Terry Beatty, who is from Iowa, teamed up with writer Max Allen Collins in 1979 to create 'The Comics Page', a weekly syndicated comics page of jokes, activities and puzzle-comic, starring private eye 'Mike Mist'. The feature didn't last long, but the character continued its career in issues of Mystery Magazine and as a back-up feature in the 'E-Man' comic book. Beatty worked with Collins on several other projects, including the 'Mrs Tree' comic book (1981), which also featured 'Mike Mist'. They then cooperated on the fourt-part mini-series 'Wild Dog', published by DC, and revived Pete Morisi's 'Johnny Dynamite' series as a mini-series for Dark Horse.