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, adjacent to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. He did World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
military service at Naval Air Station Barbers Point
Kalaeloa Airport
Kalaeloa Airport , also called John Rodgers Field and formerly Naval Air Station Barbers Point, is a joint civil-military regional airport of the State of Hawaii established on July 1, 1999 to replace the Ford Island NALF facilities which closed on June 30 of the same year...
in Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
, where he began his art career as a cartoonist
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
for the base newspaper. He recalled his professional start as freelancing for the magazine and comic-book company Street and Smith Publications in 1947. Because comic-book writer and artist credits were not routinely given during this era, the earliest confirmed Wildey works are two signed pieces in this publisher's Top Secret #9 (June 1949): a one-page house ad and the 10-page adventure story "Queen in Jeopardy", by an unknown writer.
He went on to draw primarily Western
Western fiction
Western fiction is a genre of literature set in the American Old West frontier and typically set from the late eighteenth to the late nineteenth century. Well-known writers of Western fiction include Zane Grey from the early 1900s and Louis L'Amour from the mid 20th century...
stories for Youthful Magazines comics including Buffalo Bill
Buffalo Bill
William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody was a United States soldier, bison hunter and showman. He was born in the Iowa Territory , in LeClaire but lived several years in Canada before his family moved to the Kansas Territory. Buffalo Bill received the Medal of Honor in 1872 for service to the US...
, Gunsmoke (unrelated to the later television series
Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....
), and Indian Fighter. He also contributed to the publishers Master Comics, Story Comics, Cross Publications and possibly others, puckishly observing that he'd worked for every publisher except EC, "the good one".
In 1952, Wildey moved his family — wife Ellen and daughters Debbie and Lee — to Tucson
Tucson, Arizona
Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States. The city is located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2010 United States Census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 1,020,200...
, Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
. Two years later, he began a regular stint at Atlas Comics
Atlas Comics (1950s)
Atlas Comics is the term used to describe the 1950s comic book publishing company that would evolve into Marvel Comics. Magazine and paperback novel publisher Martin Goodman, whose business strategy involved having a multitude of corporate entities, used Atlas as the umbrella name for his comic...
, the 1950s forerunner of Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
, where he drew dozens of Western
Western comics
Western comics is a comics genre usually depicting the American Old West frontier and typically set during the late nineteenth century...
stories through 1957, primarily four- and five-page tales in such titles as Frontier Western. His art also appeared in in the Atlas horror
Horror comics
Horror comics are comic books, graphic novels, black-and-white comics magazines, and manga focusing on horror fiction. Horror comic books reached a peak in the late 1940s through the mid-1950s, when concern over content and the imposition of the self-censorship Comics Code Authority contributed to...
-fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
comics Journey into Unknown Worlds, Marvel Tales
Marvel Tales
Marvel Tales is the title of three American comic-book series published by Marvel Comics, the first of them from the company's 1950s predecessor, Atlas Comics...
, Mystery Tales, Mystic, Strange Tales, Uncanny Tales
Uncanny Tales (comics)
Uncanny Tales was an American horror comic book that had a fifty-six issue run, beginning publication with its cover-dated June 1952 issue and ceasing publication with its cover-dated September 1957 issue. The title bridged the pre-Code Golden Age and Silver Age of Comic Books. It was published by...
, and others.
Historian Ken Quattro describes Wildey's most "noteworthy" Western as the 19-issue Atlas series Outlaw Kid
Outlaw Kid
The Outlaw Kid is a fictional Western hero in Marvel Comics' shared universe, the Marvel Universe, whose comic book series was originally released by the company's 1950s iteration, Atlas Comics...
, "his take on the classic Western antihero", in which Wildey illustrated three to four stories per issue:
Much of this work was reprinted by Marvel from 1970 through 1974, exposing his work to a later generation.
After an Atlas Comics retrenchment in 1957 — during which the company mixed a trove of inventory stories by Wildey and many others with new material for two to three years — Wildey freelanced on a small number of standalone anthology stories for two other publishers: Harvey Comics
Harvey Comics
Harvey Comics was an American comic book publisher, founded in New York City by Alfred Harvey in 1941, after buying out the small publisher Brookwood Publications. His brothers Robert B...
, in the science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
/fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
titles Alarming Tales #3-5 (Jan.-Sept. 1958), and Black Cat Mystic
Black Cat (Harvey Comics)
The Black Cat is a comic book adventure heroine published by Harvey Comics from 1941 to 1951. Harvey also published reprints of the character in both the mid fifties and the early sixties...
#62 (March 1958), Hi-School Romance #73 (March 1958) and Warfront #34 (Sept. 1958); and DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
, in Tales of the Unexpected
Tales of the Unexpected
Tales of the Unexpected may refer to:*Tales of the Unexpected , a 1950s-1960s comic book*Tales of the Unexpected , a collection of short stories by Roald Dahl...
