Murphy Anderson was born in 1926 in Asheville, North Carolina. He was influenced by Will Eisner, Lou Fine, and Alex Raymond. Anderson's only training came from the Art Students League. He broke into comic books in 1944 at the Fiction House group, penciling and inking the strips 'Suicide Smith' (1944), 'Sky Rangers' (1946), and 'Star Pirate' (1944-1947). It was there that he received his only writing assignment, handling a minor Fiction House feature entitled 'Life on Other Worlds'.