Helene Makes Her Choice

Art and text: Hal Foster (from page 896, April 11, 1954).
Source: Prince Valiant (Vol. 9): 1953-1954 – Hal Foster (Fantagraphics Books, 2014).

Racing Ahead

Art and text: Hal Foster (from page 850, May 24, 1953).
Source: Prince Valiant (Vol. 9): 1953-1954 – Hal Foster (Fantagraphics Books, 2014).

"Let Us Hasten"

Art: Hal Foster and John Cullen Murphy (circa 1976). At this point in Prince Valiant's run, Murphy, who had been quietly assisting Foster since 1970, was well into his first decade of drawing the strip over Foster's writing and roughs.
Source: The Sun Herald (Sydney, Australia); from the collection of Michael J. Bayly (circa 1978).

Ambush

Art: Gary Gianni (from page 3551, February 27, 2005).
Text: Mark Schiltz.
Source: Prince Valiant: Far from Camelot – Gary Gianni and Mark Schultz (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2008).

Out of Nowhere

. . . And suddenly, the world is lost in a blinding, stinging blur of hard-driven snow! The unnatural squall appears seemingly out of nowhere, roaring past Karen and Numair and down the rugged slopes.


Art: Thomas Yeates (from page 4129, March 28, 2016).
Text: Mark Schultz.
Source: Comics Kingdom.

To the Very Gates of Camelot

Art and text: Hal Foster (from page 877, November 29, 1953).
Source: Prince Valiant (Vol. 9): 1953-1954 – Hal Foster (Fantagraphics Books, 2014).

Celebrating 81 Years of Prince Valiant

Valiant, Prince of Thule, as drawn by Thomas Yeates (2015),
the fourth and current illustrator of the Prince Valiant adventure strip.

Friends, today marks the 81st anniversary of Prince Valiant, cited as "one of the finest works ever to be produced in the comic art medium." Created in 1937 by Harold R. Foster (1892-1982), Prince Valiant can rightly be considered a massive illustrated novel presented in a comic art-like style.

For A Prince Named Valiant's informative series of posts to mark the 75th anniversary of Prince Valiant, click here, here and here.

For last year's special 80th anniversary post featuring an insightful article by Brian Kane, click here.

Also, A Prince Named Valiant was launched on the 74th anniversary of Prince Valiant. To read the post that began it all, click here.


Right: Current Prince Valiant illustrator Thomas Yeates at Comic-Con 2015 . . . with none other than the Prince of Thule himself!


Yeates took over from Gary Gianni, the third illustrator of Prince Valiant, in April 2012.


For the latest installment (or page) of Prince Valiant, click here.

Above: Prince Valiant, as drawn by Hal Foster (1943).

Above: Prince Valiant, as drawn by John Cullen Murphy (1984). Murphy's son, Cullen, wrote Prince Valiant during his father's tenue.

Above: Prince Valiant and his wife, Queen Aleta of the Misty Isle,
as drawn by Gary Gianni (2004).

Above: An action sequence from page 4164 (November 27, 2016) of Prince Valiant, with art by Thomas Yeates and text by Mark Schultz.

See also the previous posts:
• How It All Began
• A Valiant First Effort, Wouldn't You Say?
• Remembering Episode 3000, 8/7/94
• John Cullen Murphy on Prince Valiant: "It's My Duty. I'm Responsible For It"
• Former Prince Valiant Writer Cullen Murphy Interviewed by Terry Gross
• Mark Schultz on Prince Valiant as an American Invention
• Gary Gianni's Prince Valiant: Looking Good
• Prince Valiant Celebrates 75th Anniversary
• Something Very Special
• Thomas Yeates: "My Biggest Thrill is Seeing the Prince Valiant Logo on My Drawings"
• "He Wasn't a Superhero But He Was a Hero"
• 4000
• Comics’ Sweeping Graphic Novel, Prince Valiant, Turns 80

In the Tomb of Ch'in Shih Huang-Ti

Click on image for a larger view.

Two of Prince Valiant's children, Arn and Karen, have accompanied Giovanni (Vanni) to Cathay in search of his long-lost father. Unaware that Prince Valiant, Gawain, and Yuan Chen are also in Cathay, in search of the fabled Prester John, the three young people stumble upon the tomb of the great Emperor Ch'in Shih Huang-Ti, filled with thousands of full-sized terracotta soldiers and horses.


NEXT: A Sweet Reunion

Art: John Cullen Murphy (1989).
Text: Cullen Murphy.
Source: The Sun Herald newspaper (Sydney, Australia), 1992; from the collection of Michael J. Bayly.

A Long, Breathless Moment

Art and text: Hal Foster (March 9, 1952).
Source: Prince Valiant (Vol. 8): 1951-1952 – Hal Foster (Fantagraphics Books, 2014).

Calypso

Journeying from Camelot to the Misty Isles, Prince Valiant and his family are shipwrecked on an island in the Mediterranean Sea – the "sea of myths." It's an apt description, as this particular island seems to be inhabited by the sirens of Greek myth.

After a miraculous grounding, Prince Valiant finds himself drawn to abandon his family and follow the lure of the sirens' song.

This "female spirit," however, is not what it seems. And when at last the unearthly sirens appear, they are wielding very earthly weapons that are about to end Val's life. It is then that one of the sirens who seems to be in command suddenly gasps and cries, "Hold, my sisters. It is he! He who is chosen to be mine."

Despite Val's protestations, the commanding siren is adamant that . . .

NEXT: Polyphemus

Art: Thomas Yeates (from pages 4014 and 4017, 1/12/14 and 2/2/14 respectively.)
Text: Mark Schultz.
Source: Comics Kingdom.

See also the previous posts:
• Bound for the Misty Isles
• Sea of Myths
• The Whirlpool
• A Miraculous Grounding
• The Siren's Call