#33 & 35 (Nov. 1958, March 1959), House of Secrets #17 (Feb.1959), My Greatest Adventure
My Greatest Adventure
My Greatest Adventure was a DC Comics comic book that began in 1955 and is best known as the original title for the superhero team, the Doom Patrol.-Publication history:...
#28 & 32 (Nov. 1958 & June 1959), and House of Mystery
House of Mystery
The House of Mystery is the name of several horror-mystery-suspense anthology comic book series. It had a companion series, House of Secrets.-Genesis:...
#89 (Aug. 1959). He also later drew the first issue of Dell Comics
Dell Comics
Dell Comics was the comic book publishing arm of Dell Publishing, which got its start in pulp magazines. It published comics from 1929 to 1973. At its peak, it was the most prominent and successful American company in the medium...
' TV series spin-off Dr. Kildare
Dr. Kildare
Dr. James Kildare is a fictional character, the primary character in a series of American theatrical films in the late 1930s and early 1940s, an early 1950s radio series, a 1960s television series of the same name and a comic book based on the TV show, and a short-lived 1970s television series...
(a.k.a. Four Color #1337, June 1962).
In either 1959 or 1961 (sources vary) he took over the art for writer Leslie Charteris
Leslie Charteris
Leslie Charteris , born Leslie Charles Bowyer-Yin, was a half-Chinese, half English author of primarily mystery fiction, as well as a screenwriter. He was best known for his many books chronicling the adventures of Simon Templar, alias "The Saint."-Early life:Charteris was born to a Chinese father...
' long-running New York Herald Tribune Syndicate comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
The Saint. Some of there strips were inked by Dick Ayers
Dick Ayers
Richard "Dick" Ayers is an American comic book artist and cartoonist best known for his work as one of Jack Kirby's inkers during the late-1950s and 1960s period known as the Silver Age of Comics, including on some of the earliest issues of Marvel Comics' The Fantastic Four, and as the signature...
as the deadlines of producing a daily and Sunday strip proved daunting. The strip ended in 1962. Adding credence to the latter date is Wildey spending part of 1960, possibly only a month, penciling his idol Milton Caniff
Milton Caniff
Milton Arthur Paul Caniff was an American cartoonist famous for the Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon comic strips.-Biography:...
's famed Steve Canyon
Steve Canyon
Steve Canyon was a long-running American adventure comic strip by writer-artist Milton Caniff. Launched shortly after Caniff retired from his previous strip, Terry and the Pirates, Steve Canyon ran from January 13, 1947 until June 4, 1988, shortly after Caniff's death...
comic strip and trying unsuccessfully to launch his own syndicated strip.
Two such proposed strips would help provide a character name and some narrative background to Wildey's later animated television series, Jonny Quest. As he described in 1986,
Television animation
Following the end of The SaintThe Saint
- Fiction :* Simon Templar, also known as "The Saint", the protagonist of a book series by Leslie Charteris and subsequent adaptations:** The Saint , starring Louis Hayward , George Sanders and Hugh Sinclair...
comic strip in 1962, Wildey found, through an ad in the National Cartoonists Society
National Cartoonists Society
The National Cartoonists Society is an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States. It presents the National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Society was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the troops...
newsletter, what was initially a one-week television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
animation
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
job in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, working under artist Alex Toth
Alex Toth
Alexander Toth was an American professional cartoonist active from the 1940s through the 1980s. Toth's work began in the American comic book industry, but is known for his animation designs for Hanna-Barbera throughout the 1960s and 1970s. His work included Super Friends, Space Ghost, The...
on Cambria Productions
Cambria Productions
Cambria Productions was the West Hollywood, California animation production studio most famous for its wide usage of the Syncro-Vox technique of animation developed by Edwin Gillette, who was a co-partner in the studio.Owned by Clark S. Haas, Jr...
' 1962 animated series Space Angel
Space Angel
Space Angel was an animated science fiction television series produced in the United States from early 1962 through 1964. It used the same Synchro-Vox lip technique as Clutch Cargo, the first cartoon produced by the same studio, Cambria Productions....
. Wildey eventually worked on the series for "about 12 or 14 weeks", after which, he recalled in 1986,
Wildey wrote and drew a presentation, using such magazines as Popular Science
Popular Science
Popular Science is an American monthly magazine founded in 1872 carrying articles for the general reader on science and technology subjects. Popular Science has won over 58 awards, including the ASME awards for its journalistic excellence in both 2003 and 2004...
, Popular Mechanics
Popular Mechanics
Popular Mechanics is an American magazine first published January 11, 1902 by H. H. Windsor, and has been owned since 1958 by the Hearst Corporation...
, and Science Digest
Science Digest
Science Digest was a monthly American magazine published by the Hearst Corporation from 1937 through 1986. It initially had an 8 x 5 inch format with about 100 pages, and was targeted at persons with a high school education level...
