Born in Chicago, George Sixta studied at thee Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. He began working for the Chicago Times at age 20, doing sports cartoons and illustrations. He started his syndicated strip 'Dick Draper, Foreign Correspondent' when he joined the Navy in 1941. He began contributing to the Saturday Evening Post in 1951. Back in civil life, he began newspaper features like 'One for the Book' and 'Hit or Miss'. He is however best-known for his newspaper strip 'Rivets', about a wire-haired terrier who served as a Navy mascot. It debuted in the Saturday Evening Post in 1944, and was published daily in the Sun-Times from 1953 to 1985. It was syndicated to newspapers across the country by Field Newspaper Syndicate and its successor, News America Syndicate. George Sixta passed away in Laguna Hills, California, in 1986, at the age of 76.
'Rivets', from the Dutch paper Drentsche en Asser Courant (29 June 1965).