Setting Sail

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

. . . 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!

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

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 . . .

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

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

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

Valiant of Arabia!

Art: Hal Foster (October 29, 1961).