Captured

Prince Valiant's youngest son Nathan is captured

by Bel, a Pictish girl, and taken to her tribal leaders.

Art: Gary Gianni (from installment #3564, May 29, 2005).
Text: Mark Schultz.
Source: Prince Valiant: Far from Camelot – Gary Gianni and Mark Schultz (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2008).

Into the Fray

Ignoring Prince Valiant's command to "Stay your men," the steward of Lockbramble, Sir Roger Runetyne, orders his men to attack Val, Sir Gawain, and Rhoda Red Hood. The peasants of the unhappy land of Lockbramble, however, rush to the trio's aid.


Art: Thomas Yeates (from installment #3965, February 3, 2013).
Text: Mark Schultz.
Source: TimesUnion.com.

Arthur Pendragon, High King of Britain

Art: John Cullen Murphy (from installment #2448, January 8, 1984).
Source: Prince Valiant, Book One (Kings Features Syndicate, 1986).

No Wars of Aggression for Prince Valiant

News of Prince Valiant's successful campaign against the Huns has spread quickly, and from far and wide come envoys of kings offering their armies for the young prince to lead in a war of extermination. Yet Prince Valiant rejects all such offers. Speaking with the confidence and courtesy that befits a prince, and with his friends Tristram and Gawain at his side, he addresses the gathered envoys.

"Now, gentlemen, I know your mission. I also know that wars of aggression are but breeders of future wars. Here under my hand is the history of the world. Nowhere can I find a lasting conquest by force, Alexander and Caesar in turn conquered the world but where are their conquests now? The fruits of conquest are but sullen enmities, No, noble sirs, I have pledged my sword in the cause of justice and freedom only!"


Art and text: Hal Foster (from installment #165, April 7, 1940).
Source: Prince Valiant (Vol. 2): 1939-1940 – Hal Foster (Fantagraphics Books, 2010).

The Melee

See also the previous post: "A Broken Heart 'Twixt Twin Maidens, Rampant".


Art: John Cullen Murphy (from installment #2469, June 4, 1984).
Text: Cullen Murphy.
Source: Prince Valiant, Book One (Kings Features Syndicate, 1986).

Brogut of the Raven Clan

Art: Gary Gianni (from installment #3546, January 23, 2005).
Text: Mark Schultz.
Source: Prince Valiant: Far from Camelot – Gary Gianni and Mark Schultz (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2008).

So Val Goes Questing Across Wide Seas . . .

. . . because of a lovely face he saw but once in a vision.

NEXT: Before His Very Eyes

Art and text: Hal Foster (from installment #246, October 26, 1941).
Source: Prince Valiant (Vol. 3): 1941-1942 – Hal Foster (Fantagraphics Books, 2011).

"Stay Your Men"

Art: Thomas Yeates (from installment #3967, January 20, 2013).
Text: Mark Schultz.

"A Broken Heart 'Twixt Twin Maidens, Rampant"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Next: The Melee

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

Captured, Stripped, and Bound

. . . [In] every other story [Prince Valiant] gets captured, stripped, and bound in some ridiculous fashion. This is hugely important. If adventure heroes didn't get captured, no James Bond movie would ever have three full acts. This distressing image (from 1944 and the newly released fourth volume) suggests both DaVinci's Vitruvian Man as well as the sad future of the comics page itself: The full-page Prince Valiant strip would in later decades be shrunk and shrunk again, which Foster accidentally foreshadows here by chaining a ripped and furious Val inside the Family Circus circle.

– Alan Scherstuhl

Excerpted from "10 Reasons Prince Valiant Bests All 2011 Adventure Heroes"
San Francisco Weekly
October 12, 2011

Art and text: Hal Foster (from installment #370, March 12, 1944).
Source: Prince Valiant (Vol. 4): 1943-1944 – Hal Foster (Fantagraphics Books, 2011).