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Billy Graham (1935-1999) was an influential African-American artist and illustrator who is most noted for his work on Marvel Comics' LUKE CAGE, HERO FOR HIRE and BLACK PANTHER titles. Earlier, he was an illustrator for James Warren, where he penciled and/or inked stories for CREEPY, EERIE, and VAMPIRELLA.

Warren promoted him to art director soon after he came aboard Warren publications. In an interview (COMIC BOOK ARTIST #4, TwoMorrows Publishing) Warren explained how this came about:
"I sensed Billy had the ability to handle it; certain artists and writers are great but they can't shift out of their specialty and do something else. Billy could. So I said, 'Billy, you are now art director! Whether you like it or not.' Now you have to understand that all Billy wanted to do his whole life was just be Jack Kirby. I said, ' You'll be the Black Jack Kirby, but not today! Today you are art director of Warren Publishing.' But he said, 'I can't art direct!' And I said, 'I'll show you how. There's your office; you now have a full-time job. A paycheck every Friday. Do you accept?' And he said, 'Yer goddamn right!' And I taught him how to art direct during our slow period, and it only took a couple of issues — and he did pretty well (though I gave him a nervous breakdown)." As always, Warren knew talent when he saw it, and it didn't matter who it came from. When asked by a ROLLING STONE reporter about his choice for an African-American to be his art director, Warren replied, "What!?' mock-screamed Warren. 'Is Billy black? I didn't know that. Get him in here! Billy, are you black? You're fired!"


[Image] Billy Graham (Wikipedia)
Presented here is the original, preliminary art that he did for a proposed cover for EERIE, sometime in 1970. The concept art went unpublished. The work is rendered in oils on unstretched canvas with an image area of  8.25" x 11".


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BONUS: Here is an early Billy Graham story that appeared in Warren's VAMPIRELLA #1.


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UPDATE!
Thanks to Dr. Theda, whose comment (below) was a reminder that Billy Graham's "unpublished" image did finally appear -- a few years later and slightly altered, as the cover for CREEPY #40!

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