Cullen Murphy (AC 1974) Prince Valiant Comic Collection

Prince Valiant was created by Hal (Harold Rudolf) Foster and was first published on February 13, 1937. The strip consisted of one full newspaper page published in color once a week. Pages were numbered consecutively.

Hal Foster wrote and drew the strip himself until 1971 when he entered semi-retirement. John Cullen Murphy, a professional cartoonist and illustrator, took over drawing Prince Valiant based on rough pencil sketches and story scripts supplied by Foster. There was a period of transition between pages 1756 (Foster) and 1789 (Murphy) when Murphy, Foster, and other artists drew the strip. John Cullen Murphy is responsible for all of the pages from 1789 through 3501. Page 2241 (20 January 1980) is the last credited to Hal Foster. In February 1980, John Cullen Murphy began signing his name on each page and the phrase "Created by Hal Foster" was added to the Prince Valiant logo. From 1980 until his retirement in 2004, John Cullen Murphy's son -- Cullen Murphy (AC 1974) -- provided the story scripts for the weekly pages. John Cullen Murphy's daughter, Mairead (Meg) lettered and colored the strip beginning in 1988. Page 3501, published 14 March 2004, was the last illustrated by John Cullen Murphy. Gary Gianni took over the comic strip with page 3502.