"to project what would be happening 10 years hence", and devising or fancifully updating such devices as a "snowskimmer" and hydrofoil
Hydrofoil
A hydrofoil is a foil which operates in water. They are similar in appearance and purpose to airfoils.Hydrofoils can be artificial, such as the rudder or keel on a boat, the diving planes on a submarine, a surfboard fin, or occur naturally, as with fish fins, the flippers of aquatic mammals, the...
s. When Hanna-Barbera could not obtain the rights to Jack Armstrong, the studio had Wildey rework the concept. Wildey "went home and wrote Jonny Quest that night — which was not that tough." For inspiration he drew on Jackie Cooper
Jackie Cooper
Jackie Cooper was an American actor, television director, producer and executive. He was a child actor who managed to make the transition to an adult career. Cooper was the first child actor to receive an Academy Award nomination...
and Frankie Darrow movies, Milton Caniff
Milton Caniff
Milton Arthur Paul Caniff was an American cartoonist famous for the Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon comic strips.-Biography:...
's comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
Terry and the Pirates
Terry and the Pirates
Terry and the Pirates is the title of:* Terry and the Pirates , the comic strip created by Milton Caniff* Terry and the Pirates , a radio serial based on the comic strip...
, and, at the behest of Hanna-Barbera, the James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
movie Dr. No
Dr. No (film)
Dr. No is a 1962 spy film, starring Sean Connery; it is the first James Bond film. Based on the 1958 Ian Fleming novel of the same name, it was adapted by Richard Maibaum, Johanna Harwood, and Berkely Mather and was directed by Terence Young. The film was produced by Harry Saltzman and Albert R...
. Hanna-Barbera refused to give him a "created by" credit, Wildey said in 1986, and he and studio "finally arrived on 'Based on an idea created by', and that was my credit."
The prime-time TV animated series Jonny Quest
Jonny Quest (TV series)
Jonny Quest – often casually referred to as The Adventures of Jonny Quest – is an American science fiction/adventure animated television series about a boy who accompanies his father on extraordinary adventures...
debuted on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
on September 18, 1964. As comics historian Daniel Herman wrote,
Wildey did not design the more cartoonishly drawn comic relief
Comic relief
Comic relief is the inclusion of a humorous character, scene or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious work, often to relieve tension.-Definition:...
pet dog, Bandit, which was designed by animator Dick Bickenbach.
Wildey went on to work on animated series including Herculoids, Jana of the Jungle
Jana of the Jungle
Jana of the Jungle is a cartoon produced by Hanna-Barbera. It first aired alongside Godzilla as The Godzilla Power Hour.-Plot:The series is essentially about a female version of Tarzan named Jana , who traveled to the rain forests of South America in search of her lost father...
, Return to the Planet of the Apes
Return to the Planet of the Apes
Return to the Planet of the Apes is a short-lived animated series, by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises in association with 20th Century Fox Television, based upon Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle. Boulle's novel had previously been adapted in a series of movies, beginning with the 1968 Planet of the...
(1975), The Godzilla Power Hour
The Godzilla Power Hour
Godzilla is a 30-minute animated series co-produced between Hanna-Barbera Productions and Toho in 1978 and aired on NBC in the US and TV Tokyo in Japan.The series is an animated adaptation of the Japanese Godzilla films produced by Toho...
(1978), Mister T
Mister T (TV series)
Mister T was an animated series that aired on NBC from 1983 to 1986. A total of 30 episodes were produced during the first two seasons, with the final season consisting entirely of reruns...
(1983), and Chuck Norris: Karate Kommandos (1986).
Return to comics
In the mid-1960s, Wildey returned to comic bookComic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
s, drawing stories for the premiere issues of Harvey Comics
Harvey Comics
Harvey Comics was an American comic book publisher, founded in New York City by Alfred Harvey in 1941, after buying out the small publisher Brookwood Publications. His brothers Robert B...
' Thrill-O-Rama, Unearthly Spectaculars (both Oct. 1965 series) and Double-Dare Adventures (Dec. 1965). Most significantly during this time, he collaborated with writer Gaylord DuBois
Gaylord DuBois
Gaylord McIlvaine Du Bois , or DuBois In his lifetime he wrote well over 3000 comic book stories and comic strips as well as Big Little Books and juvenile adventure...
on Gold Key Comics
Gold Key Comics
Gold Key Comics was an imprint of Western Publishing created for comic books distributed to newsstands. Also known as Whitman Comics, Gold Key operated from 1962 to 1984.-History:...
' licensed series Tarzan
Tarzan
Tarzan is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungles by the Mangani "great apes"; he later experiences civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer...
when that long-running comic, which had been reprinting stories drawn by Russ Manning
Russ Manning
Russell Manning was an American comic book artist who created the series Magnus, Robot Fighter and illustrated such newspaper comic strips as Tarzan and Star Wars...
