Rockwell's Starstruck, showing a forlorn Murphy gazing at pictures of movie starlets, was the September 22, 1934 cover of The Saturday Evening Post.

During the war, Murphy continued to illustrate, sending work to the Chicago Tribune and painting numerous portraits of military figures, including MacArthur.

[3][4][5][6] Murphy's first professional work at the age of seventeen was for Madison Square Garden's publicity department, drawing boxing cartoons.

During the 1940s, he was a popular magazine illustrator, regularly seen in Collier's, Look, Esquire, Liberty, Sport, Holiday and Columbia, published by the Knights of Columbus.

In 1950, writer Elliot Caplin (brother of cartoonist Al Capp) of King Features Syndicate asked Murphy to illustrate a boxing comic strip he was planning to write.

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.

[8] Murphy never copied Foster's style, preferring a harder pen line instead of the softer brush look, giving the strip a more angular feel.