Oli Frey

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Oli Frey (real name Oliver Frey) worked as a magazine illustrator and comic-strip artist in the 1970s and 1980s. Born in Switzerland in 1948, his family moved to Britain when he was young, then moved back to Switzerland a few years later.

As a child he loved The Eagle comic, and as an adult was able to fulfil his childhood dream by working on the revived version, drawing the strip Dan Dare. Also during the 1970s, he illustrated for IPC Media's Look and Learn magazine, including the strip The Trigan Empire.

When his brother Franco founded the computer magazine CRASH in 1983, together with Roger Kean, Oli became the magazine's illustrator. He also illustrated CRASH's sister magazines Zzap!64, Amtix and The Games Machine. Through the late 1970s and 1980s he was also a prolific creator of gay erotic art including a series of a Tom of Finland-style bad-boy hero named "Rogue" for Him Magazine, and has produced, edited and illustrated several issues of Man-to-Man Magazine. Since the late 90s, Frey has been working as publishing director for Thalamus Publishing in Shropshire, which specializes in illustrated historical reference titles.

Classic video gaming magazine Retro Gamer has recently featured Oliver's artwork on its cover. The most recent example is for issue 22 when an illustration based on the video game Renegade graced its cover.

[edit] Education

During his high school years in Switzerland, Frey followed an American correspondence course called The Famous Artists. After six months in the Swiss army, and dropping out of Berne University, he moved to Britain again and started a two-year course at the London Film School during which he supported himself with freelance work, including drawing historical illustrations for the War Picture Library.