A Prince Named Valiant

A Pointed Question

2012-02-16T07:00:00.003-06:00

Art: Gary Gianni (November 26, 2006).
Text: Mark Schultz.
Source: Prince Valiant: Far from Camelot – Gary Gianni and Mark Schultz (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2008).

How It All Began

2012-02-13T15:37:00.016-06:00

This past weekend saw the publication of the wonderful installment of Prince Valiant by Gary Gianni and Mark Shultz that celebrates the 75th anniversary of the renowned adventure strip. Today, February 13, is the actual anniversary, and to mark the occasion here at A Prince Named Valiant I share the page or installment that began it all. Yes, it's Hal Foster's very first Prince Valiant page, originally published Saturday, February 13, 1937. It's followed by an official statement released earlier today by King Features, the publishers of Prince Valiant. Enjoy!

Click on the image above for a larger view.

Prince Valiant Turns 75

Hal Foster's epic adventures of Prince Valiant in the days of King Arthur

celebrates 75 years of continuous publication

NEW YORK, Feb. 13, 2012 – Horrit the Witch foretold that he would have a life of adventure, but never contentment. True to the prophecy, Prince Valiant has never rested in striving for the Arthurian ideals of chivalry: defeating evil, defending those who do right, and through feats of courageous derring-do, seeking truth and justice for the common good. Today, those 5th century quests may seem at times as alien and unattainable as the Holy Grail, but they live on to inspire all who read them each and every week in the Prince Valiant comic strip, which marks its 75th anniversary today.

From the moment its first page appeared on Saturday, Feb. 13, 1937, Prince Valiant has been continuously published, offering its readers an epic series of unforgettable adventures, an exquisite panoply of artistic creation, a fascinating look at history, and a lasting tribute to Arthurian legend, one of the most consistent folk and literary traditions of Western civilization.

In the very first story arc, readers met the young prince, still a mere boy, and his parents, rulers of the Scandinavian kingdom of Thule, as they fled from the evil Sligon, who had usurped the throne. The family found sanctuary in the fens of King Arthur’s British realm.

During that first year of the strip’s syndication, Valiant grew to manhood, met Sir Gawain, Sir Lancelot and King Arthur and performed a host of knightly deeds such as slaying dragons and rescuing fair maidens. In 1938, he acquired his famous Singing Sword, the blade twin to Arthur’s own Excalibur and, after being knighted by King Arthur in 1939, he was able to ensure his father’s restoration as king of Thule the following year.

One of the intriguing aspects of the Prince Valiant story is its domestic dramas. In 1946, Val married the fair Aleta, Queen of the Misty Isles. When Aleta was kidnapped and taken out to sea, Valiant’s dogged pursuit took him all across the Atlantic before he finally caught up with her in the Americas. The couple’s first son, Arn, was born in America in 1947. Val and Aleta would eventually have four more children: Karen and Valeta, twins, were born in 1951; Galan, in 1962, and Nathan, in 1982. Val became a grandfather when Arn and his wife, Maeve, had their first child in 1987. And so the saga has continued . . .

Above: Prince Valiant and Queen Aleta's growing family. Art and text by Hal Foster

(from the April 16, 1961 installment of Prince Valiant).

Hal Foster [left], who had authored the popular Tarzan comic strip, was invited to create his new strip at the suggestion of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, whose King Features Syndicate has distributed the strip from the start. Prince Valiant became a legend during Foster’s own lifetime. The National Cartoonists Society gave Foster its highest honor, the Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year, in 1957.

The Sunday-only page has continued to earn kudos from readers and professional peers alike under the lengthy and able stewardship of Foster’s successors. While Foster continued to write the strip, his hand-picked assistant, John Cullen Murphy [right], assumed the artistic mantle for the strip in 1970. Murphy surmounted the huge challenge of following in Foster’s footsteps and, when his son and editor of The Atlantic, Cullen Murphy, began to pen the scripts in 1979, the father-and-son team successfully guided the venerable comic strip to new successes during their tenure. John Cullen Murphy received the National Cartoonists Society’s Best Story Comic Strip Award an unprecedented six times for Prince Valiant.

John Cullen Murphy passed the mantle to renowned comic book illustrator Gary Gianni [left]. Murphy had carefully chosen and worked for two years with him before Gianni took over full responsibilities for the strip in 2004. Cullen Murphy continued to write the strip until later that same year, when another comic book great, Mark Schultz, took over.

20th Century Fox made Prince Valiant into a feature film, starring Robert Wagner in the title role, in 1954. In 1991, an animated version, The Legend of Prince Valiant, became a regular feature on The Family Channel. In 1997, a second live-action version was released in Great Britain.

In 1995, the United States Postal Service included Prince Valiant in its “Comic Strip Classics” series of commemorative stamps.

Beginning in the 1930s, Prince Valiant has been the subject of many comic books and anthologies published through the years all around the world. Today, the Prince Valiant strip continues to inspire a great deal of interest in the publishing industry and currently several new reprint series are available worldwide. In addition to issuing an ongoing series of hardcover anthologies, Bocola Verlag in Germany has published for the serious collector Prince Valiant: The Camelot Edition, a numbered, slip-cased folio edition. Limited to 700 copies (the first 300 are in German, and the remaining copies in English) the editions are packaged with an original, historical newspaper broadsheet comics page. In Spain, Planeta DeAgostini is publishing a multi-volume series of the complete Foster opus. Other collections are being published in Austria, Switzerland, Canada, the Benelux, Russia, Eastern Europe and Uruguay.

In the United States, Fantagraphics Books has published four volumes to date of a multi-volume series of Hal Foster’s classic pages. Andrews McMeel have published Prince Valiant: Far from Camelot by Gary Gianni and Mark Schultz, the award-winning artistic team currently producing the strip.

See also the previous posts:
Prince Valiant Celebrates 75th Anniversary
Something Very Special . . .
A Valiant First Effort, Wouldn't You Say?
"He Wasn't a Superhero But He Was a Hero"
Mark Schultz on the Art of Hal Foster: "Uniquely Appealing, Innovative and Influential"
John Cullen Murphy on Prince Valiant: "It's My Duty. I'm Responsible For It"
Mark Schultz on Prince Valiant as an American Invention
Welcome!

Recommended Off-site Links:
75 Years of Prince Valiant – DailyInk.com (February 13, 2012).
Prince Valiant's 75th Anniversary – The Archivist (DailyInk.com, February 15, 2012).

Something Very Special . . .

2012-02-11T00:00:00.016-06:00

To mark the February 13 75th anniversary of Prince Valiant, the team currently producing the strip – artist Gary Gianni and writer Mark Schultz – have created something very special . . .

Yes, it's this weekend's installment, page #3914, of the ongoing adventures of Valiant, Prince of Thule and Knight of the Round Table; a page that in harkening back to a surreal adventure experienced by Valiant in his youth, provides a wonderful opportunity for Gianni and Schultz to not only convey the strip's key values of adventure, camaraderie, family and hope, but also highlight and celebrate many of the characters that have appeared throughout Prince Valiant's 75-year history and helped make it one of the most beloved and enduring 'comic' strips of all time.

Be sure to click on the image above for a larger view!

These highlighted characters include Valiant's wife Aleta, eldest son Arn, twin daughters Karen and Valeta, second son Galan, father King Aguar of Thule, good King Arthur of Camelot, Sir Gawain, Sir Tristram, Horrit of the Fens, Boltar, Tillicum, Geoffrey, Gundar Harl, Angor Wrack, Makeda, Sir Lancelot and Prince Arn of Ord.

And if you look carefully you'll see standing with the wizard Merlin none other than Hal Foster (1892-1982), the creator of Prince Valiant, and his successor John Cullen Murphy (1919-2004), who drew the strip for over 30 years before passing it on to Gianni in 2004.

Without doubt, Gianni and Schultz's 75th anniversary page is a beautiful and fitting tribute to Prince Valiant, the greatest work ever produced in the comic art medium.

See also the previous post:
Prince Valiant Celebrates 75th Anniversary

Recommended Off-site Links:
Happy 75th Birthday, Prince Valiant! – Tyler Tichelaar (Children of Arthur, February 1, 2012).
Supporting Cast: Happy Wedding Anniversary, Aleta and Val – DailyInk.com (February 10, 2012).

Prince Valiant Celebrates 75th Anniversary

2012-02-07T22:44:00.034-06:00

This coming Monday, February 13, 2012, marks the 75th anniversary of the Prince Valiant adventure strip!

In marking this impressive achievement, King Features, the publisher of Prince Valiant in more than 300 American newspapers, notes that the strip created by "the immortal Hal Foster" and first published on February 13, 1937, "continues strong to this day as the pinnacle of comic strip adventure storytelling."

It's a view shared by many, including Matt Seneca who, in his recent review of Prince Valiant, Volume 4: 1943-1944, writes, "Prince Valiant . . . has probably done more time than any other [strip] as the popular imagination’s pick for 'greatest comic ever.' . . . [T]he mastery Foster brings to bear on his every panel may have been equaled both before and since his prime, but it’s never been surpassed."

Of course, two artists who have in their own unique ways equaled the artistry of Hal Foster are John Cullen Murphy and Gary Gianni. It's to these two that the mantle of 'artist of Prince Valiant' has been passed. Murphy was Foster's handpicked successor and drew the strip from 1971 to 2004.

Right: Prince Valiant and his wife Aleta, Queen of the Misty Isles, as drawn by John Cullen Murphy in 1978.

Gary Gianni, in turn, was Murphy's choice of successor and has drawn the strip from 2004 to the present day.

Left: Prince Valiant and his companions are attacked by harpies in this memorable 2007 illustration by Gary Gianni.

Others involved over the years in the creative endeavor that is Prince Valiant include writers Cullen Murphy and Mark Schultz, colorists Mairead Murphy and Scott Roberts, and, briefly in the early 1970s, artists Gary Morrow and Wally Wood.

Right: The Prince of Thule as drawn by Wally Wood. For more rare images of Wood's "try-out" time on Prince Valiant in the early '70s, see this post on Thomas Haller Buchanan's excellent The Pictorial Arts blog.

Generally regarded by comics historians as one of the most impressive visual creations ever syndicated, Prince Valiant is noted for its realistically rendered panoramas and intelligent, sometimes humorous, narrative. Instead of word balloons, Prince Valiant is narrated via captions positioned at the bottom or sides of panels. Frank Plowright in The Comic Guide (1997) notes that: "In the strictest sense, Prince Valiant isn't a comic, being illustrations accompanied by blocks of text, but it's nevertheless stylish, influential, and an exceptional body of work." In his introduction to the first edition of The Definitive Prince Valiant Companion (1992), Todd H. Goldberg suggests that Prince Valiant be considered "a massive illustrated novel presented in a comic art-like style."

