[2][3] In 1950, writer Elliot Caplin (brother of Li'l Abner cartoonist Al Capp) suggested that Murphy illustrate a boxing comic strip he had in mind.

Comics historian Don Markstein wrote: King Features Syndicate launched Ben's daily strip on February 20, 1950, and the Sunday version on May 25, 1952.

[5] He occasionally used assistants, including Al Williamson (Flash Gordon), Alex Kotzky (Apartment 3-G), Neal Adams (Deadman), John Celardo (Tarzan) and Stan Drake (The Heart of Juliet Jones).

After Garzon left in 1977, Joe Kubert stepped in to draw Big Ben Bolt, followed by Gray Morrow who eventually signed the strip starting August 1, 1977.

Instead of a big, dumb hitting machine, he was an articulate college graduate who had chosen a boxing career because he enjoyed and was good at it (winning the world heavyweight championship early on), not because other fields weren't open to him.