After graduating, he worked at an advertising agency for 11 years, but commercial art gave him little satisfaction.

Seeing the success of his elder brother, George decided to enter the cartoon field.

He also created a strip called "Hippy" around 1967 featuring a curvaceous blonde flower child.

To keep up with the demand, he recruited Bob Laughlin, and later his brother John to help draw the daily strips and Sunday color pages.

[2] A resident of Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, Gately died of a heart attack on September 30, 2001, at the age of 72, at The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, after months of deteriorating health.