Above: The July 31, 2011 installment of Prince Valiant,

with artwork by Gary Gianni and text by Mark Schultz.

Left: The cover of one of the Prince Valiant comic books my father, Gordan Bayly, collected as a teenager in the 1950s. It was these comic books, published and distributed by Associated Newspaper Ltd of Sydney, Australia, that first introduced me to Prince Valiant. They were comprised of black-and-white compilations of Prince Valiant installments from the late-1930s to the mid-1940s.

To mark the 75th anniversary of Prince Valiant an art exhibit featuring Hal Foster’s work on both Prince Valiant and his earlier strip Tarzan, will be on display throughout February at Tinley Park Library (7851 Timber Drive, Tinley Park, Illinois). The exhibition is curated by comics enthusiast Sid Weiskirch, and will travel to different libraries throughout Illinois, including Blue Island Library in July and August 2012, and Orland Park Library in January 2013.

Above: The fall of Camelot: A panel from the September 9, 1984 installment
of Prince Valiant, with artwork by John Cullen Murphy and text by Cullen Murphy.

Twenty-five years ago, when I was a college student in Australia, I wrote an article on the 50th anniversary of Prince Valiant which was published in the Canberra Times. Last year on the 74th anniversary of the strip I started this blog, A Prince Named Valiant. And it is here today that I celebrate the 75th anniversary of Prince Valiant by sharing the following pages and illustrations. As you'll see, they all reference various milestones in the strip's history. Be sure to click on each image for a more detailed view.

Above: A memorable panel from the early days of the strip – November 27, 1938, to be exact. The scene of a young Prince Valiant in the grip of a potentially deadly fever provides Hal Foster a powerful and poignant opportunity to revisit the significant characters and events of the strip's first two years.

Keeping vigil by Prince Valiant's side is his father, King Aguar of Thule, while "ever hovering near" is the specter of his first (and lost) love, Ilene.

Above: A limited edition Prince Valiant print created by Hal Foster.

Above: Page (or installment) 2000 of Prince Valiant – June 8, 1975.

About this page Thomas Haller Buchanan writes: "Published well after [Hal] Foster retired and laden with iconic Foster artwork from the past, [this page] was quite a treat to see in the midst of John Cullen Murphy's run on the strip."

Above: Page 3000 of Prince Valiant by John Cullen Murphy – August 7, 1994.

Above: A panel from page 3700 of Prince Valiant by Gary Gianni – January 6, 2008.

NEXT: Something Very Special . . .

See also the previous posts:
Welcome!
A Valiant First Effort, Wouldn't You Say?
"He Wasn't a Superhero But He Was a Hero"
Mark Schultz on the Art of Hal Foster: "Uniquely Appealing, Innovative and Influential"
John Cullen Murphy on Prince Valiant: "It's My Duty. I'm Responsible For It"
Mark Schultz on Prince Valiant as an American Invention
"We Are the Daughters of the Queen of the Misty Isles and the Prince of Thule"
Man of Action
Looking Good

. . . and my October 2010 Wild Reed post:
Journeying Into the Truth . . . Valiantly, of Course!

Opening image: Gary Gianni.

His Strong and Gentle Aleta

2012-02-05T15:43:00.002-06:00

Enslaved in a Sahara salt mine, Prince Valiant wonders how his wife, "his strong and gentle Aleta," is coping with the news of his disappearance: "Who will comfort her as fear and shock fray the fragile strands of hope?"

Art: John Cullen Murphy (February 1980).
Text: Cullen Murphy.
Source: The Sun Herald (Sydney, Australia); from the collection of Michael J. Bayly (August 15, 1982).

Assassination

2012-01-29T01:19:00.004-06:00

During a visit to Rome, Prince Valiant and his companions Sir Tristram and Sir Gawain witness the swift and brutal assassination of Emperor Valentinian III.

Art and text: Hal Foster (from installment #193, October 20, 1940).
Source: Prince Valiant (Vol. 2): 1939-1940 – Hal Foster (Fantagraphics Books, 2010).

Aguar of Thule

2012-01-20T18:10:00.001-06:00

Prince Valiant's father, King Aguar of Thule (now present day Norway).

Art: Hal Foster and John Cullen Murphy (from installment #2139, October 15, 1978). At this point in Prince Valiant's run, John Cullen Murphy, who had been quietly assisting Hal Foster since 1970, was well into his first decade of drawing the strip over Foster's writing and roughs.
Source: Prince Valiant (Vol. 49): Road to Sorrow's End, comprising pages, or installments, 2168 (August 27, 1978) through 2167 (June 24, 1979). Fantagraphics Books, 2003.

A Nightmare Realm

2012-01-07T01:14:00.001-06:00

Art: Gary Gianni (from installment #3653, February 11, 2007).
Text: Mark Schultz.
Source: Prince Valiant: Far from Camelot – Gary Gianni and Mark Schultz (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2008).

The Ultimate Conqueror

2012-01-01T23:01:00.003-06:00

Art and text: Hal Foster (from installment #115, April 23, 1939).
Source: Prince Valiant (Vol. 2): 1939-1940 – Hal Foster (Fantagraphics Books, 2010).

Setting Sail

2011-12-28T19:19:00.001-06:00

With all of us about to say goodbye to 2011 and "set sail" into a new year, the following sequence of panels from installment #2139 of Prince Valiant seems somewhat appropriate.

Happy New Year from A Prince Named Valiant!

Art: Hal Foster and John Cullen Murphy (from installment 2139, February 5, 1978). At this point in Prince Valiant's run, John Cullen Murphy, who had been quietly assisting Hal Foster since 1970, was well into his first decade of drawing the strip over Foster's writing and roughs.
Text: Hal Foster.
Source: Prince Valiant (Vol. 48): Return to Camelot, comprising pages, or installments, 2124 (October 23, 1977) through 2167 (August 20, 1978). Fantagraphics Books, 2003.

At the Ready

2011-12-22T18:07:00.002-06:00

. . . for an attack from the skies!

Art: Gary Gianni (from installment #3681, August 26, 2007)
Source: Prince Valiant: Far from Camelot – Gary Gianni and Mark Schultz (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2008).

Sold!

2011-12-20T01:42:00.003-06:00

Abducted by a Corsair raiding party, Prince Valiant is sold into slavery and forced to work in a Sahara salt mine. His eldest son Arn, with the help of Salam Fulda and Ahmed Al-Gebr, would eventually rescue him.

Prince Valiant's travails in the Sahara meant he was absent from Camelot for a rather momentous event.

It should also be noted that this was not the first time that the Prince of Thule had endured such mistreatment. In his youth he had been sold into slavery to a rich Syrian merchant. Guile and patience, however, helped secure his freedom.

Art: John Cullen Murphy (February 1980).
Text: Cullen Murphy.
Source: The Sun Herald (Sydney, Australia); from the collection of Michael J. Bayly (1982).

Man of Action

2011-12-12T23:23:00.003-06:00

Art: Hal Foster (from installment #383, June 11, 1944).
Source: Prince Valiant (Vol. 4): 1943-1944 – Hal Foster (Fantagraphics Books, 2011).

Art and text: Hal Foster (from installment #356, December 5, 1943).
Source: Prince Valiant (Vol. 4): 1943-1944 – Hal Foster (Fantagraphics Books, 2011).

Art and text: Hal Foster (from installment #373, April 2, 1944).
Source: Prince Valiant (Vol. 4): 1943-1944 – Hal Foster (Fantagraphics Books, 2011).

Art: John Cullen Murphy (from installment #2484, September 16, 1984).
Text: Cullen Murphy.
Source: The Prince Valiant Page – Gary Gianni (Flesk Publications, 2008).

Art: Gary Gianni (from installment #3544, January 9, 2005).
Source: The Prince Valiant Page – Gary Gianni (Flesk Publications, 2008).

Art: Gary Gianni (from installment #3713, April 6, 2008).
Text: Mark Schultz.
Source: Prince Valiant: Far from Camelot – Gary Gianni and Mark Schultz (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2008).

In the Cool of the Dawn . . .

2011-12-10T06:02:00.002-06:00

Art and text: Hal Foster (from installment #240, September 14, 1941).
Source: Prince Valiant (Vol. 3): 1941-1942 – Hal Foster (Fantagraphics Books, 2011).

Old Beyond Years

2011-12-07T17:35:00.001-06:00

Prince Valiant encounters Merlin for the first time in many years. "From the powers of night I asked for immortality," says the wizard, "but forgot to ask for youth."

Art: John Cullen Murphy (November 1983).
Text: Cullen Murphy.
Source: The Sun Herald (Sydney, Australia); from the collection of Michael J. Bayly (1986).

Intruder

2011-12-05T16:34:00.001-06:00

Art: Gary Gianni (from installment #3863, February 19, 2011).
Text: Mark Schultz.

Valiant of Arabia!

2011-12-02T14:11:00.001-06:00

Art: Hal Foster (October 29, 1961).

The Death of Dunstan

2011-11-28T19:52:00.001-06:00

Art: John Cullen Murphy (#2461, April 8, 1984).
Text: Cullen Murphy.

Merlin Ambrosius

2011-11-22T14:49:00.011-06:00

Adventuring in the Underworld, Prince Valiant and Sir Gawain are rescued from a raging river by a strangely rejuvenated Merlin Ambrosius.

Upon a mysteriously phosphorescent shore, the long-vanished wizard responds to the dumbfounded look on Prince Valiant's face: "Close your mouth, young prince. It is indeed I, although you'll find me advanced to a somewhat ethereal state."

Merlin then explains how he was made immortal by the magicks of the sea spirit Nimue (right). He now roams the Underworld with the daughter that this enchantress bore him. This "more spirit than human" child is also named Nimue.

"Now my young Nimue tells me it is time to go."

Art: Gary Gianni.
Text: Mark Schultz.
Image 1: From installment #3810, February 14, 2010. Source: Sunday Telegraph (Sydney, Australia).
Images 2-3: From installment #3813, March 7, 2010. Source: Pioneer Press (St. Paul, USA).

Iron Grace

2011-11-18T20:11:00.002-06:00

Art: John Cullen Murphy (from installment #2447, January 1, 1984).
Text: Cullen Murphy

Sir Gawain

2011-11-11T23:11:00.012-06:00

NOTE: A recent visitor to this site requested I highlight his favorite character from Prince Valiant. I'm more than happy to oblige!

As a faithful friend and companion of Prince Valiant, the debonair Sir Gawain, Knight of the Round Table and nephew of King Arthur, has long been a popular supporting character in the long-running Prince Valiant adventure strip.

Above: The young Prince Valiant meets Sir Gawain for the first time. The lad is soon serving as Gawain's squire and journeying with him to the court of King Arthur.

Art and text: Hal Foster (from installment #16, May 29, 1937).
Source: Prince Valiant (Vol. 1): 1937-1938 – Hal Foster (Fantagraphics Books, 2009).

