Resuming the Quest

Art and text: Hal Foster (from page 26, August 7, 1937).
Source: Prince Valiant (Vol. 1): 1937-1939 – Hal Foster (Fantagraphics Books, 2009).

Permission Granted

Art and text: Hal Foster (from page 761, September 9, 1951).
Source: Prince Valiant (Vol. 8): 1951-1952 – Hal Foster (Fantagraphics Books, 2014).

The Ring

See also the previous posts:
• Rumours
• A Distant Memory
• The Forest
• Merlin Ambrosius

Art: John Cullen Murphy (circa 1983).
Text: Cullen Murphy.
Source: The Sun Herald (Sydney, Australia); from the collection of Michael J. Bayly (circa 1985).

Rumours

NEXT: A Distant Memory

Art: John Cullen Murphy (circa 1983).
Text: Cullen Murphy.
Source: The Sun Herald (Sydney, Australia); from the collection of Michael J. Bayly (circa 1985).

Gawain Goes to School Again

See also the previous posts:
• Karran
• Karran's Story
• The Round Table

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).

Karran's Story

NEXT: The Round Table

See also the previous post:
• Karran

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).

Planning Their Next Move

NEXT: Into the Brooding Forest

See also the previous posts:
• Oom Fooyat's Creation
• A Flash of a Cameo

Art: Gary Gianni (from page 3912, January 29, 2012).
Text: Mark Schutz.
Source: Comics Kingdom.

"Let Us Hasten"

Art: Hal Foster and John Cullen Murphy (circa 1976). 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 1978).

Into the Brooding Forest

NEXT: The Golem

Art: Gary Gianni (from page #3912, January 29, 2012).
Text: Mark Schutz.
Source: Comics Kingdom.

Old Friends

Prince Valiant and Sir Gawain as drawn by John Cullen Murphy.

Art: John Cullen Murphy (from page #2618, April 12, 1987).
Source: The Sun Herald (Sydney, Australia); from the collection of Michael J. Bayly (1990).

No Pageantry

Art: Gary Gianni (from page 3643, December 3, 2006).
Text: Mark Shultz.
Source: Prince Valiant: Far from Camelot – Gary Gianni and Mark Schultz (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2008).

Arthur and His Knights

Art and text: Hal Foster (from page 1365, April 7, 1963).
Source: Prince Valiant (Vol. 30): Arn, Son of Valiant, comprising pages 1327 (July 15, 1962) through 1372 (May 26, 1963). (Fantagraphics Books, 1987).

Besieged

Besieged with Prince Valiant is his wife Aleta, Sir Gawain, and the wizard Oom Fooyat. . . . Oh, and also the blond stranger standing at left.

And who is this blond stranger? To find out, see the previous post "A Flash of a Cameo."


See also the previous posts:
• Oom Fooyat's Creation
• The Golem
• Something Very Special

Art: Gary Gianni (from page 3916, February 26, 2012).
Text: Mark Schultz.
Source: Comics Kingdom.

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.

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).

Murphy and Gianni Collaboration

Above: Panel three of installment #3401 (April 14, 2002) is an impressive example of artists John Cullen Murphy and Gary Gianni working together on Prince Valiant. The foreground figures of (from left) Arn, Galan, Prince Valiant and Sir Gawain are drawn by Murphy, while the detailed battle scene behind them is by Gianni.

In his 2008 book The Prince Valiant Page, Gianni writes the following about his collaboration with Murphy.

This arrangement wasn't permanent . . . and when the venerable master retired, he made it quite clear he no longer wanted anything to do with the strip. As of March 28, 2004 I was on my own.

"Don't send your finished pages to me," he directed. "Send them directly to King Features. I won't need to see them anymore."

"Wouldn't you care to draw a page occasionally, just to keep your hand in it?" I asked. The artist's response seemed all too brief, given the years he's invested in the enterprise.

"No . . . I'm done."

At that time, I did not know how ill he was.

Art: John Cullen Murphy and Gary Gianni (from installment #3401, April 14, 2002).
Source: The Prince Valiant Page – Gary Gianni (Flesk Publications, 2008).

Diplomatic, Entranced, Annoyed

Art: Thomas Yeates (from installment #3944, September 9, 2012).
Text: Mark Schultz.
Source: TimesUnion.com.

A Flash of a Cameo

During the final months of his eight-year tenure as illustrator of Prince Valiant (2004-2012), Gary Gianni, along with writer Mark Schultz, treated readers of the renowned adventure strip to something very special indeed. Although there was never any official confirmation one way or the other, it seems clear to many that none other than legendary science fiction hero Flash Gordon made a visit to the world of Prince Valiant.

It all began with the defeat of the sorceress Maldubh in a truly spectacular spectral battle. Maldubh's magicks had banished the consciousness of Aleta, Prince Valiant's wife, to a nightmarish netherworld . Once her soul had been retrieved and returned to the physical plane, Aleta had quite the story to tell of her time in the "outer realms."

A powerful counter spell by her daughters and daughter-in-law had restored Aleta to her husband and family. In the midst of its accompanying wild storm, however, the spell also rescued the heroic stranger whom Aleta had encountered in the netherworld.

Found by fearful peasants in the fields beyond Camelot, the mysterious blond "giant" is bound in chains and brought to King Arthur's fabled citadel. Here an astonished Aleta recognizes him from their shared (and surreal) time in the realm of banished souls.

Thanks to Aleta's intervention, the blond stranger is released and treated like royalty at Camelot. Because he cannot recall where he is from or even his identity, Aleta decides to give him a name, that of the heroic St. George. He did, after all, save her from the jaws of certain doom in the netherworld.




St. George charms many at Camelot and introduces to the court the sport of polo – which was the sport of choice for the original Flash Gordon way back in the 1930s.

Gianni also shows the athletic, blond 'St. George' with a Mongo sun symbol on his red tunic (see opening image and above), which for observant readers was another give-away that this mysterious stranger was in fact Flash Gordon (pictured at right in the March 4, 1934 Flash Gordon strip).

The story takes an unexpected turn with the arrival to Camelot of the wizard Oom Fooyat, who has quite the tale to tell of his own: the golem he had conjured to life the night of a freakish storm is now on the rampage in Illwynde. "Again the strange storm," thinks Prince Valiant, "undoubtedly the same that heralded Aleta's return and the blond stranger's appearance."



Prince Valiant, Sir Gawain, St. George, Aleta and Oom Fooyat journey to Illwynde to subdue the golem. The knights of Camelot's initial efforts do not end well . . .

. . . as the entire party of adventurers is trapped by the golem in a cave. It's a circumstance, however, that lends itself well to Gianni and Schultz's truly wonderful installment celebrating the strip's 75th anniversary.

The next day Prince Valiant and his friends create a deadfall from a tree and trap the golem. St. George then does the dangerous task of wiping the mystic letters from the monster's forehead. Immediately the golem crumbles into dust . . . and St. George's memory is restored.

"I remember who I am!" he declares. "My name is . . ."

But before he can utter another word, a bolt of lightening strikes and "the blond warrior disappears – in a flash!"

Aleta offers an explanation to her astonished husband: "Perhaps the sorcery caught up his soul along with the golem. Now he should be free to return home."

"Of course! He's back were he belongs," replies Val. "He had the right spirit – I wish him well. But enough – let us return to our home and the ways I know best."