Thursday, February 7, 2013

"A Broken Heart 'Twixt Twin Maidens, Rampant"

Prince Valiant and Queen Aleta's daughter Karen has been smitten by a brash and cocksure young squire named Marcus.

"Just wait," he tells her, "I will win top honors at [the tourney at] Pentecost and you will bask in my reflected glory."

Karen also has an admirer in Alp Arslan, a young man from the Misty Isles whom she first encountered months earlier in Dalmatia.




"It's not fair," Karen's twin sister Valeta complains to Prince Valiant. "Karen now has two admirers and I have none at all."

"Perhaps," her father responds, "you will have a secret admirer who will fight for your favor in the tourney. But Valeta, who is as much in love with love as her twin, but not half as lucky, is not consoled.

Undeterred, Prince Valiant soon finds himself visiting Camelot's armorer . . .




. . . and with luck teach that young Marcus a lesson or two.


Next: The Melee


Art: John Cullen Murphy (from installment #2467, May 20, 1984 and installment #2468, May 27, 1984).
Text: Cullen Murphy.
Source: Prince Valiant, Book One (Kings Features Syndicate, 1986).

4 comments:

  1. Y'know, it's funny-- it doesn't take Murphy too much to indicate it, but this is clearly a middle-aged Val, as opposed to the hastily-matured youth we've been seeing in the Fantagraphic books so far. A couple of lines at the mouth (nasal-labials, I believe they're called), nose is a touch bigger, limbs are slightly heavier with long-established muscle-- that's about it to my untrained eye, but he's clearly an older guy. I do like that a lot. I'd actually prefer to see our current Val & Gawain looking a bit more their age.

    HB

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  2. I agree with Humanbelly. If there's any major problem with Gianni/Schultz's or Schultz/Yeates' Prince Valiant, that is "forever young" Val and Gawain...

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  3. Im thinking thas why we havent seen too much of the older kids in the last eight years because they would now look much the same age Val and Aleta do. I think that is a sad cop out honestly.

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  4. I too am somewhat disappointed by the making younger of Prince Valiant and Aleta, and thus the rare appearances of their older children. I talk a bit about this here.

    Peace,

    Michael

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