Over on Comic Book Resources is a great, and lengthy interview with Gary Gianni who began to take over on the art work on Prince Valiant in 2000 while John Cullen Murphy transitioned out. Gary also talks about a Prince Valiant art book that is due out next year which will include reproductions of preliminaries, pencils, photographic references and development of the strip.
I was contacted one day by Kennedy and he asked me if I’d be interested in being an assistant or part-time help for Mr. Murphy. I was completely taken by surprise by this. It was the furthest thing from my mind. I certainly never went after this job. At the time I wasn’t even sure I wanted to do it because I was involved in so many other things, but the idea and the opportunity of working with somebody from the Golden Age of Illustration seemed to be a great opportunity.
I continue to be disappointed in the comics or lack thereof in the Shreveport newspaper.
Prince Valient, Mary Worth, were two of my favorites. Shreveport continues to cut back on the comics. I am a die hard fan and frankly only buy the paper for the comics and
obits (only way to keep up with old friends sometimes). I recently visited Omaha, NE and
The World Herald has a goodly number more than Shreveport Times. We are a large area
also but our paper is also a disappointment at times. A goodly bit of the print is from
Gannet papers. Desperately need some competition here. Attention to the home delivery system would probably help. I hear
complaints often of papers not being delivered. In the last couple of weeks I did
not receive my Sunday paper on Sunday. It
showed up Monday a.m. No paper today either.