In 1968 Ortolani moved to Parma, where he still lives with his wife Caterina and his adoptive daughters Johanna and Lucy Maria.

From an early age, Ortolani showed a great passion for the world of comic books, and in particular The Fantastic Four by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, which will affect its style of narrative.

While at university, Ortolani draws his characters first, and the theme of geology became a catchphrase of the first issues of his major work, Rat-Man.

[4][5] Called to military service in the Air Force, Ortolani drew inspiration from life in the barracks, gathering his experiences in a detailed diary that became the starting point for The last rookie, a strip on military life (the same as the protagonist Ortolani) which were published as an appendix to Storm Trooper.

In 1995 Leo Ortolani published Venerdì 12 as a series of the comic magazine L'isola che non c'è.

Ortolani created several popular parodies of famous works of fiction and blockbusters in his Rat-Man stories.

In 2011 Leo Ortolani created La Quadrilogia dei Sacrificabili, a parody of The Expendables series,[11][12] that won the award "Fede a strisce 2011" at RiminiComix.