My short answer is yes. I think they're different but related skills.
I'm not saying I'm a great interaction designer, but I do feel more of an interaction designer than a graphic designer. I can do graphic design, but it doesn't interest me as much. I can creatively direct much better than I can do it myself (re: do what I say, not what I do). The main reason is that whilst I can see where a piece of graphic design needs work, I don't have the patience to work it into where it needs to be. Other people find the same with writing - I like editing and re-writing my written work, but others hate that process. If there was any truth to the idea of 'talent' I would say it is being willing to work through the inevitable dip that all projects have. At some point it's just hard work.
But I can design interaction and I have enough visual skills to get that across. Wireframing should give you the answer to your question here anyway. That's where the meat of the interaction design often happens and they're deliberately not visually rich.
We had the "interaction design" vs "interface design" thread just recently and I was thinking about this again last night. I'm always tempted to call interface design a subset of interaction design, but they can both be subsets of each other depending on the project. The interface to a ticketing machine might involve a great deal of graphic design and just one button for the actual interaction. On the other hand something with a lot more interactive controls or interactive elements and experiences is more dominated by the interaction design than the graphic design.
In other words, you can have crappy interaction and a great visual interface or vice versa. It's easy for either side to get too absorbed in their own area and neglect the other part.
Graphic design and illustration obviously require great visual design skills, but the most important design skill in design is the way you think. I think that is what separates designers of all kinds from non- designers who know how to use some of the tools.
Graphic design and illustration and product and industrial design have had this overlap issue for years (my grandfather was a "commercial artist" who did illustration, design and hand-drawn typography, for example). I don't think we'll resolve it in interaction/interface design anytime soon.
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