George Olesen (December 6, 1924 – October 15, 2013) was an
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
comic book
A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
artist, best known for his work as a penciller on popular comic strip ''
The Phantom
''The Phantom'' is an American adventure comic strip, first published by Lee Falk in February 1936. The main character, the Phantom, is a fictional costumed crime-fighter who operates from the fictional African country of Bangalla. The charact ...
''. He worked with the character for around forty years, although he did not get any official credit for it until penciller
Sy Barry
Seymour "Sy" Barry (born March 12, 1928) at the
Keith Williams took over as the new inker.
Olesen also illustrated a few Phantom stories for the Scandinavian Phantom comics, which he both pencilled and inked.
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
Olesen served as a
B-24
The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models des ...
pilot in the Burma campaign. After the war he earned an illustration degree from the
Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was ...
.
Olesen retired in 2005, leaving
Paul Ryan
Paul Davis Ryan (born January 29, 1970) is an American former politician who served as the List of Speakers of the United States House of Representatives, 54th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2015 to 2019. A member o ...
to take over both the pencilling and inking jobs on ''The Phantom''. Olesen enjoyed a quiet life with his wife Rigmor, far away from the stressing deadlines he constantly had to face as a cartoonist.
Olesen died on October 15, 2013.