, began producing new work beginning with issue #179 (Sept. 1968). The duo's work appeared through issue #187 (Sept. 1969).
After a hiatus from comic books, broken only by three 1971 stories for Skywald's black-and-white horror-comics magazines Psycho and Nightmare, plus the Haunted Tank story "The Armored Ark" in DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
' G.I. Combat
G.I. Combat
G.I. Combat is a long-running comic book series published first by Quality Comics and later by National Periodical Publications, which was the primary company of those that evolved to become DC Comics.-Publication history:...
#153 (May 1972), Wildey created the comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
Ambler, which ran from 1972 to 1975. Syndicated
Print syndication
Print syndication distributes news articles, columns, comic strips and other features to newspapers, magazines and websites. They offer reprint rights and grant permissions to other parties for republishing content of which they own/represent copyrights....
to newspapers by the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate
Tribune Media Services
Tribune Media Services is a syndication company owned by the Tribune Company.The company has two divisions, "News and Features" and "Entertainment Products"...
, the contemporary strip chronicled the adventures of an itinerant folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
ian.
Afterward, Wildey returned to comic books to do stories for Archie Comics
Archie Comics
Archie Comics is an American comic book publisher headquartered in the Village of Mamaroneck, Town of Mamaroneck, New York, known for its many series featuring the fictional teenagers Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Reggie Mantle and Jughead Jones. The characters were created by...
' horror-humor anthology series Mad House, Gold Key's Mystery Comics Digest, and DC's Our Army at War
Our Army at War
Our Army at War was the title for a comic book published by DC Comics that featured war themed stories and was the first appearance for popular heroes such like Sgt. Rock and Enemy Ace. The series started in August 1952 and ended in February 1977....
and Sgt. Rock, among other titles. Returning to his Western roots, he drew the feature "Jonah Hex
Jonah Hex
Jonah Woodson Hex is a Western comic book antihero created by writer John Albano and artist Tony DeZuniga and published by DC Comics. Hex is a surly and cynical bounty hunter whose face is horribly scarred on the right side. Despite his poor reputation and personality, Hex is bound by a personal...
" in DC's Weird Western Tales
Weird Western Tales
Weird Western Tales is a Western genre comic book title published by DC Comics which ran from June-July 1972 to August 1980. It is perhaps best known for featuring the adventures of Jonah Hex until #38 when the character was promoted to his own eponymous series...
#26 (Feb. 1975) and co-created with writer Larry Lieber
Larry Lieber
Lawrence D. "Larry" Lieber is an American comic book artist and writer, and the younger brother of Marvel Comics' writer, editor and publisher Stan Lee....
the feature "Kid Cody, Gunfighter" in Atlas/Seaboard Comics
Atlas/Seaboard Comics
Atlas/Seaboard is the term comic-book historians and collectors use to refer to the 1970s line of comics published as Atlas Comics by the American company Seaboard Periodicals, to differentiate from the 1950s' Atlas Comics, a predecessor of Marvel Comics...
' Western Action #1 (Feb. 1975).
As both writer and artist, Wildey created his own Western feature, "Rio", that ran in Eclipse Comics
Eclipse Comics
Eclipse Comics was an American comic book publisher, one of several independent publishers during the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1978, it published the first graphic novel intended for the newly created comic book specialty store market...
' Eclipse Monthly #1-10 (Aug. 1983 - July 1984), and he returned to his most prominent creation that decade with a Jonny Quest
Jonny Quest
Jonny Quest is a media franchise that revolves around a boy named Jonny Quest who accompanies his father on extraordinary adventures. The franchise started with a 1964-65 television series and has come to include two subsequent television series, two television films, and a video game.-1964–1965...
comic-book series published by Comico
Comicó
Comicó is a village and municipality in Río Negro Province in Argentina....
. Wildey wrote and drew the stories in Jonny Quest #1 (July 1986) and Jonny Quest Classics #1-3 (May–July 1987), and provided several covers. Comico also reprinted several of his Rio stories in a June 1987 one-shot, and Wildey produced new Rio stories for Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...
' two-issue miniseries
Miniseries
A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
Rio at Bay (July-Aug. 1992).
His last original comics work was the painted art for the eight-page Western tale "The End of the Time of Leinard" by writers Faye Perozich and Harlan Ellison
Harlan Ellison
Harlan Jay Ellison is an American writer. His principal genre is speculative fiction.His published works include over 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, teleplays, essays, a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media...
in Dark Horse's Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor Special (Jan. 1995).
Death
Wildey died of heart failure in Las VegasLas Vegas metropolitan area
The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...
, Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
, on October 5, 1994.
External links
- The Doug Wildey Index, Comicartille Library