Above: Sir Gawain does battle with a "great sea dragon"!

Art: Hal Foster (from installment #17, June 5, 1937).
Source: Prince Valiant (Vol. 1): 1937-1938 – Hal Foster (Fantagraphics Books, 2009).

Above: The enchantress Morgan Le Fay desires Sir Gawain's agreement to be her husband – so much so that she captures and imprisons him in her castle. Prince Valiant's initial attempt to rescue him fails miserably. He is drugged, imprisoned, and his nights made sleepless by all manner of ghastly apparitions.

Art and text: Hal Foster (from installment #58, March 19, 1938).
Source: Prince Valiant (Vol. 1): 1937-1938 – Hal Foster (Fantagraphics Books, 2009).

Above: Gawain looks on knowingly and in amusement at the love-struck Val and the fair maid Ilene. The young couple's relationship, however, would be a tragic one.

Art and text: Hal Foster (from installment #39, November 6, 1937).
Source: Prince Valiant (Vol. 1): 1937-1938 – Hal Foster (Fantagraphics Books, 2009).

Above: Sir Gawain to the rescue!

Art and text: Hal Foster (from installment #388, June 16, 1944).
Source: Prince Valiant (Vol. 4): 1943-1944 – Hal Foster (Fantagraphics Books, 2011).

Above: Sir Gawain – always the ladies' man!

Art and text: Hal Foster (from installment #58, August 11, 1940).
Source: Prince Valiant (Vol. 2): 1939-1940 – Hal Foster (Fantagraphics Books, 2010).

Sir Gawain as drawn by John Cullen Murhpy (installment #2164, July 30, 1978)

Source: Prince Valiant (Vol. 48): Return to Camelot – Hal Foster and John Cullen Murphy (Fantagraphics Books, 2003).

Sir Gawain as drawn by Gary Gianni (from installment #3626, August 6, 2006).

Source: Prince Valiant: Far from Camelot – Gary Gianni and Mark Schultz (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2008).

Image 1: From installment #298, October 25, 1942. Art: Hal Foster. Source: Prince Valiant (Vol. 3): 1941-1942 – Hal Foster (Fantagraphics Books, 2011).
Image 2: From installment #64, April 30, 1938. Art and text: Hal Foster. Source: Prince Valiant (Vol. 1): 1937-1938 – Hal Foster (Fantagraphics Books, 2009).

Constantinople

2011-11-05T19:11:00.005-05:00

En route from Camelot to the Misty Isles, Prince Valiant and his family arrive in Constantinople, "womb of cutthroats, tomb of saints, birthplace of emperors." The lovelorn Arn, however, has thoughts only for Maeve.

If you look in the top right-hand corner of this image you'll see part of the sticky tape I used to tape this particular Prince Valiant installment into one of the many scrapbooks that I compiled of the strip when I was a teenager! I still have them all! They're in my parents' keeping in Port Macquarie, Australia.

Art: John Cullen Murphy (from installment #2327, September 13, 1981).
Text: Cullen Murphy.
Source: The Sun Herald (Sydney, Australia); from the collection of Michael J. Bayly (1984).

Neshem's Proposal

2011-11-03T13:58:00.001-05:00

Prince Neshem of Ab'saban makes a proposal to Prince Valiant and his companion Skyrmir: Help transport Solomon's gold back to Ab'saban and they will be richly rewarded.

Art: Gary Gianni (from installment #3672, June 24, 2007).
Text: Mark Schultz.
Source: Prince Valiant: Far from Camelot – Gary Gianni and Mark Schultz (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2008).

Haunted

2011-10-31T21:28:00.001-05:00

Drugged and imprisoned by the sorceress Morgan Le Fey, Prince Valiant's nights are haunted by terrible visions.

Art and text: Hal Foster (from installment #58, March 19, 1938).
Source: Prince Valiant (Vol. 1): 1937-1938 – Hal Foster (Fantagraphics Books, 2009).

The Banishment of Mordred

2011-10-29T23:27:00.012-05:00

After it is discovered that King Arthur's deathly illness is the result of being poisoned by his half-brother Mordred, who seeks the crown for himself, the king secretly recovers and then takes action.

Following is the text that accompanies the above illustration:

Before the assembled throng, Gawain strips Mordred of his sword and cuts the emblem from his tunic. Now Arthur draws Excalibur and plunges the blade into his own arm. The heavens tremble at his words: "Mordred, false knight and false brother, I spit you out. From this realm I banish you. Your estates and your wealth I give to the poor. May your children scorn you and your grandchildren call you Judas. Behold, from my arm spills the blood we once shared. I am cleansed. Begone, viper, I know you not."

Left: Watching from a nearby balcony are (from left) Sir Lancelot, Queen Guinevere, Aleta, and Galan.

And why, you may ask, is Prince Valiant absent from this momentous event? To find out, click here.

Art: John Cullen Murphy (July 1980).
Text: Cullen Murphy.
Source: The Sun Herald (Sydney, Australia); from the collection of Michael J. Bayly (1983).

In All Ways Different

2011-10-23T00:01:00.002-05:00

Sold into slavery to a rich Syrian merchant, the young Prince Valiant vows to secure freedom. With guile and patience he works his way up from field slave to member of the household staff. In time he tricks the merchant's pampered daughter into helping him escape.

Art and text: Hal Foster (from installment #234, August 3, 1941).
Source: Prince Valiant (Vol. 3): 1941-1942 – Hal Foster (Fantagraphics Books, 2011).

Draco's Demise

2011-10-22T00:09:00.000-05:00

With his plans thwarted and his wife's sorcery defeated, Draco, the would-be ruler of Camelot, is confronted by Prince Valiant.

Ironically, his wife Maldubh's "spell" on the scaffolding around the walls of Camelot (mischief that involved an infestation of wood burrowing beetles!) ensures Draco's demise.

Art: Gary Gianni (September 18, 2011).
Text: Mark Shultz.
Source: TimesUnion.com

A King's Son

2011-10-18T10:08:00.000-05:00

Art and text: Hal Foster (from installment #212, March 2, 1941).
Source: Prince Valiant (Vol. 3): 1941-1942 – Hal Foster (Fantagraphics Books, 2011).

The Guardian

2011-10-14T15:46:00.000-05:00

Art and text: Hal Foster (February 18, 1962).

Mordred

2011-10-09T14:12:00.000-05:00

Mordred, King Arthur's traitorous half-brother, as drawn by

John Cullen Murphy in installment #2511 (March 24, 1985).

Lake Dragons

2011-10-04T21:40:00.000-05:00

Art: Gary Gianni (from installment #3567, June 19, 2005).
Text: Mark Schultz.
Source: Prince Valiant: Far from Camelot – Gary Gianni and Mark Schultz (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2008).

Young Love

2011-09-18T11:56:00.001-05:00

A lovely illustration of Prince Valiant and his wife Aleta, Queen of the Misty Isles. It's also one of the very few depictions of the Prince of Thule with facial hair!

Art: Hal Foster (1947).
Source: One of the Prince Valiant comic books my father collected in 1954-55 and which were published and distributed by Associated Newspaper Ltd. of 60-70 Elizabeth Street, Sydney.

Arthur in Flight!

2011-09-10T09:33:00.001-05:00

In a "war of boasts" with the Norsemen of Thule, the knights of Camelot

conjure the image of King Arthur borne aloft by gyrphons!

Art: John Cullen Murphy (from installment #2496, December 9, 1984).

Mark Schultz on Prince Valiant as an American Invention

2011-09-05T01:12:00.000-05:00

Following, with added images and links, is an excerpt from the introduction to Prince Valiant: Far from Camelot by Gary Gianni and Mark Schultz, the current illustrator and writer, respectively, of the Prince Valiant adventure strip. This introduction is written by Schultz (pictured at right).

__________________________

As I was about to begin to write my first Prince Valiant strip, King Features Syndicate editor-in-chief Jay Kennedy gave me a bit of advice, which I will attempt to adequately recall: “Although Valiant is an epic adventure, with lots of opportunity for pageantry and action, remember that it’s Val’s relationship with his wife and family that keeps the strip accessible and popular.”

That advice has proven itself for me and artist Gary Gianni. The emotions that follow from the personal lives of those associated with the epic give it a human scale. Valiant works best when the pull of family equals the pull of adventure.

Prince Valiant is, of course, an American invention. Although it is cloaked and housed in a wonderfully detailed fantasy of seventh-century Europe, in heart its themes and values are totally of the New World. Although populated with characters drawn lightly from Arthurian legend, it has little to do with the European literary traditions upheld by Arthurian chroniclers Malory, Tennyson, and White, Its sensibilities come straight from the American middle class.

The lead characters may be of royal blood, but the strip has never treated them as if their birthright allows them any entitlement or inherent superiority. Breaking with the traditions of the European fairy tale and nationalistic legend, the characters in Prince Valiant, whether king or cordwainer, rise and fall on merit and personal initiative. No one gets a free ride by fact of birth, or by divine fiat.

Val is much more closely related to the iconic American characters created by Horatio Alger: his success is based on hard work and pluck. His royal Thule blood means nothing when, at the start of the saga, he and his deposed family are stranded in the inhospitable fens of eastern England. It is his strength, skill, intelligence, and, most of all, extreme cleverness that raise him to knighthood in Camelot. His abilities and aptitude lead him to travel much of the known world (as well as the unknown continents to the west), to battle Huns, Saxons, and Byzantines, or to win the Queen of the Misty Isles for his fair bride – all while having sense of inherent privilege consistently deflated.

Most importantly, Val must constantly win his irreverent family’s respect by word and deed. Which brings us back to Editor-in-Chief Kennedy’s words of advice.

Val may be a mighty warrior, but he is also one of us. His wife and children keep him in his place, alongside those of us who don’t star in our own comic strip. Sometimes Val just doesn’t get any respect and he’s that much better for it.

Gary and I know a good thing when we see it and have done our best to maintain Val’s status as that hardworking, sometimes put-upon, sometimes self-indulgent, Regular Joe who just happens to be a prince and the very best at what he does.

– Mark Schultz

Above: When artist Gary Gianni's mother passed away late in 2008,

Mark Schultz gave his partner some time off by filling in with installment #3756

(February 1, 2009), from which this illustration is taken.

