The family of cartoonist-editor George Wildman is reporting his passing this morning at the age of 88. Wildman was a native of Connecticut. He served in the Navy during both World War II and the Korean War, then turned his attention to commercial art and cartooning. Eventually, he found his way to Charlton Press, a publisher based in Derby, Connecticut. For them, he drew many comics but most notably Popeye, and he was hired by the firm in 1971 as as Assistant Editor. A few years later, he became the top editor for the company.
Even while serving as editor for Charlton, Wildman was freelancing for other companies, including drawing Popeye comics for Western Publishing Company when they reacquired the rights to publish the comic book adventures of the spinach-eating sailor. Among the other comics he drew were Underdog (for Western), Heathcliff (for Marvel) and Animaniacs (for DC). To his last day, he and his son operated a successful advertising and commercial art studio. In 1982, he won the "Best Cartoonist, Humor Division" award from the National Cartoonists Society.
I only met Mr. Wildman once briefly but he sure seemed like a nice, enthusiastic man. It matched up with descriptions from this colleagues that he was a guy who truly loved cartooning and cartoonists and was proud to be in the business. The business was quite fortunate to have him.