Arthur in Flight!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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"

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 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+ year 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 personalities 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.

UPDATE: The Return of Karen and Valeta

A Spectral Battle

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

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.