Image 1: Photographer unknown.
Image 2: From installment #3539, December 5, 2004. Art: Gary Gianni. Text: Mark Schultz. Source: Prince Valiant: Far from Camelot – Gary Gianni and Mark Schultz (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2008).
Image 3: From installment #2165, August 6, 1978. Art: Hal Foster and John Cullen Murphy. Text: Hal Foster. Source: Prince Valiant (Vol. 48): Return to Camelot – Hal Foster and John Cullen Murphy (Fantagraphics Books, 2003).
Image 4: From installment #15, May 22, 1937. Art and text: Hal Foster. Source: Prince Valiant (Vol. 1): 1937-1938 – Hal Foster (Fantagraphics Books, 2009).
Image 5: From installment #2449, January 15, 1984. Art: John Cullen Murphy. Text: Cullen Murphy. Source: Prince Valiant, Book One – King Features Syndicate (Blackthorne Publishing, Inc., 1986).
Image 6: From installment #3756, February 1, 2009. Art: Mark Shultz. Source: The Definitive Prince Valiant Companion – Brian M. Kane (Fantagraphics Books, 2009).

The Ever-Resourceful Aleta

2011-08-31T22:40:00.001-05:00

Kidnapped by Ulfran the Viking sea rover, Prince Valiant's wife Aleta takes matters into her own hands – literally.

Art and text: Hal Foster (February 1947).
Source: One of the Prince Valiant comic books my father collected in 1954-55 and which were published and distributed by Associated Newspaper Ltd. of 60-70 Elizabeth Street, Sydney.

The Governor's Advice

2011-08-27T17:20:00.002-05:00

When Prince Valiant upsets a greedy caliph by angrily refusing to sell him either his wife or one of his daughters, the Governor of Lyon advices him to gather his family and leave the city at once.

Art: Hal Foster and John Cullen Murphy (from installment 2148, April 9, 1978). At this point in Prince Valiant's run, John Cullen Murphy, who had been quietly assisting Hal Foster since 1970, was well into his first decade of drawing the strip over Foster's writing and roughs.
Text: Hal Foster.
Source: Prince Valiant (Vol. 40): Return to Camelot, comprising pages, or installments, 2124 (October 23, 1977) through 2167 (August 20, 1978). Fantagraphics Books, 2003.

Thorwolf's Claim

2011-08-25T18:11:00.002-05:00

With eyes burning with "insane fever," the Norseman Thorwolf claims the treasure of Solomon and threatens Prince Valiant. "Your bones . . . will join the others in silent witness to my stake," Thorwolf declares.

Art: Gary Gianni. (From installment #3617, June 4, 2006).
Text: Mark Schultz.
Source: Prince Valiant: Far from Camelot – Gary Gianni and Mark Schultz (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2008).

An Audience with King Arthur and Queen Guinevere

2011-08-20T16:54:00.001-05:00

A young Prince Valiant meets the famed King Arthur and his wife Guinevere for the first time.

Art and text: Hal Foster. (From installment #21, July 3, 1937)
Source: Prince Valiant (Vol. 1): 1937-1938 – Hal Foster (Fantagraphics Books, 2009).

Journey to Lapland

2011-08-18T23:11:00.000-05:00

Above and below: Two panels from installment #2509 (March 10, 1985) of Prince Valiant that not only showcase the exquisite artwork of John Cullen Murphy but the eloquent writing of his son John Cullen.

Left: Detail from the third panel of installment #2509.

Journeying into Lapland, the young Mikkel points out and explains to Prince Valiant the significance of the annual herding of reindeer. "This is the most important thing that happens in our land," he says. "At summer's end we drive the herds south for better foraging. When winter breaks we drive them north again – back home. The reindeer give us meat and milk. They give us clothes for our backs and skins for our roof."

"We Are the Daughters of the Queen of the Misty Isles and the Prince of Thule"

2011-08-13T22:33:00.000-05:00

With these words Karen and Valeta, the twin daughters of Prince Valiant and Queen Aleta, returned August 7, 2011, to the Sunday adventure strip that bears their father's name.

Their words are spoken to Maldubh, whose dark witchcraft threatens both Val and Aleta's lives, and is ultimately aimed at placing her conniving husband, Draco, on the throne of Camelot.

Yet with the help of their sister-in-law Maeve, Karen and Valeta wage a spectral battle against Maldubh – a battle that they ultimately win.

Left: A dazed and enraged Maldubh demands to know the identity of the three mysterious interlopers who have defeated her dark witchcraft.

I'm not sure, but I think this is the first time since artist Gary Gianni and writer Mark Schultz began collaborating on Prince Valiant in November 2004 that Karen and Valeta have made an appearance. I don't think this absence has anything to do with Gianni and Schultz's dislike for these particular characters. Rather, I think it may have something to do with how they've chosen to depict Prince Valiant and Queen Aleta.

You see, over the 30+ years that Gianni's predecessor John Cullen Murphy drew Prince Valiant, he aged Val to a man in his mid-40s (left). Yet since fully taking over the strip in 2004, Gianni has taken a good twenty years off Valiant and Aleta. Indeed, as the illustration below demonstrates, at times Prince Valiant looks as young as his adult children!

Above: Prince Valiant, as drawn by Gary Gianni (June 25, 2006).

All the more reason, perhaps, to keep these adult children off center stage as much as possible. Of course, Nathan, the youngest in the family, doesn't look out of place (right). And Arn, the eldest, almost has to be present. He is, after all, married to Maeve, the niece of King Arthur, and is currently serving as regent of Camelot. Furthermore, Arn and Maeve's daughter Ingrid is heir to the throne. With such connections, it's difficult to write Arn out of the story. Not so, it seems, Karen and Valeta, and their younger brother Galan.

Yet perhaps with the recent return of Karen and Valeta, we'll see more of the daughters of the Queen of the Misty Isles and the Prince of Thule!

Following are some depictions of Karen and Valeta throughout the 70+ history of Prince Valiant.

Above: After a year away adventuring, Prince Valiant returns home to find he is the father of twin daughters.

Art and text: Hal Foster (from installment #767, October 21, 1951).

Notes Brian M. Kane in Hal Foster: Prince of Illustrators, Father of the Adventure Strip:

After Val and Aleta's twin girls were born, King Features held a contest to name them, but Foster reserved the right to select the winning entry. A young girl, Cindy Lou Hermann, sent in the winning names "Karen" and "Valeta" and visited Hal in Connecticut.

Above: Prince Valiant and Queen Aleta's growing family. From left: Arn, Karen and Valeta, and Aleta with the infant Galan.

Art: Hal Foster (from installment #1342, October 28, 1962).

Above: In the aftermath of a dramatic rescue, Prince Valiant shares a tender moment with his daughters.

Karen (at right) is sporting the attire of the Amazons. Her interest in the legendary nation of female warriors in Greek mythology was inspired by her witnessing of the defeat of the Persian warlord Khazan II by Hypathia, Queen of Petropolis.

Art: Hal Foster and John Cullen Murphy (from installment #2128, November 20, 1977).
Text: Hal Foster.

Above and below: Two panels from installment #2162 (July 16, 1978) highlighting the difference in interests and personality of Karen and Valeta.

Above: The teenage Karen and Valeta, along with their brother Galan, make the acquaintance of Chinese scholar Yuan Chen.

Art: John Cullen Murphy (from installment #2366, June 13, 1982).

Above: Prince Valiant attempts to console a lovelorn Valeta. By entering the tourney incognito as "Lord Trueheart" and asking Valeta for the honor of wearing her pennon, it's Val who will be his daughter's "secret admirer."

Art: John Cullen Murphy (#2467, May 20, 1984).
Text: Cullen Murphy.

In later stories illustrated by Murphy, Karen meets and marries a young man named Giovanni ("Vanni"), the son of Prester John, whom Prince Valiant, Karen, Vanni, Galan, Sir Gawain, and Yuan Chen encounter in Cathay.

Valeta, meanwhile, becomes romantically involved with the young Druid high priest Cormac, who is described as a "strange mixture of warmth, wisdom, wit, and sadness." In time it is discovered that Cormac is Maeve's long-lost brother, and thus, like her, the son of King Arthur's evil half-brother Mordred. It's a revelation that causes much grief and trouble for the young man.

Although there is no mention of Karen and Vanni in Gianni and Schultz's "seasonal greeting" installment of 2010, it is noted that Valeta and Cormac are living amidst the "emerald vales" of Hibernia, while Galan "continues his scholarly pursuits" in Jerusalem.

A Spectral Battle

2011-08-08T13:08:00.001-05:00

A stunning panel by the current illustrator of Prince Valiant, Gary Gianni.

A mysterious trio come to the rescue of a cursed Prince Valiant and Queen Aleta by doing battle against the dark witchcraft of Maldubh, wife of the would-be ruler of Camelot, Draco.

The identity of this trio? To find out, click here.

Art: Gary Gianni (July 31, 2011).
Text: Mark Schultz.

Sleight of Hand

2011-08-02T09:00:00.000-05:00

In order to secure the release of his kidnapped son, Prince Valiant employs some sleight of hand!

Art and text: Hal Foster (January 20, 1963).
Source: Prince Valiant (Vol. 30): Arn, Son of Valiant, comprising pages, or installments, 1327 (July 15, 1962) through 1372 (May 26, 1963). Fantagraphics Books, 1997.

Keeping Her Own Counsel

2011-07-28T10:30:00.000-05:00

Queen Aleta, wife of Prince Valiant, as drawn by Gary Gianni.

Art: Gary Gianni (#3637, October 22, 2006).
Text: Mark Schultz.
Source: Prince Valiant: Far from Camelot. (With thanks to my Dad in Australia for scanning this particular image and sending it to me in the U.S.)

"The King is but a Man"

2011-07-25T18:47:00.000-05:00

Here's another great contribution to the Prince Valiant canon by artist John Cullen Murphy. (To view and appreciate this image even more, be sure to click on it to enlarge it.)

This particular illustration depicts King Arthur stricken by a mysterious illness. The accompanying text by Murphy's son John Cullen reads as follows:

Late into the evening doctors whisper in Latin near the king's door. But always at midnight Aleta slips through their learned gossip to join Guinevere at Arthur's side. The peppery beard heaves fitfully upon his breast as a strange hush broods over the palace. Outside, a soft June wind stirs the trees. "Camelot is not forever," the branches seem to say, "and the king is but a man."

Art: John Cullen Murphy (#2261, June 7, 1980).
Text: Cullen Murphy.
Source: The Sun Herald (Sydney, Australia); from the collection of Michael J. Bayly (1983).

Knight Errant

2011-07-20T22:08:00.000-05:00

Leaving Camelot with his youngest son Nathan, Prince Valiant "lets loose a yelp of pure glee" at once again being a freely roaming knight errant.

Art: Gary Gianni (from installment #3540, December 12, 2004).
Source: Prince Valiant: Far from Camelot by Gary Gianni and Mark Schultz (2008). With thanks to my Dad in Australia for scanning this particular image and sending it to me here in the U.S.

A Quest for Prince Valiant

2011-07-18T19:46:00.000-05:00

Prince Valiant is given a quest by King Arthur: to ride north and find out
if the Picts have breached Hadrian's Wall and thus threaten Britain.

