On his return, he became a commercial artist and made the rounds of comic-book publishers, quickly getting work with publisher Ned Pines' Standard Comics and its imprints Better Publications and Nedor Publishing. There he drew his first known credited work, the backup feature "Roger Dodger" in "Exciting Comics" #51–67 (Sept. 1946 – May 1949). Hartley also did humor one- and two-pagers for the publisher's "America's Best Comics" #20–28 (Dec. 1946 – Nov. 1948), as well as the feature "Zippie" in "The Fighting Yank", and pieces for "Startling Comics" and "Wonder Comics".