John Cullen Murphy
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John Cullen Murphy (May 3, 1919, New York City, New York – July 2, 2004, Greenwich, Connecticut) was a magazine and comic strip illustrator known for his work on the Prince Valiant comic strip.
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[edit] Lessons from Norman Rockwell
Murphy attended the Art Institute of Chicago, where his family lived until 1929, when they moved to New Rochelle, a suburb of New York City. He aspired to be a baseball player and was playing baseball when a New Rochelle neighbor, Norman Rockwell, asked the 15-year-old if he would like to model for a painting. Rockwell's Starstruck, showing a forlorn Murphy gazing at pictures of movie starlets, was the September 22, 1934 cover of The Saturday Evening Post. Rockwell became one of Murphy's mentors. Murphy brought over his artwork, and Rockwell would critique it on a regular basis. This practice ended with the start pf World War II.
[edit] WWII
Murphy entered the Army in 1940, joining the 7th Regiment. He became an anti-aircraft officer, rising to the rank of major. He spent several years in the Pacific, beginning in Australia and ending in Tokyo. He was an aide to General Richard Marquat, who was on General Douglas MacArthur's staff. During the war, Murphy continued to illustrate, sending work to the Chicago Tribune and painting numerous portraits of military figures.
On his return to the U.S. in 1946, he resumed his art career, illustrating for magazines, including Columbia, Liberty and Sport. In 1950, writer Elliot Caplin (brother of cartoonist Al Capp) suggested that Murphy illustrate a boxing comic strip he had in mind, Big Ben Bolt. Murphy was the artist of Big Ben Bolt from 1950 to 1978. In 1951, Murphy married Joan Byrne, also from New Rochelle, and they had eight children. In 1953, the Murphy family moved to Cos Cob, Connecticut.
[edit] Prince Valiant
In 1970, he replaced Prince Valiant's creator, Hal Foster, although Foster offered guidance until his death in 1982. Murphy continued to draw Valiant with his son, Cullen Murphy, scripting and his daughter doing the lettering and coloring. He retired in March 2004, turning the strip over to his chosen successor, illustrator Gary Gianni.
[edit] Awards
For his work on Big Ben Bolt and Prince Valiant, he received the National Cartoonist Society Story Comic Strip Award in 1971, and for Prince Valiant, in 1974, 1976, 1978, 1984 and 1987. He received the Elzie Segar Award in 1983.