Art: Hal Foster (1949).
Source: From one of the Prince Valiant comic books my father collected in 1954-55 and which were published and distributed by Associated Newspaper Ltd. of 60-70 Elizabeth Street, Sydney.

"Tell Me This is No Dream!"

2011-07-16T10:44:00.001-05:00

A wounded Prince Valiant is reunited with his wife Aleta.

Art and text: Hal Foster (July 24, 1960).

Difficult Times

2011-07-12T23:33:00.000-05:00

Difficult times for Prince Valiant – his newborn son has been kidnapped by an agent of the Byzantine emperor Justinian, his wife Queen Aleta of the Misty Isles is in the grip of a fever, and he's about to learn that Justinian is planning to invade the Misty Isles!

Art: John Cullen Murphy (1982).
Text: Cullen Murphy.
Source: The Sun Herald (Sydney, Australia); from the collection of Michael J. Bayly.

At Stonehenge

2011-07-07T16:54:00.001-05:00

In his quest for the Holy Grail, Prince Valiant encounters the high priest of an ancient cult in the "shadow of mysterious Stonehenge."

Art and text: Hal Foster (December 20, 1959).

Resolution

2011-07-02T08:16:00.000-05:00

Art and text: Hal Foster (#66, May 15, 1938).
Source: Prince Valiant (Vol. 1): 1937-1938 – Hal Foster (Fantagraphics Books, 2009).

Friends On the High Seas

2011-06-26T00:54:00.001-05:00

Prince Valiant and Captain Gundar Harl – friends who have traveled to far distant shores (including the Americas) and experienced many adventures together.

Art: Hal Foster (1948).
Source: From one of the Prince Valiant comic books my father collected in 1954-55 and which were published and distributed by Associated Newspaper Ltd. of 60-70 Elizabeth Street, Sydney.

Undercover

2011-06-20T18:23:00.000-05:00

Art and text: Hal Foster (January 4, 1959).

A Tense Moment . . .

2011-06-03T14:11:00.000-05:00

. . . for Prince Valiant and Queen Aleta.

Art: John Cullen Murphy (October 1980).
Text: Cullen Murphy.
Source: The Sun Herald (Sydney, Australia); from the collection of Michael J. Bayly.

A Tender Moment

2011-05-24T14:41:00.000-05:00

Prince Valiant and his wife Aleta share a tender moment.

Art: Gary Gianni (from installment #3855, December 26, 2010).

Petropolis

2011-05-16T18:40:00.000-05:00

Above: When their entourage is ambushed in a narrow canyon by scouts of the Persian warlord Khazan II, Queen Aleta and her children are led to safety by a mysterious woman.

Above: The hidden city of Petropolis.

Art: Hal Foster and John Cullen Murphy (August 1977). At this point in Prince Valiant's run, John Cullen Murphy, who had been quietly assisting Hal Foster since 1970, was well into his first decade of drawing the strip over Foster's writing and roughs.
Text: Hal Foster.
Source: The Sun Herald (Sydney, Australia), November 25, 1979; from the collection of Michael J. Bayly.

At Cheddar Gorge

2011-05-09T18:49:00.000-05:00

Notes Wikipedia:

Cheddar Gorge is a limestone gorge in the Mendip Hills, near the village of Cheddar in Somerset, England. The gorge is the site of the Cheddar show caves, where Britain's oldest complete human skeleton, Cheddar Man, estimated to be 9,000 years old, was found in 1903. Older remains from the Upper Late Palaeolithic era (12,000–13,000 years ago) have also been found.

To read more about Cheddar Gorge, click here.

Art: Hal Foster (February 28, 1960).

Nimrod's Powder

2011-05-06T14:47:00.000-05:00

Art: John Cullen Murphy (November 1981).
Text: Cullen Murphy.
Source: The Sun Herald (Sydney, Australia), 1984; from the collection of Michael J. Bayly.

Troubled

2011-05-01T00:04:00.000-05:00

(NOTE: For an image of Prince Valiant's encounter with the"three weird sisters," see this post.)

Art: Gary Gianni (#3545, January 16, 2005).
Text: Mark Schultz.
Source: Prince Valiant: Far from Camelot – Gary Gianni and Mark Schultz (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2008).

Always in Demand . . .

2011-04-25T09:07:00.000-05:00

. . . even Prince Valiant's bath time gets interrupted!

Art: Hal Foster (1946).
Source: From one of the Prince Valiant comic books my father collected in 1954-55 and which were published and distributed by Associated Newspaper Ltd. of 60-70 Elizabeth Street, Sydney.

John Cullen Murphy on Prince Valiant: "It's My Duty. I'm Responsible For It"

2011-04-17T22:42:00.001-05:00

I've mentioned previously that my interest in Prince Valiant started when, as a child, I discovered my father's collection of Prince Valiant comics books.

When my Dad collected Prince Valiant as a teenager in the 1950s, the strip was being drawn by its creator Hal Foster and the Prince of Thule was a brash, rough-and-tumble young man, eager for battle. To be honest, when reading those strips as a child, I couldn't really relate to that Prince Valiant. I mean, I wasn't and I'm not any of those things.

The Prince Valiant that I came to know and sought to emulate as a teenager and young man was actually middle-aged. He was drawn by Hal Foster's chosen successor John Cullen Murphy (right), and his adventures were chronicled by Murphy's son Cullen. Interestingly, as you'll read in the interview below, Foster was somewhat critical of Murphy for drawing Valiant with "too much emotion." Apparently, he thought his creation should be forever stoic! I'm glad Murphy did what he did with the character. Prince Valiant, as drawn and written by the Murphys, still had great adventures and traveled far and wide, but he was also a family man. He displayed compassion, fortitude and wisdom, along with courage, resourcefulness and daring.

How into Prince Valiant was I as a young man?

Well, I made my own Prince Valiant t-shirt – one that bore the red stallion head of the House of Thule. I'm pictured wearing it above at Uluru in 1986. Later that year I had a Prince Valiant-themed 21st birthday celebration (left) in Armidale, where I was completing my Diploma of Teaching. The next year I had my very first article published. Its focus was the 50th anniversary of Prince Valiant!

So, yeah, I was very pretty into Prince Valiant! Thanks in large measure to John Cullen Murphy and his son Cullen.

Following are excerpts from an interview that Brian M. Kane conducted with John Cullen Murphy in 2003. By this time Murphy had been drawing Prince Valiant for 33 years.

(NOTE: The entire interview can be found in Kane's excellent book The Definitive Prince Valiant Companion.)

_________________________________

Brian M. Kane: What did you think of Hal Foster’s work?

John Cullen Murphy: I first noticed Hal’s work when I was 18. I loved it. His compositions were extraordinary. He could really do the big panels. I think he was a little weak on horses, though, and great big close-ups.

Brian M. Kane: What made you decide to approach Hal in 1968?

John Cullen Murphy: [Big Ben] Bolt [the boxing comic strip Murphy had been illustrating since 1950] had lost a lot of readers. By that time [the strip's original writer] Elliot [Chaplin] had left and it was being written by a lot of different guys so the stories weren’t that good. I’d wanted to get black people into the strip because the heyday of Jewish and Irish prizefighters was past, but the executives wouldn’t do it. They thought we’d lose more readers.

Brian M. Kane: When did you leave Big Ben Bolt? Was it before or after you’d started on Prince Valiant?

John Cullen Murphy: After. I continued with Bolt for another three or four years.

Above: A Hal Foster preliminary rough and Murphy’s redrawn and finished panel.

Brian M. Kane: Hal was giving you pencil sketches of each page every week to work from. Did you ever find working with him constricting?

John Cullen Murphy: No, because they were just rough guides. A few years later after I started doing the pages [Hal’s wife] Helen told him, “You’ve got this guy doing the pages, why bother sending him layouts?” After a while Hal quit sending the layouts but continued writing the strip. I think Helen was trying to ease Hal’s workload.

Brian M. Kane: Did he give you any advice about the characters? Posture? Body language? Did he share any personal insights that are not obvious to the casual reader?

John Cullen Murphy: He thought I drew Val with too much emotion. He’d say: “He’s a prince. He needs to be stoic.”

Brian M. Kane: Something that Hal could relate to coming out of a late-Victorian/Edwardian upbringing. Was it hard for Hal to let go of Prince Valiant?

John Cullen Murphy: Very much. It was his baby.

Brian M. Kane: Was it harder for him to give up Val or Aleta?

John Cullen Murphy: (Laughs) Well, he did use Helen as a model for Aleta. Younger, of course. She was a fine lady.

Brian M. Kane: Your first Prince Valiant strip was page 1760, November 1, 1970, but you couldn’t start signing your name on the page until February 17, 1980. Did it bother you that the general public didn’t know you were drawing the strip for almost ten years?

John Cullen Murphy: Not really. Everyone knew I was doing it.

Brian M. Kane: All the cartoonists?

John Cullen Murphy: That’s right, and even some of the fans too. Hal told me he once got a letter from a fan asking him when he’d started using Murphy on the strip.

Brian M. Kane: Have any of the mythic overtones of Celtic history played a part in your development of Prince Valiant as a character and as a strip?

John Cullen Murphy: Not intentionally. Some of the stories have taken place in Ireland, but you never know what Cullen might write into the strip.

Brian M. Kane: What has been the proudest achievement in your professional art career?

John Cullen Murphy: That I’ve been able to keep working all this time. I’m not the most talented person, but I always did my best. I was able to put eight kids through college.

Brian M. Kane: Before we finish I just want to get back to the good Prince. How many papers is Prince Valiant currently in wouldwide?

John Cullen Murphy: They keep telling me it’s in 350 papers.

Brian M. Kane: Other than shrinkage, what other trends have you noticed in the past 50 years of working on the strips?

John Cullen Murphy: Shrinkage is the worst. It’s all right for gag strips but not Prince Valiant. The coloring is not as good as it used to be. The color they had in the papers in the early 1900s is better than what they have today.

Brian M. Kane: Where do you see the future of adventure strips?

John Cullen Murphy: I don’t know, maybe they’ve reached their nadir. Maybe they will come back. I’m told that there are some good strips in Europe.

Brian M. Kane: You seem to have a great love for Prince Valiant – something that goes beyond just a steady income or a weekly paycheck.

John Cullen Murphy: It’s my duty. I’m responsible for it.

Brian M. Kane: What’s the best thing about working on Prince Valiant?

John Cullen Murphy: It’s something new every day. There are an infinite variety of possibilities for stories.

Brian M. Kane: Granted that Hal created Prince Valiant, but after thirty years haven’t you really made it your strip now?

John Cullen Murphy: No. If it’s anyone’s then it’s more Cullen’s than mine. He takes it very seriously. He spends a lot of time on it and he doesn’t have a lot of time to spare.

Brian M. Kane: I did some calculating and you only have a little over two years to go before you do as many pages as Hal did.

John Cullen Murphy: Something like that. I know I’m close.

