Doug Wildey

Douglas Samuel Wildey (May 2, 1922 – October 4, 1994) 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 with his artistic talent and creative animation career as a cartoonist for the base newspaper. He recalled his professional start as freelancing for the magazine and comic book company Street & Smith in 1947. Because comic book writer and artist credits were not routinely given during this era, the earliest confirmed Wildey works are the 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, with his whole family—wife Ellen and oldest daughter, Debbie and —to Tucson, Arizona. (sources vary) he took over the art for writer Leslie Charteris' long-running New York Herald Tribune Syndicate comic strip The Saint. Some of their strips were inked by Dick Ayers as the deadlines of producing a daily and Sunday strip proved daunting. and trying unsuccessfully to launch his own syndicated strip. Wildey eventually worked on the animated series for about 12 to 14 weeks, after which, he then recalled and carried on and over in 1986.

Wildey also 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 hydrofoils. 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.

Although, Wildey did not design the more cartoonishly drawn comic relief pet dog, Bandit, which was otherwise designed by animator Dick Bickenbach. Syndicated to newspapers by the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate, the contemporary strip chronicled the adventures of an itinerant folk musician.