Kari Tapio Leppänen (born September 1, 1945) is a Finnish comic strip artist who has worked on the Phantom comic since 1979. Leppänen's career started in the magazine Sarjis. This was a magazine with only Finnish series. He wrote science fiction under the pseudonym Oskari. The Swedish comic strip publisher Semic became aware of his work and offered him a job as a painter on the Phantom series. He accepted the offer. Leppänen is still painting for the Phantom.