Brian M. Kane: Are you trying to break Hal’s record?

John Cullen Murphy: I really haven’t thought about it.

Brian M. Kane: Let me put it this way. Once you have done as many pages as Hal did, would you do one more?

John Cullen Murphy: Sure, why not?

________________________________________

John Cullen Murphy retired from drawing Prince Valiant in 2004; his last strip was published on March 14. He died just months later on July 2, at the age of 85. Two years earlier he had begun collaborating with his chosen successor Gary Gianni, who took over drawing Prince Valiant full-time in 2004.

Cullen Murphy shared with Gianni that once his father had retired he was no longer as interested in working on the strip. He nevertheless stayed with it after his father's death until September 2005 when Mark Schultz took over writing Prince Valiant.

A Tale of Terror

2011-04-07T09:00:00.000-05:00

Prince Valiant's son Nathan, however, is not impressed: "Mother has already spun that yarn for me, as they tell it in the Misty Isles. Down there they call the menaces Scylla and Charybdis – but it's basically the same story."

Concludes Prince Valiant: "The world has grown too small when a ripping good tale like that no longer inspires awe. Children today are far too jaded."

"Such is the eternal divide between generations," the chronicler of Prince Valiant (Mark Schultz) declares.

Art: Gary Gianni (#3588, November 13, 2005).
Text: Mark Schultz.
Source: Prince Valiant: Far from Camelot – Gary Gianni and Mark Schultz (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2008).

The Charm of the Singing Sword

2011-04-04T18:44:00.000-05:00

After observing him in battle, Val's companion Slith believes he's discovered the "secret" of the Singing Sword: "So quick is your eye you see things practically in slow motion," he tells Val. "The charm of the Singing Sword has nothing to do with it."

Prince Valiant, however, disagrees: "Listen, worm! The Singing Sword bears a charm for him who uses it in a good cause. I prefer to believe that!"

Art and text: Hal Foster (from installment #130, August 6, 1939).
Source: From one of the Prince Valiant comic books my father collected in 1954-55 and which were published and distributed by Associated Newspaper Ltd. of 60-70 Elizabeth Street, Sydney.

Savior of Turfan

2011-04-02T09:00:00.000-05:00

After re-establishing a trade route from Europe to Cathay, Prince Valiant is hailed "Savior of Turfan."

Art: John Cullen Murphy (May, 1988).
Text: Cullen Murphy.
Source: The Sun Herald (Sydney, Australia), August 26, 1990; from the collection of Michael J. Bayly.

Looking Good

2011-03-28T20:48:00.001-05:00

Gary Gianni is the third and current illustrator in the 74-year history of Prince Valiant. He took over full time from his predecessor John Cullen Murphy in 2004, the two having first began collaborating in 2001.

In 2008 Gianni wrote and compiled The Prince Valiant Page, an indispensable resource in which he explains "the mechanics of going about illustrating Prince Valiant" via "thoughts jotted down during the production sequences, descriptions of materials and techniques, [and] a word about models and other reference sources." It also includes a richly illustrated look at Gianni's work leading up to Prince Valiant. In short, it's a wonderful resource, full of great illustrations and insightful observations about the creative process. Following (with added links and images) is an excerpt.

_____________________________________

. . . As with many kids, my early interest in drawing (and reading) rests largely with a fascination of comic books. Even before learning to read, I was enthralled by the comics of artists such as Jack Kirby. His visuals enabled me to follow a story line simply by studying the drawings.

Despite my admiration, there's little evidence of my own work being influenced by the masters of the comic field. The high-octave graphics of talents like Kirby seem to be missing altogether. The desire, however, to tell stories through pictures and render the liveliest figures imaginable stem from the art of these remarkable men.

But what is the difference between an illustrator and a comic book artist anyway? Or, for that matter, a cartoonist? The issue is dangerously nuanced and the similarities outnumber the differences. In an interview in the 1970's, [Prince Valiant creator] Hal Foster sidesteps the question neatly.

"I can't cartoon. I am an illustrator. But where the cartoonist ends and the illustrator begins is pretty hard to say."

As Hal Foster conceived it, the Prince Valiant comic strip is a narrative with illustrations accompanying the text. He rarely took advantage of the storytelling techniques found in comic strips. The snub-nosed style of Chester Gould or the cinematic approach of Milt Caniff or Will Eisner would be incongruous on Prince Valiant's stage. Indeed, Prince Valiant is more opera than film. A lyrical Victorian fragrance underlies the historical realism. Foster and [his successor John Cullen] Murphy were concerned with the careful rendering of the detailed tableaus. Groupings of figures are integrated within stately environments . . . For these reasons some critics will argue Prince Valiant is not a true comic strip.

But what of that?

When commenting on the differences between jazz, rock and classical music, composer musician "P.D.Q. Bach" observed, "All musical forms are created equal." Invoking Duke Ellington, he added, "It don't mean a thing, if it ain't got that swing and if it sounds good it is good."

. . . Or, for our purposes, "if it looks good – it is good."

– Gary Gianni

The Prince Valiant Page

p. 25

Image 1: From the February 18, 2007 installment of Prince Valiant by Gary Gianni.
Image 2: Photographer unknown.
Image 3: Gary Gianni.
Image 4: From the December 5, 2004 installment of Prince Valiant by Gary Gianni.
Image 5: From the website of Gary Gianni.

The Comics Reporter's Review of the Newly Released Prince Valiant, Vol. 3 (1941-1942)

2011-03-25T02:25:00.000-05:00

Following is a review of Prince Valiant, Volume 3 (1941-1942), which was released by Fantagraphics Books on March 21, 2011. This review was written and first published by The Comics Reporter.

_____________________

In his fine introduction to this new Prince Valiant collection, Dan Nadel briefly invokes Jack Kirby as a cartoonist who picked up on the way of making comics by which Hal Foster became a star, methods practiced by only a handful of others. According to fellow practitioner Burne Hogarth, Foster employed classical ways of drawing and made them work at a size and with an elegance of line that the images retained their power but also kept the eye skipping across the page. Kirby/Foster is an enlightening if offbeat comparison; in addition to the similarities in figure and panel work that Nadel describes, the power each could suggest within a single image, both cartoonists used page design and narrative rhythm to control their work's tone, to cut into what otherwise might be an interminable journey from point A to point B.

In devouring the latest in Fantagraphics' fine, modern-day collections before the introduction, I was actually reminded more of Kirby's fellow Silver Age comic book titan Steve Ditko. Foster's young man seethes and overreacts and even plays the fool in the same way that Ditko allowed Peter Parker the human foibles inherent to those in the process of becoming an adult. (Spider-Man never got mad enough to lop off anyone's hand that I can remember, so point to Valiant there; they did operate in different centuries with their own definition of "responsibility," however.) As long as the readers are invested in the energy with which Valiant seizes after goals both major and minor, we remain intrigued by his story. My memory of Prince Valiant as it progressed in later years makes me wonder if Foster ever got all the way past the bold and obvious appeal of this specific version of his character, to the point that future, similar adventures felt like a retreat for Valiant as opposed to continued growth, explaining also why the story would be shifted to Valiant's son.

There was a time not many decades ago when Hal Foster was considered the greatest cartoonist in the world, end of story, by a significant subset of people that took comics seriously -- my father among them. Like my father, many of the people who thought this have now passed on. This latest collection effort allows those younger than, say, 60 years old, to take a second look at the work without hackles raised, minus the powerful impulse to push back and tear down a conception born of a restrictive view of what art does well and why. With fresh eyes, savvier readers will likely recognize the obvious appeal of the bigger, splashier images but also pick up on the impressive hammer-to-nail effect that Foster could summon from a nine-panel grid. Most readers will see or at least sense the essential economy with which Foster tells his stories, how the more complex imagery serves a specific thematic function either by making unshakably lucid some sensual aspect in play or by drawing a moment that encompasses several smaller instances in a way that stops the eye and makes it consider an effect greater than the sum of those parts. Even untethered from rigidities caused by favoring realistic rendering over all other expressions available to the the form, it's hard not to be come away impressed by Foster's prodigious skill set.

Foster staged individual scenes extremely well. He never wasted a closeup, and he also knew where each man in a group of men might stand in proximity to a threat according to their personality as individuals and as a group. Foster could show a realization moving across the faces of dozens and in what order they came to enlightenment, and he could put a grin on Valiant's face that said everything it needed to about his role in the action to come. Seeing all this work under one cover makes one realize how much Foster accomplished in the context of a delivery system that for most people meant work that slipped from view and memory seconds after being consumed, only to have to muster its entire energy the next time around. Nadel mentions that Foster may have doubted his own greatness, but each time I see and attempt to catalog the various techniques he put into play every time he worked on a page, I come away with enough faith in his ability for the both of us.

Related Off-site Links:
A Review of Prince Valiant (Vol. 1): 1937-1938 – Read About Comics (July 20, 2009).
A Review of Prince Valiant (Vol. 2): 1939-1940 – Graphic Novels Reviews (December 13, 2010).

Valiant Stands Accused

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The perils of rescuing a damsel in distress!

Art: John Cullen Murphy (September 1980).
Text: Cullen Murphy.
Source: The Sun Herald (Sydney, Australia); from the collection of Michael J. Bayly.

Harpies!

2011-03-20T15:03:00.000-05:00

A memorable illustration by Gary Gianni – the current illustrator of Prince Valiant.

Art: Gary Gianni (#3681, August 26, 2007).
Text: Mark Schultz.
Source: Prince Valiant: Far from Camelot – Gary Gianni and Mark Schultz (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2008).

First Love

2011-03-16T23:36:00.001-05:00

Prince Valiant's first love was the fair maid Ilene of Branwyn, whose parents Val rescues from a band of outlaws.

When Val asks for Ilene's hand in marriage, her father the Thane of Branwyn informs him that she has already been promised to Prince Arn of Ord.

Prince Valiant vows to find his rival and defeat him. Traveling to Ord he encounters and jousts with Arn on a narrow bridge above a swirling river. Arn is unhorsed and topples into the water. He is saved from drowning in his heavy armor by Val who declares: "If you are to die this day, it will be by my hand in fair fight."

The two lads are soon at it . . . with cries of "Ilene or death!"

Their duel is halted by the arrival of a Viking raiding party, which they battle and defeat. From a wounded survivor they learn that Ilene has been captured by Thagnar, the Viking sea rover.

Forgetting their quarrel in the face of Ilene's peril, Valiant and Arn rush to the coast. Armed with Arn's charmed Singing Sword, Prince Valiant buys time by holding the bridge at Dundorn Glen against fifty Vikings.

With rage in his heart and the terrible "Singing Sword" in his hand, Val writes his name large in the memories of his foes.

