GUEST: This is comic art that I received for a wedding gift 30 years ago from my cousin Meg, and it was done by my uncle, her father, John Cullen Murphy.
APPRAISER: That's great. And the history behind it is, Hal Foster created the "Prince Valiant" strip in 1937, continued on until about 1970, when he felt it was time to slow down a little bit. And it's a real honor, I would think, for the family, to have your uncle chosen as the person to replace one of the greatest comic artists in history, to take over doing the strip. For the first few years, early on, Foster would send over kind of roughed-out or drawn-out pieces, and then Murphy would finish them up.
GUSET: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: And then Murphy took over the strip later on, himself.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: This is right at the beginning, this is 1971. Even the fact that Foster really didn't do this himself, I would probably put an auction estimate somewhere between $2,000 and $4,000.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: And then, as the strips got later and later on, they do kind of decrease in value. Because the storyline changed a little bit, and Foster was totally out of it.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: But it's just a great, great piece of artwork, and I'm thrilled that you brought it today.
GUEST: Lucky to have it.
APPRAISER: Yeah.
