illustrate a boxing comic strip he was planning to write. Murphy accepted his invitation. The resulting daily comic strip, Big Ben Bolt, was launched in 1950 and ran until 1978. Prince Valiant Murphy began his collaboration on Prince Valiant (the saga of a young Norse prince who becomes a knight of King Arthur's round table at Camelot) with creator Hal Foster in 1970 when Foster decided to lessen his workload at age 78. From the fall of 1970 until early 1980 Foster sent Murphy pencilled layouts, notes, and initially scripts. With Foster's retirement in 1979, Murphy's son Cullen took over the writing. Cullen Murphy began contributing stories to Foster while studying at Amherst College. Bill Crouch also contributed six story lines over the next four years. Murphy continued to draw Prince Valiant with his son scripting and his daughter doing the lettering and coloring until his retirement in March 2004, when he turned the strip over to his chosen successor, illustrator Gary Gianni. Murphy died four months later in Cos Cob, Connecticut. Personal life In 1951, Murphy married Joan Byrne, also from New Rochelle. They had eight children. His son, Cullen Murphy (John Cullen Murphy, Jr.), is a writer and magazine editor. Skills Murphy never copied Foster's style, preferring a harder pen line instead of the softer brush look, giving the strip a more angular feel. Frank Bolle helped Murphy in layouts and research but Murphy's detailed pen work could still be seen in all the finished pages. Awards For his work on Big Ben Bolt and Prince Valiant, Murphy was honored with the National Cartoonists Society's Story Comic Strip Award in 1971 and again for Prince Valiant in 1974, 1976, 1978, 1984 and 1987. He received the Elzie Segar Award in 1983. References Further reading 1919 births 2004 deaths American cartoonists American comics artists United States Army personnel of World War II Artists from Chicago Artists from New Rochelle, New York School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni Prince Valiant United States Army officers