 In 2005 then-current artist George Olesen announced his retirement.Jay Kennedy, editor-in-chief at King Features Syndicate, chose Ryan to assume the artist's role on the daily strips, beginning with those published in January of that year (Ryan had been the artist on King's "Amazing Spider-Man" strip a decade earlier).Then in October 2006 Graham Nolan, artist on "The Phantom" Sunday Strip, announced his intended departure from the series.