He was one of the earliest writer-artists to introduce daily narrative continuity and cinematic techniques to comic strips.

[1] Prepared at the Thacher School and Phillips Exeter Academy, he graduating from Cornell University in 1911, Wheelan found employment at the San Francisco Examiner, moving on to the New York American, where he drew an eight-column comic strip about sports.

To replace Midget Movies, Hearst launched The Thimble Theatre, drawn by Elzie Crisler Segar.

He drew the two-tiered Minute Movies from the early 1920s until 1935, developing one of the characters into a spin-off strip, Roy McCoy.

Near the end of the 1930s, Wheelan teamed with Bill Walsh on Big Top, a circus strip.