Bronze Star
Both of the above are Log24 entries for Friday, July 2, 2004. This date is notable for the following celebrity deaths:
- Ernest Hemingway
- Mario Puzo
- Vladimir Nabokov
For a meditation on these three admirable men, see
Another name can now be added to this list of public figures to admire:
- John Cullen Murphy, who died at 85 on Friday, July 2, 2004.
Murphy drew a strip for the Sunday papers which, according to Wolfgang Saxon in today’s New York Times, “mines the literary tradition of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.” I personally prefer the versions of T. H. White and C. S. Lewis; but, Saxon, à chacun son goût.
In view of the Log24 entries of the date of Murphy’s death, which are in turn based on the preceding day’s entry on Rocky Balboa and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, I am beginning to believe there may be some truth in the saying, “God is in the details.” Some details from Saxon:
“He sold his first illustrations while still in high school. He drew boxers to publicize matches, sold his first cover illustration to the Knights of Columbus magazine before he was 20, and in 1940 sold a cover to the popular magazine Liberty.
In World War II, Mr. Murphy served in infantry and antiaircraft units in the Pacific, rose to the rank of major and won a Bronze Star. He also drew and painted portraits of the soldiers and their commanders, as well as sketches of Japanese life, which were published in The Chicago Tribune.
He then worked as an illustrator and cover artist for magazines, including Esquire and Collier’s. In 1949, Mr. Murphy started ‘Big Ben Bolt,’ a comic strip about a young boxer, which lasted almost 25 years.”
No Walt Kelly, perhaps, but definitely a contender.