The Vikings draw back in amazement, but, weakened by a score of wounds, Prince Valiant collapses and is taken to Thagnar's encampment. Here he is reunited with Ilene. The two are soon at sea, prisoners of Thagnar.

With Arn in pursuit, Val strikes Thagnar, reclaims the Singing Sword, and cripples the longship's steering sweep. At Ilene's urging he jumps overboard and swims to Arn's ship. Together, Valiant and Arn defeat the crew of Thagnar's second ship, but the Viking rover himself has repaired his ship and escaped with Ilene.

Arn and Val's search for the woman they both love ends in tragedy with the discovery of Thagnar's shipwrecked vessel – and a jeweled clasp that had belonged to Ilene.

Later the two princes are consoled by Sir Lancelot.

Do not grive for Ilene – fate has spared her much unhappiness. Had she been found you were pledged to fight to the death for her hand; the winner would live on knowing he had brought a bride with his friend's life, and gentle Ilene would be the wife of a murderer, forever blaming herself for being the cause of it all.

Back in Britain, the two friends part company; but not before Arn gives Val the charmed Singing Sword, "to be used in good King Arthur's cause."

Years later, when considering a name for his first-born son, Val shares the tragic tale of Ilene with his wife Aleta. They then decide to name their son Arn. Pictured above is how Prince Valiant creator Hal Foster recaps the story of Val's first love in April 1948.

Image art and text: Hal Foster.
Image 1: From installment #75, July 17, 1938.
Image 2: #67, May 22, 1938.
Image 3: #68, May 29, 1938.
Image 4: #71, June 19, 1938.
Image 5: #75, July 17, 1938
Image 6: #78, August 7, 1938.
Image 7: #82, September 4, 1938.
Image 8: #85, September 25, 1938.
Image 9: April 1948.

Source of images 1, 3, 4 and 5: Prince Valiant #1, Pioneer Comics, June 1988.
Images 2, 6, 7 and 8: Prince Valiant (Vol. 1): 1937-1938 – Hal Foster (Fantagraphics Books, 2009).
Image 9: From one of the Prince Valiant comic books my father collected in 1954-55 and which were published and distributed by Associated Newspaper Ltd. of 60-70 Elizabeth Street, Sydney.

Words of Wisdom from Prince Valiant

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Art: Gary Gianni (#3543, January 2, 2005).
Text: Mark Schultz.
Source: Prince Valiant: Far from Camelot – Gary Gianni and Mark Schultz (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2008).

Dagobert

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In his "quest for humility," Prince Valiant is led to an old hermit who dwells in a deep chasm in the Swiss Alps. Here, the old man explains, lie all of humanity's follies and sorrows.

In one underground cavern, Prince Valiant is shown hundreds of scribes, busy at work recording the good intentions of everyone in the world.

But what of that one sleeping scribe?

"Poor Dagobert," the old man sighs. "His job is to record the good intentions people actually fulfill. He has not much to do."

Art: John Cullen Murphy (February 1981).
Text: Cullen Murphy.
Source: The Sun Herald (Sydney, Australia), June 12, 1983; from the collection of Michael J. Bayly.

NOTE: For some theological musings on this particular illustration, see my Wild Reed post, Waking Dagobert.

Mark Schultz on the Art of Hal Foster: "Uniquely Appealing, Innovative and Influential"

2011-03-08T01:24:00.000-06:00

Mark Schultz, the creator of the Eiser and Harvey Award-winning comic book Xenozoic Tales (a.k.a. Cadillac and Dinosaurs), has been writing Prince Valiant, as illustrated by Gary Gianni, since 2004.

The following appreciation of the artistic legacy of Prince Valiant creator Hal Foster (pictured at right) is excerpted from the foreword Schultz wrote for Fantagraphics’ 2010 publication Prince Valiant (Vol. 2): 1939-1940.

______________________________

Hal Foster’s enduring status as the most important figure in the development of adventure comic strips would be difficult to dispute: With Tarzan, his groundbreaking adaptation of Edgar Rice Burrough’s iconic ape man, and then Prince Valiant, his personal invention and masterpiece, Foster virtually single-handedly invented the visual language and set the storytelling standards that would dominate serial comic-strip adventure for decades. What is open to argument, however, is whether Foster was primarily a cartoonist, working with and exploiting the opportunities unique to the sequential medium – or more of a traditional illustrator squatting on the comics page while remaining largely aloof from comics conventions.

The distinction, of course, isn’t that simple. Foster was very conscious of the differences in the disciplines and venues for which they were intended, and he made choices. Which elements of illustration Foster brought to the comics page, which illustrative elements he incorporated from established color comics added up to a singular whole that made his work uniquely appealing, innovative and influential.

. . . [The] one . . . creative choice that Foster made that most clearly separates him from the greater body of cartoonists [was to present] his strips’ text in the form of open captions, with narration and dialogue intermixed. He dispensed with one of the strips cartoonists’ unique tools, the word balloon. A singular stylistic choice, it’s impossible to imagine Prince Valiant otherwise, so completely is this uncommon feature integrated into the formal look of the strip. I have no idea whether or not the decision owes any allegiance on Foster’s part to book illustration, but the conceit does work well to consolidate textual information and organize the panels, with their big dollops of visual information, into easily read designs. Word balloons would have made Valiant a different experience, read in a very different rhythm. . . .

– Mark Schultz

Excerpted from “Yes, He Was a Cartoonist,” the foreword to

Prince Valiant (Vol. 2): 1939-1940 (Fantagraphics Books, 2010)

The Ever-Resourceful Prince Valiant

2011-03-05T23:31:00.000-06:00

Art and text: Hal Foster (#51, January 29, 1938).
Image source: Prince Valiant (Vol. 1): 1937-1938 – Hal Foster (Fantagraphics Books, 2009).

Valiant to the Rescue

2011-03-03T22:48:00.000-06:00

A panel from the November 13, 1977 installment of Prince Valiant.

While in Beirut with their family, Karen and Valeta, the twin teenage daughters of Prince Valiant and Queen Aleta, are kidnapped by Assur, "son of a Sheik from beyond the Jordan." Prince Valiant, armed with the "bright blade" of the Singing Sword, quickly pursues and rescues them.

At first glance, this illustration could be misconstrued to imply that the various artists and writers involved over the years in the creation of Prince Valiant have been careless and insensitive in their portrayal of people from non-European cultures. Yet to think this would be a serious mistake. In the preceding adventure, for example, Prince Valiant's allies and friends were Sheik Abdul El Mohammed and members of his family and household, while the protagonist was a hot-headed and arrogant Teutonic knight named Gunther (pictured below).

Furthermore, as Frank Plowright notes in The Slings and Arrows Comic Guide (1997), from its earliest days, "the plots [of Prince Valiant were] . . . never condescending towards other nations in the manner typical at which they were created."

One of the earliest examples of this can be observed in the Hal Foster created character of Ramud of Tunis (pictured at right, from the August 5, 1945 installment). Brave and resourceful, Ramud is a vital ally in the rescuing of Valiant's future wife Aleta from the tyrant Donardo.

This respectful and even-handed portrayal of people from diverse cultures is a characteristic of Prince Valiant that continues to this day.

Above: Prince Valiant and Neshem of Ab'saba – friends and allies in
the quest to return King Solomon's gold to Africa (#3674, July 8, 2007).

Images 1 and 2: Art: Hal Foster and John Cullen Murphy. (Note: At this point in Prince Valiant's run, John Cullen Murphy, who had been quietly assisting Hal Foster since 1970, was well into his first decade of drawing the strip over Foster's writing and roughs.) Text: Hal Foster. Source: The Sun Herald (Sydney, Australia), March 1980; from the collection of Michael J. Bayly.
Image 3: Art and text: Hal Foster. Source: The Prince Valiant Scrapbook (King Features Syndicate, published by Bill Crouch, Jr., 1981).
Image 4: Art: Gary Gianni. Text: Mark Schultz. Source: Prince Valiant: Far from Camelot – Gary Gianni and Mark Schultz (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2008).

A Valiant First Effort, Wouldn't You Say?

2011-02-28T10:08:00.002-06:00

NOTE: The following was first shared at The Wild Reed on August 28, 2010.

Did you know that the first article I ever had published had nothing to do with theology or politics or gay rights? Rather, it was about the adventures of a fictitious Viking prince in the days of King Arthur!

I remember I bought a nice jumper (that’s a sweater for my American friends) with the $40 I was paid for this article – one that was published in The Canberra Times in April 1987. It was also an article that I submitted to the professional writing class I was taking at that time at the Canberra College of Advanced Education (now the University of Canberra). My instructor awarded me a “credit” grade, and noted that my article was “topical, interesting, and well-researched . . . [with] a genuine enthusiasm evident throughout.” He also observed that I “occasionally lapse into over-long sentences” – a habit that dogs me to this day!

In a future post I’ll share how I first became interested in the subject of this first ever article of mine. But for now I simply share (with added links and images) what I wrote back in the Australian autumn of 1987, when I was just a beardless youth of 21.

_______________________

Valiant Prince Turns Fifty

By Michael Bayly

Canberra Times

April 1987

An old witch once prophesied that a certain young and adventurous prince would never know contentment in his life. Whether or not the witch’s prophecy has been fulfilled is hard to ascertain, as contentment, like wealth, is one of those difficult concepts to measure.

Yet to the thousands of faithful readers, the writer and artist who labours to bring the prince to an exquisite degree of life, and the syndicate which has the right to publish this life in over 300 newspapers worldwide, I dare say the prince in question is a source of great contentment indeed.

He is, of course, Prince Valiant – knight of the Round Table and heir to the throne of Thule, who this year celebrates fifty years of existence. Valiant, of course, is not fifty years of age. It has just taken that length of time for the two writer/artists who have been involved in his creation to chronicle his life so far.

Prince Valiant, the comic strip, was created by Hal Foster in 1937. Foster, an accomplished commercial artist, was not new to the world of comics. He had previously written and illustrated Tarzan and the Apes. Yet it would be Prince Valiant, with its rich illustrations and detailed attention to the King Arthur legend, which would bring Foster international renown.

“God in his wisdom endowed me with certain imperfections,” Foster once declared, “but I have made Prince Valiant as I wish God had made me. He’s sort of my body with muscles.”

Prince Valiant was introduced to the Sunday comic pages as a five-year-old boy, the son of the Viking king, Aguar, and his Roman-born wife. Fleeing the sword of a usurper, Aguar and his household settle into exile in the Fens district of Britain. It is here that the young prince’s mother dies and the witch, Horrit, makes her grim prophecy.

In a matter of weeks, the strip depicts Valiant’s aging to his late teens, thus beginning to chronicle the lad’s many adventures.

“The most fun was establishing the legend of Prince Valiant in the early strips,” said Foster. “The hardest thing . . . has been to keep Val human. He has to be good and virtuous but I try to keep him human also. He has faults and frailties like everyone else.”

