When Murphy was 9, a local artist asked him to sit for an illustration — Norman Rockwell, working on a Saturday Evening Post cover. Murphy so enjoyed the experience he decided to become an illustrator.
With Rockwell’s help, Murphy got a scholarship to the Phoenix Art Institute in New York and indeed became an illustrator: he spent most of his career — 34 years — illustrating the Arthurian Prince Valiant comic, which appears in about 300 Sunday newspapers. Murphy took over the job from the comic’s creator, Hal Foster, and recently turned it over to Gary Gianni.
Murphy also did his own comic, Big Ben Bolt, about a boxer, which ran for about 25 years starting in 1949. He died July 2 at 85.