Monty Wedd undertook drawing lessons with the artist Oswald Brock while still at school and later attended art classes at the East Sydney Technical College. Wedd was hired as a junior poster artist with the Hackett Offset Printing Company, but left the firm to join the furniture manufacturer Corkhill and Lang, eventually becoming advertising manager under the company's new owners, Frazer's Furniture.
Wedd enlisted with the Australian Army in 1942, where he served as a Gunner (1 Field Regiment) until the following year. Wedd transferred to the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in February 1943, attaining the rank of Leading Aircraftman (34 Squadron). Upon discharge from the RAAF in May 1946, Wedd completed a commercial art course he had begun prior to the war under the Commonwealth Reconstruction Training Scheme.
Late in 1946, Wedd wrote and illustrated his first comic-book story, a French Foreign Legion adventure titled 'Sword and Sabre', which was accepted for publication by Syd Nicholls (q.v.) and appeared in Middy Malone's Magazine. At Nicholls's urging, Wedd's next comic strip serial had an Australian setting and would feature his most enduring comic book hero. 'Captain Justice' was a masked horseman who fought bushrangers in colonial-era New South Wales. Wedd was encouraged by the author Jack Heming (q.v.) to undertake research to ensure the comic's historical accuracy, thereby fuelling Wedd's lifelong interest in Australian history. 'Captain Justice' premiered in Middy Malone's Magazine and thereafter became a headline feature in Nicholls' flagship publication, Fatty Finn's Comic (Fatty Finn Publications, Sydney, NSW, ca. 1945-1949).
Prior to the closure of Fatty Finn Publications in 1950, Wedd produced one-off comic book titles for Elmsdale Publications, including a secret-agent thriller, Kirk Raven, and a western, Tod Trail and the Apache Renegades. During this period, Wedd illustrated pulp-novel covers for several publishers, including Action Comics (see Indian Pass), Malian Press (see Fight to Kill), and Whitman Press (see Murder Without Motive). During December 1950, Wedd's cover illustration for the crime novel The Little Boy Laughed (Whitman Press, Sydney, NSW, ca.1950) was referred to in newspaper reports, which cited its condemnation by the Federation of Victorian Mothers' Clubs as an example of undesirable 'horror' literature.
In 1950, New Century Press commissioned a new Captain Justice comic book, but insisted that Wedd relocate the series in the American West, to cater for local audiences' perceived preference for American cowboy heroes. Wedd's most popular comic book, The Scorpion, was released by Alstan Publications (formerly Elmsdale Publications) in September 1954. The series' criminal anti-hero proved popular with readers and The Scorpion soon achieved sales of 100,000 copies per issue, but not without controversy. A knife-fight scene in the sixth issue was censored and the comic itself was banned from sale in Queensland by the Literature Board of Review in March 1955. Gordon and Gotch subsequently refused to distribute The Scorpion title to other states, forcing the comic's cancellation with the ninth issue.
Calvert Publishing reissued Wedd's previous series of Captain Justice (originally produced for New Century Press) in 1955, but in accordance with Gordon and Gotch's new internal censorship guidelines, replaced the character's full-face hood with a smaller eye-mask. Calvert Publishing also published a spin-off title, Lance Harwood, starring Captain Justice's alter-ego, journalist Lance Harwood. Wedd wrote and illustrated several issues of Kent Blake of the Secret Service, an American title reprinted under licence by Calvert Publishing. Wedd steered his Kent Blake episodes away from the series' contemporary Cold War-era setting, focusing instead on Australian military exploits during World War II.
Bill Hornadge (q.v.) invited Wedd to contribute to his magazine, Stamp News (Review Publications, Dubbo, NSW, est. 1954). Wedd's editorial features, 'The Story Behind the Stamp' and 'Stamp Oddity', were syndicated to the USA and West Germany and later republished as Stamp Oddities (Review Publications, Dubbo, NSW, ca.1969) and Stamp Stories (Review Publications, Dubbo, NSW, ca.1970). Hornadge and Wedd collaborated on a further philatelic title, Explore Australia Through Stamps (Review Publications, Dubbo, NSW, ca.1971).
In the mid-1950s, Wedd worked with Tom Stanley Hepworth (q.v.) on several educational publications. Wedd contributed the historical comic strip 'The Outcasts' and the schoolboy cartoon 'Tim' to The Australian Children's Newspaper (Educational Press, Sydney, NSW, est. 1953). Wedd produced numerous illustrations for the ABC Children's Hour Annual (ca. 1956-1958) and the Australian Children's Annual (ca.1960-1965), published by Hepworth on behalf of the Australian Broadcasting Commission.
Wedd illustrated Macquarie the Builder (Australian Visual Education, Sydney, ca.1958), a comic-strip biography of Lachlan Macquarie (q.v.), Governor of New South Wales, published as part of the Pictorial Social Studies series. Wedd revisited this historical theme in 'Children of Fortune', a comic strip set in colonial New South Wales, which appeared in The Australian Women's Mirror in the late 1950s.
In 1958, Wedd was appointed editor of Australian Chuckler's Weekly, a children's magazine based on the 'Charlie Chuckles' comic-strip supplement appearing in the Sunday Telegraph. Wedd contributed two comic strips to the magazine, 'King Comet and the Space Rangers' and a new 'Captain Justice' serial (the latter later reissued as a new Captain Justice comic book by Horwitz Publications, ca.1963). A further 'Captain Justice' comic strip was serialised in Woman's Day from September 1964 - April 1965.
Throughout the early 1960s, Wedd was in great demand as a television presenter, discussing items from his growing collection of historical Australian artefacts. He collaborated with magazine editor and author Frank S. Greenop (q.v.) on several 'Australiana' projects for corporate clients. In 1965, the Decimal Currency Board commissioned Wedd to devise an educational comic strip about Australia's conversion to decimal currency, featuring the 'Dollar Bill' character, which was syndicated to newspapers throughout Australia.
In 1966, Wedd embarked on a new career in cartoon animation, working as a production designer for Artransa Park Studios on the animated television series The Lone Ranger (1966) and Rocket Robin Hood (1966). Throughout the early 1970s, Wedd worked as a layout artist for Eric Porter Studios and Air Programs International, where his credits include the animated feature film Marco Polo versus the Red Dragon (1972) and the television series Super Friends (1973).
Wedd returned to comics in 1974, when he commenced work on the meticulously researched, historical comic strip 'Ned Kelly'. Based on the life of the Australian bushranger, the strip debuted in the Sunday Mirror and was syndicated to several interstate newspapers. The success of 'Ned Kelly' prompted the Sunday Mirror to commission a further historical bushranger strip, 'Ben Hall', which premiered in 1977.
Wedd's last major comic strip project was 'The Making of a Nation', produced to coincide with Australia's Bicentennial celebrations in 1988. The comic strip was published in the Sunday Telegraph, the Sunday Mail, and the Sunday Territorian. The strip was republished in a two-volume book collection, Discovery and Settlement (Vol.1) and Exploration and Rebellion (Vol.2) (Wedd Historical Productions, Williamtown, NSW, 1988).
Wedd became a widely recognised authority on Australian military history, leading him to write and illustrate the book Australian Military Uniforms, 1800-1982 (Kangaroo Press, Kenthust NSW, 1982). Wedd's collection of militaria and Australian historical artefacts was relocated from its original home in the Sydney suburb of Dee Why (where it had been housed since 1960) to the purpose-built Monarch Historical Museum in Port Stephens, New South Wales, in 1998.
