Most readily identified as the creator of the free-spirited and strong-willed maid Hazel cartoon character and television series, California-born artist and author Ted Key is a master of many media. According to Richard E. Marshall in The World Encyclopedia of Cartoons (New York: Gale Research Company, 1980), by the late 1930s, Key was "possibly the most published gag cartoonist in America." With the debut of Hazel in 1943, Key contracted with the Saturday Evening Post for sole rights distribution, an agreement that continued without interruption through Master Sergeant Key's World War II service and until the Post folded in 1969, when the irrepressible Hazel went on to do duty as a daily item for King Features. For a decade, Key also contributed the Diz and Liz double-page cartoon to Jack and Jill magazine.
In addition to his illustration work, Key also authored an NBC radio play, three screenplays for Disney (The Cat from Outer Space, Million Dollar Duck, and Gus), and a classic children's book, Phyllis. Key's creations have since flourished on video and DVD. A donation of their originator, the Ted Key Papers extend to twenty-three linear feet and include more than twelve hundred original cartoons, correspondence, book and screenplay manuscripts and production records, published cartoons, and other printed material.
A series of nonpartisan political candidate poses simply titled Theirs and Ours by Ted Key
It's Nothing to Worry about. They All Look Like Humans at First