George Olesen has been drawing since he was at school, doing art for school yearbooks and art magazines. While being a pilot during World War II, he drew a daily cartoon for the Officer's Mess. After the war, Olesen studied at the Pratt Institute, where he majored in illustration. In 1949 started working on the comic book 'Little Beaver'. He also drew the newspaper Sunday page 'Ozark Ike', created by Ray Gotto, in the mid-1950s. He later went on to NBC TV-news and became the only daily Metropolitan News artist. From 1965, he was also active as an advertising artist. In 1961, Olesen started pencilling Sy Barry's 'Phantom' Sunday pages. In 1978 he also took on the daily stories. He wasn't credited until Keith Williams replaced Barry as the inker. Olesen also worked on stories for the Scandinavia Phantom magazine. He retired in 2005, leaving the syndicated strip to Paul Ryan.
|
