Friends, today marks the 83rd anniversary of Prince Valiant, cited as "one of the finest works ever to be produced in the comic art medium." Created in 1937 by Harold R. Foster (1892-1982), Prince Valiant can rightly be considered a massive illustrated novel presented in a comic art-like style.
For A Prince Named Valiant's informative series of posts to mark the 75th anniversary of Prince Valiant, click here, here and here.
For 2017's special 80th anniversary post featuring an insightful article by Brian Kane, click here.
Also, A Prince Named Valiant was launched on the 74th anniversary of Prince Valiant. To read the post that began it all, click here.
Right: Current Prince Valiant illustrator Thomas Yeates at Comic-Con 2015 . . . with none other than the Prince of Thule himself!
Yeates took over from Gary Gianni, the third illustrator of Prince Valiant, in April 2012.
For the latest installment (or page) of Prince Valiant, click here.
Above: Prince Valiant, as drawn by Hal Foster (1943).
Art:Hal Foster. Source: The cover of 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. These covers always emphasized the warrior/action aspect of the Prince Valiant adventure strip.
Art:Hal Foster and John Cullen Murphy (circa 1980). At this point in Prince Valiant's run, Murphy, who had been quietly assisting Foster since 1970, was well into his first decade of drawing the strip over Foster's writing and roughs. Source:The Sun Herald (Sydney, Australia); from the collection of Michael J. Bayly (circa 1981).
Prince Valiant's future friend and ally Bukota is introduced as an aloof and scornful warrior, and a potential trouble-maker. Yet as we'll soon discover, he has his reasons for being these things.
Art:John Cullen Murphy (circa 1983). Text:Cullen Murphy. Source:The Sun Herald (Sydney, Australia); from the collection of Michael J. Bayly (circa 1985).