Billy Graham was a Black comic-book artist best known for his work on the Marvel Comics series Luke Cage, Hero for Hire, and Jungle Action featuring Black Panther. In this post The Museum of UnCut Funk exhibits some of Graham’s other work like Vampirella , Eerie #31 and Journey in to Mystery #2.

Billy started at Warren Magazines, with a story in the legendary first issue of Vampirella dated September, 1969. “Death Boat!” was written by Don McGregor.

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Graham also took some side-trips into Marvel’s supernatural mags, like Journey into Mystery, Haunt of Horror, Vampire Tales and Monsters Unleashed. Check out The Alien Plague! from Eerie #31 dated January, 1970. Also another cool find is More Than Blood, written by George Alec Effinger, from Journey Into Mystery #2 September, 1972.

15 Comments

  • gordon scott manley
    August 20, 2012

    t apprecia his was afellow who never failed to entertain me.billy gave his all each time out.beiieveme itwas greattly

  • shawnna
    February 10, 2013

    Love this article. Billy Graham was my grandfather. Although I never got the opportunity to meet him in person, his life’s work tells his stories 🙂

  • George Crum (Not That George Crum)
    December 5, 2013

    I first met Billy Graham at Henry st. Settlement, I was introducted to him by Mrs Alma Johns. She told him I was an artist, so he gave me a project to do. He gave me a cartoon picture of the Fat lady looking for Henry who was caught between her butt cheeks. He told me to make it poster size. I took it back to him at Henry st., I was so happy to have completed it. He look at it for about 5 min. and told me there’s not much I can teach you you already have the gift. use it! I think about him often. He was a great inspiration at a time when not many were doing black comics. I also studied under Al Hollingswoth at Art & Design, one of the first well know black comic artist, 2 truely great
    men!!

    • March 8, 2014

      Does anyone by chance know if Mr. Graham did any paintings? I found a painting at a thrift store of a Black grandfather giving his granddaughter a birthday gift! I bought it because I became immediately attached to it once I saw it. It’s signed by “Billy Graham”. It’s signed by “Billy Graham”. I tried researching it on the Internet but as yet have not been able to come up with anything about the painting. The painting style is similar to Norman Rockwell’s. It doesn’t matter if it was done by Mr. Graham the comic book artist or Billy Graham from down the street. I love painting anyway. I’m just curious.

  • Andrew Johnson
    April 21, 2017

    I’m a 58 year old comic book collector/retailer. Glad to have discovered your blog. The great late Billy Graham has always been my favorite comic book artist since the 1960’s. I’m pretty aware of Mr.Graham’s comic book work & have a very extensive collection of his comic book work, & some nice early fanzines, & a few men’s magazine(such as Players) with some of his stupendous pin-up artwork. I was wondering if you might happen to have a list of of any of his art work outside of comic books, especially in men’s magazines?

    • Shawnna
      November 30, 2017

      Hi Andrew, would love to chat with you. What is your email? Billy was my grandfather.

      • Andrew Johnson
        November 30, 2017

        Wow! This is quite a honor making contact with such a great legendary talent, by way of his granddaughter! Thank you so much! My email is: mobettercomics@hotmail.com Looking forward to hearing from you again!Andrew

        • Shawnna
          December 8, 2017

          Thanks Andrew! I will reach out soon! If you have Facebook you can visit the recently created Page and Group! “The Artist Billy Graham. Sorry, it will not allow me to paste link.

      • Karen Gatewood
        December 5, 2017

        Hi Shawnna, I know this is random but I work at an agency in Austin TX and we’re working on a project for Black History Month and wanted to include an article on your grandfather. I’ve been trying to track down the person handling his estate over the past few weeks but haven’t had any luck. Is there any way you could provide a contact? Or pass along my information? Due to the holidays, we’re under a time crunch, so I’d appreciate your help. Karen of Sanders\Wingo in Austin.

        • Shawnna
          December 8, 2017

          Hi Karen ,

          Of course! My father (Billy’s son) are trying to get his work and name a knowledge more. He had so much work that was unseen, even outside of drawing. My email is lashawnna.graham@outlook.com

          Thank you so much for thinking of him!

          • Cheryl
            February 17, 2018

            Hi Shawna, I posted something back in 2014 asking if your grandfather did any paintings. I have a painting of An African American man giving a little girl a birthday gift. It is signed by “Billy Graham”. Are you familiar with the painting?

  • Herb Boyd
    March 11, 2018

    Shawna–How wonderful to see the full page spread on your grandfather in the Times. I will feature him in next week’s Amsterdam News. Best, Hb

    • Andrew Johnson
      April 17, 2018

      Yes indeed, you have a found a true rare treasure of one of the legendary Mr. Billy’s Graham’s Afro-Centric paintings! I personally have 10 very well-preserved of these 1987 paintings/prints by Mr. Graham. They were very limited & were released in 1987 by Vanguard Art & Publishers out of Houston, Texas! Not sure exactly how many were done, but I do have 10, as I stated, featuring exquisite paintings of positive Afro-American family life! I have listed on eBay for sale 7 extras of what I already have! I became blessed with these treasures from a very nice company out of Atlanta, Ga. about 2 years ago! Mr. Graham was more than just a great comic book artist, he constantly demonstrated amazing talent in some many fields! Good luck on finding more of these treasures!

  • Willie Brown Jr
    January 19, 2023

    Billy Graham was my cousin who was very talented, I witnessed this early on. As a young man he gifted me his comic books,scripts for his plays he wrote etc. I wish I still had them, I was too young to realized what I had. I miss him dearly.

  • Shawnna Graham
    July 4, 2023

    🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽 Billy also had screenplays!

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