Keeping Her Own Counsel

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"

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."

NEXT: The Banishment of Mordred

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

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

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!"

A wounded Prince Valiant is reunited with his wife Aleta.

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

Difficult Times

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

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

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