Leaving his father’s household, the youthful Prince Valiant attaches himself to the court of King Arthur. Roaming across Britain, Europe, and the Holy Land, often as squire to the noble Sir Gawain, Valiant bravely, though sometimes recklessly, fights for the oppressed and for his own renown against invading Huns, Goths, and Saxons. During one adventure he is presented by Prince Arn of Ord with the Singing Sword. “Invisible is he who uses it in good cause,” Arn tells Valiant, who quickly validates the claim.

In time he is rewarded and becomes a knight of Arthur’s legendary Round Table.

“The medieval period gave me scope, that’s why I picked it,” Foster once said. “I have a leeway of almost three centuries [as] with the decline of Roman civilization in the fifth century, written records ceased being kept.”

It was inevitable that Prince Valiant should meet his match, yet it was not in the guise of a warrior or sorcerer but a petite, golden-haired maiden – the young queen of an Aegean kingdom. Aleta, Queen of the Misty Isles, had been falsely accused of witchcraft and murder. Prince Valiant, having dragged her from her throne, vows to take her as his captive back to Camelot and to justice.

“Who had enslaved whom?”, Prince Valiant would ask himself years later, for it soon became apparent that the two were hopelessly in love. And so after an epic adventure involving Valiant rescuing Aleta from a fiendish tyrant, the two young lovers were married.

Foster once stated that he originally wanted to do a strip which would permit him to do fantasy. “I wanted to show magicians, ogres, dragons, and knights. However, after Prince Valiant began, the characters in the strip became too real to do much fantasy.”

Yet what the strip may lack in fantasy, it more than makes up for in adventure. In the decades following his marriage, Valiant embarks on some of the greatest quests of his career. His young bride by no means disappears into the background. On one occasion, Aleta is abducted by Ulfran, the famed Viking raider. In pursuit, Prince Valiant is led to the shores of the New World where he defeats Ulfran and is reunited with his wife. The winter is spent in America with Valiant’s Viking crew and friendly Indians. It is here that Arn, Valiant and Aleta’s first child, is born.

Prince Arn, named after Valiant’s adolescent friend, was the first of five children. Twin daughters, Karen and Valeta, came next; then Galan, heir to his mother’s throne; and finally Nathan. This youngest child almost never knew his family, having been abducted moments after his birth by agents of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian. Prince Arn eventually rescues his infant brother and restores him to his rightful family.

Although much of Prince Valiant’s appeal lies in its skillfully written and illustrated adventures, there is something else equally responsible for the strip’s classic status. For as well as the brute strength of his opponents, the scheming evil of despots and sorcerers, and the treachery of the strip’s arch-villain, Mordred, Prince Valiant, the man, also confronts a variety of situations that call him to draw upon his strength of character and a moral code that, more often than not, challenges him to put others first. He is not a pillaging Viking thug but a gallant, if at times proud, nobleman intent on establishing peace and justice. Not an easy task in the brutal epoch of the Dark Ages.

Even before Hal Foster’s death in 1982, Prince Valiant was being illustrated by John Cullen Murphy [left], the two artists having first began collaborating in 1970. The text of the stories, written by Murphy’s son, may be more detailed but the fundamental qualities remain, and thus the strip’s popularity.

Combining elements of adventure, romance, and Arthurian lore, Prince Valiant has enthralled readers for half a century – a feat with which Valiant himself would be quite content.

– Michael Bayly
Canberra Times
April 1987

Above: This panel from a 1989 strip is a rare depiction of Prince Valiant
and his entire family. In it, Valiant and Aleta's son Galan is being presented
by King Arthur with Uther Pendragon's sword for his "exemplary service in Cathay."

Pictured from left: Prince Valiant's eldest son Arn and his wife Maeve,

youngest son Nathan (foreground), Aleta, Galan, twin daughters Karen and Valeta,
King Arthur, and Prince Valiant.

_________________________________

Of course, Prince Valiant continues to this day! – as, since 2004, the strip has been illustrated by Gary Gianni (right) and written by Mark Schultz.

For an excellent overview of the history of Prince Valiant, I highly recommend The Definitive Prince Valiant Companion by Brian M. Kane.

The Prince Valiant Page by Gary Gianni is also an informative and entertaining resource – one that looks at the artistic style and method of Gianni, the third and latest artist to illustrate Prince Valiant.

Finally, for the latest installment of Prince Valiant, click here.

Above: "A dragon! A dragon awaits Prince Valiant!"

Val and his youngest son Nathan are given a mysterious warning

by "three weird sisters" in a 2005 story by Gianni and Schultz.

Horrit's Prophecy

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"Now, pretty boy, gaze into the peat embers and I will tell you what is in store for you. . . ."

The witch Horrit predicts the young Prince Valiant's future: "You will confront the unicorn, the dragon and the griffon, black men and yellow. You will have high adventure, but nowhere do I see happiness and contentment. . . . Already your greatest sorrow awaits you . . ."

Thankfully, the part about never knowing happiness and contentment doesn't pan out for Prince Valiant. However, a great sorrow did indeed await the young prince upon returning home from Horrit's hovel in the gloomy depths of the English Fens: news of his mother's death.

Art and text: Hal Foster (#10 – April 17, 1937).
Image source: Prince Valiant (Vol 1): 1937-1938 – Hal Foster (Fantagraphics Books, 2009).

"He Wasn't a Superhero But He Was a Hero"

2011-02-21T22:08:00.000-06:00

That’s how my father, Gordon James Bayly, describes the appeal that Prince Valiant had for him when he was a teenager. Come to think of it, “not a superhero, but a hero” is, for me, also a pretty good description of my Dad!

As I mentioned in my previous post, it was my father's collection of thirteen Prince Valiant comic books from the 1950s that sparked my interest in Hal Foster’s masterpiece. It also eventually led me to start collecting the Prince Valiant strip from the Sun Herald newspaper – a weekly ritual that I maintained for 15 years (1978-1993).

During my visit home to Australia last year, I sat down with my 73-year-old Dad (born the year Prince Valiant was first published) and interviewed him about his interest in the heroic prince named Valiant.

Why Prince Valiant?

At the time I guess I was about 16 or 17 and most of the comics that were coming out in those days were Captain Marvel and all sorts of superheroes whereas Prince Valiant was just a nice ordinary guy who was always against the “dark side.” He wasn’t a superhero but he was a hero.

Did the caliber of Hal Foster’s artwork have an impact on you?

Of course. It was excellent – always drawn very well with a careful attention to detail.

Were the comic books mailed to you or did you have to buy them in a store?

I bought them at the local newsagent in Gunnedah.

Were they popular?

Yes, they came out monthly and I used to wander down in the middle of the month and hope they were there. If not then I’d start going back every couple of days to make sure I didn’t miss out on getting that month’s issue.

There’s now been two artists who have taken over from Foster and drawn Prince Valiant. You’ve seen the Sunday strips [by John Cullen Murphy] that I collected back in the ’80s and the book [by Gary Gianni] that I gave you for Christmas. Does the work of these artists hold your attention? Is Prince Valiant still worth reading?

Yes. The new artists are very good and have tried to follow the original as best they can. It’s a little bit different, the way they’ve taken the story through. But other things are the same. There are no word balloons. They’ve kept the writing of the story beneath the drawings.

Above: A war-weary Prince Valiant. The comic books my father collected in the 1950s,
from which this illustration is taken, were actually black-and-white compilations
of Prince Valiant strips or installments from the late-1930s to the mid-1940s.

Are there any particular stories or adventures that stand out for you?

No, they continue on through the series. There’s a storyline running right through but different adventures. Over the years I’ve probably read each one of these [comic books] half-a-dozen times. I suppose it’s 56 years ago [when I collected them] and half-a-dozen times is not too often. Now you’ve got them out I’ll probably read them again.

NOTE: The Prince Valiant comic books my father collected in 1954-55 were published and distributed by Associated Newspaper Ltd. of 60-70 Elizabeth Street, Sydney. They were printed by Sungravure Ltd, Forbes Street, Woolloomooloo.

Welcome!

2011-02-13T10:08:00.001-06:00

On this day 74 years ago, the first installment of Prince Valiant: In the Days of King Arthur was published in newspapers throughout the United States. It seems fitting, then, to launch today this weblog dedicated to honoring and celebrating the remarkable achievement that is Prince Valiant.

Created by Hal Foster in 1937, Prince Valiant is an epic adventure – one that continues as an ongoing story in over 3800 Sunday strips. In fact, this Sunday's strip or installment is number 3862! According to King Features Syndicate, Prince Valiant currently appears weekly in more than 300 American newspapers. It's also published internationally.

Above: Today's installment of Prince Valiant – #3862.

(To enlarge, click on image)

Generally regarded by comics historians as one of the most impressive visual creations ever syndicated, Prince Valiant is noted for its realistically rendered panoramas and intelligent, sometimes humorous, narrative. Instead of word balloons, Prince Valiant is narrated via captions positioned at the bottom or sides of panels. Frank Plowright in The Comic Guide (1997) notes that: "In the strictest sense, Prince Valiant isn't a comic, being illustrations accompanied by blocks of text, but it's nevertheless stylish, influential, and an exceptional body of work." In his introduction to the first edition (1992) of The Definitive Prince Valiant Companion, Todd H. Goldberg suggests that Prince Valiant be considered "a massive illustrated novel presented in a comic art-like style."

Above: The young Prince Valiant makes his first appearance
with his parents, King Aguar of Thule and his queen – February 13, 1937.

The strip begins with the exiled Aguar seeking refuge
with his household in the wild English Fens.

I first became aware of Prince Valiant when, as a child growing up in Australia, I discovered in my family's garden shed old copies of Prince Valiant comic books that my father had collected as a youth in the 1950s. These comic books, I was to learn later, were collections of various Sunday strips from the late 1930s and early 1940s. They were reproduced in black and white – as were the more recent strips that were then published every Sunday in the Sun Herald newspaper, and which I read and collected as a teenager. It wasn't until many years later that I discovered that Prince Valiant was originally designed to be published in color – which indeed it was (and is) in many places.

When my Dad was reading Prince Valiant as a teenager, the strip was being drawn and written by its creator Hal Foster (pictured at right). When I was reading and collecting the strip it was being drawn by John Cullen Murphy and written by his son Cullen Murphy. Today Prince Valiant is drawn by Gary Gianni and written by Mark Schultz.

A Prince Named Valiant will celebrate the work of these gifted artists and writers by sharing images and text from Prince Valiant's 70+ year history. I'll also periodically share my own and others' writings and insights on what has been called the "biggest, most beautiful comic strip of all time."

Above: The opening panel of the very first installment of Prince Valiant

(Saturday, February 13, 1937).

Opening image: The illustration from the opening panel of the January 15, 1961 Prince Valiant strip (Hal Foster).