George S. Wunder was a cartoonist best known for his 26 years illustrating the Terry and the Pirates comic strip. Born in Manhattan, Wunder grew up in Kingston, New York. As a youth, he planned a career as a professional comics artist. Other than correspondence courses, including the International Correspondence School art course, he was a self-taught artist. At the age of 24, he began as a staff artist at the Associated Press, where he worked alongside illustrator Noel Sickles and sports cartoonist Tom Paprocki. At AP, Wunder illustrated fiction and various editorial cartoon features, such as "Can Hitler Beat the Russian Jinx?" During World War II, he served in the Army from 1942 to 1946. Returning to the Associated Press after World War II, he drew the strip See for Yourself in 1946 for AP Newsfeatures.
''Terry and the Pirates''
In 1946, when Milton Caniff left Terry and the Pirates, there were about 100 artists who applied for the job, according to Caniff. Wunder submitted samples, and the Tribune-News Syndicate chose Wunder as Caniff's replacement. Wunder's first Terry and the Pirates appeared in newspapers on December 30, 1946, launching the story "Trouble in Tibet". Comics historian Don Markstein noted the transition: Initially, Wunder drew the strip so it was similar to that of Caniff and Sickles, but he soon developed his own distinctive style. Hotshot Charlie, for example, was drawn in a more openly humorous manner than before. In 1953, Canada Dry offered a "premium giveaway" with a case of its ginger ale — one minibook in a trilogy series of Terry and the Pirates strips by Wunder, printed by Harvey Comics. Throughout the 1950s, the Sunday pages used color for psychological effect. One Wunder panel from that period has no blue or green shadows as one might expect; the panel was colored only with orange, red and yellow. In another, Terry is colored green in front, and his back is a yellow-orange. Wunder drew dramatic and highly detailed pictures, but comics historian Maurice Horn claimed it was difficult to tell one character from another and wrote that Wunder's stories lacked Caniff's essential humor. At the end of the 1950s, Hotshot Charlie was dropped from the strip, which was drawn and colored in a more sedate manner with careful attention to the airplanes flown by Terry Lee and his friends. Writer-artist Bill Pearson noted that Wunder spent "decades producing a very solid adventure strip. He drew ugly people, even young women, which was certainly a curious trait, but he was one of the very best inkers in the business. His technique was flawless." With his clean and precise inking style, Wunder filled his panels with numerous foreground and background details, as landscape painterBob Foster observed:
Assistants
In mid 1962 former EC Comics and Classics Illustrated artist George Evans came on board as Wunder's assistant on the daily strip. As Evans related in an interview in The Comics Journal #177, "George would lay out the strip, pencil and ink the characters's heads, and I would finish the strip." Evans said that during these years Wunder did the Sunday pages all himself. In the same interview he told how he had drawn a daily strip where a general's uniform varied from the way Wunder drew the character in the Sunday for that week, necessitating re-drawing parts of the Sunday. Evans offered to help, but Wunder wouldn't let him saying, "It wasn't your mistake." Then he dug out his electric eraser and went to work on the Sunday. Evans worked on the strip until it was cancelled in 1973. Other artists who stepped in to assist Wunder included Lee Elias, Russ Heath, Fred Kida, Don Sherwood, Frank Springer and Wally Wood.
Retirement
The strip was being carried in 100 newspapers when Wunder retired in 1973. The New York Daily News ran every Terry and the Pirates daily and Sunday except for the final three weeks by Wunder in 1973. At the time of his retirement, Wunder commented: When Wunder, who lived in Sherman, Connecticut, announced his retirement, the syndicate chose to cancel the strip on February 25, 1973. Wunder regarded the cancellation as a Vietnam War casualty, commenting, "The fighter pilot is no longer the glamorous, reckless defender of the free world against all comers. He's now the cold-blooded professional dropping napalm on women and children."
Death
Wunder died of a heart attack in the New Milford Hospital on Sunday, December 13, 1987, survived by his wife, Mildred, and his sister, Beatrice Bogert of Riverdale, New Jersey. At age 87, Mildred "Millie" A. Wunder, who was known as "Mrs. Terry and the Pirates," died March 1, 2001, in Port St. Lucie, Florida after a short illness.
''Our Guest Star''
Wunder's Our Guest Star was a 1955 promotional strip featuring characters from Terry and the Pirates with cameo appearances by film stars and other celebrities.
