Prince Valiant by Hal Foster Sunday Page from 12/25/1960 Large Full Splash Page

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Prince Valiant by Hal Foster Sunday Page from 12/25/1960 Large Full Splash Page:
$40.00

This is aPrince ValiantSunday Page by Harold (Hal) Foster. Fantastic Foster Artwork and Story Telling!This wascut from the original newspaper Sunday Comics section of 1960. Size:Full Size:15x22 inches. Paper: some light tanning,small archival repairson some, otherwise: Excellent! Pulled from Loose Sections!(Please Check Scans) Please include $5.00 Total postage on any size order (USA) $12.00 International Flat Rate. I combine postage on multiple pages. Check out my other sales for more great vintagecomicstrips and Paperdolls.Thanks for Looking!

Prince ValiantFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaAuthor(s)

Hal Foster (creator)
John Cullen Murphy
Cullen Murphy
Mairead Murphy
Gray Morrow
Wally Wood
Gary Gianni

Mark SchultzCurrent status / scheduleRunning / weeklyLaunch dateFebruary 13, 1937Syndicate(s)King Features SyndicateGenre(s)Epic historical adventure

Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur, or simply Prince Valiant, is a long-run comic strip created by Hal Foster in 1937. It is an epic adventure that has told a continuous story during its entire history, and the full stretch of that story now totals more than 3700 Sunday strips. Currently, the strip appears weekly in more than 300 American newspapers, according to its distributor, King Features Syndicate.

Edward, the Duke of Windsor, called Prince Valiant the \"greatest contribution to English literature in the past hundred years.\"[1] Generally regarded by comics historians as one of the most impressive visual creations ever syndicated, the strip is noted for its realistically rendered panoramas and the intelligent, sometimes humorous, narrative. The format does not employ word balloons. Instead, the story is narrated in captions positioned at the bottom or sides of panels. Events depicted are taken from various time periods, from the late Roman Empire to the High Middle Ages, with a few brief scenes from modern times (commenting on the \"manuscript\").[2]

While drawing the Tarzan comic strip, Foster wanted to do his own original newspaper feature, and he began work on a strip he called Derek, Son of Thane, later changing the title to Prince Arn. King Features manager Joseph Connelly eventually renamed it Prince Valiant. In 1936, after extensive research, Foster pitched his concept to William Randolph Hearst, who had long wanted to distribute a strip by Foster. Hearst was so impressed that he gave Foster ownership of the strip.[1]

Prince Valiant began in full-color tabloid sections on Saturday February 13, 1937. The first full page was strip #16, which appeared in the Sunday New Orleans Times Picayune. The internal dating changed from Saturday to Sunday with strip #66 (May 15, 1938). The full-page strip continued until 1971 when strip #1788 was not offered in full-page format—it was the last strip Foster drew. The strip continues today by other artists in a half page format.[2]

Contents

1 Characters and story
2 History and myth
3 Other artists arrive
4 Awards
5 Reprints
6 Film and TV adaptations
7 Other media
8 Cultural references
9 See also
10 References
11 Sources
12 External links

Characters and story Hal Foster\'s Prince Valiant (February 26, 1950)

The setting is Arthurian. Valiant is a Nordic prince from faraway Thule, located near Trondheim on the Norwegian west coast. Early in the story, Valiant arrived at Camelot, where he became friends with Sir Gawain and Sir Tristram. Earning the respect of King Arthur and Merlin, he became a Knight of the Round Table. On a Mediterranean island, he met the love of his life, Aleta, Queen of the Misty Isles, whom he later married. He fought the Huns with his powerful Singing Sword, Flamberge,[3] a magical blade created by the same enchanter who forged Arthur\'s Excalibur. Val traveled to Africa and to America and helped his father regain his lost throne of Thule, usurped by the tyrant Sligon.[4]

When the strip started in 1937, Val was five years old. The first episodes followed the youth through the wild Fens district of Britain with his father, the deposed King Aguar of Thule. When Val encountered the witch Horrit, she predicted he would have a life of adventure, noting that he would soon experience grief. Arriving home, Val discovered that his mother had died. Not long after that came his encounters with Gawain, gigantic creatures and the glory of Camelot, as detailed by Steve Donoghue:

At first, in the earliest months of Prince Valiant, Foster’s Arthurian England might easily be confused with the Cimmeria of Conan the Barbarian: monsters abound. As a boy, Val fights a ‘dragon’ that looks a lot like a plesiosaur, and he fires his arrows at a rampaging swamp-turtle the size of a Zamboni. But only a few installments later, this has sublimated somewhat into history: when Val saves his new friend Sir Gawain from a robber knight and Gawain decides to take the villain to Camelot for summary judgement from King Arthur, the whole party is at one point attacked by another enormous beast—only this time it’s a salt water crocodile!... When they all at length succeed in killing the beast, Val is outraged that Gawain would still seek to have the man tried before King Arthur. The young prince naturally speaks up in his outrage before the great king, his queen Guinevere and his feared wizard Merlin—and so a career at Camelot is born. Val becomes Gawain’s squire and almost immediately accompanies him on a quest, during which Gawain is captured and Val must use his wits—smiling and laughing the whole time—to free his mentor. On the trip, Gawain is seriously wounded, and the large panel where Val finally gets him back to Camelot is Foster’s first genuine visual show-stopper in the strip.[5]

Val acquired the Singing Sword in 1938. The original owner of the Singing Sword was Prince Arn of Ord, Valiant\'s rival for the maid Ilene. The two men put aside their differences when Ilene was kidnapped by Viking raiders on her way to Ord. Arn handed Valiant the charmed sword so he could hold back their pursuers while Arn rode ahead to free Ilene. The pair continued in their efforts to rescue Ilene, eventually discovering that she was killed in a shipwreck. Arn gave the Singing Sword to Valiant after that adventure, and the two parted as friends. Later in the series it was mentioned that the Singing Sword is a sister to King Arthur\'s Excalibur.[4][5]

In 1939, he was knighted by King Arthur, and the following year, he aided in restoring his father as King of Thule. Moving across Britain, Europe, and the Holy Land, Val fought invading Goths, Huns and Saxons. In 1946, shortly after Val married Aleta, she was kidnapped by the Viking raider Ulfran. Val\'s pursuit took him past the Shetland Islands, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, Newfoundland and the Saint Lawrence River, arriving at Niagara Falls 1,000 years before Columbus. Defeating Ulfran, Val was reunited with Aleta, and the couple spent that winter with friendly Native Americans.[6][4]

In the strip dated August 31, 1947, Prince Arn, their first son, was born in America, and Val celebrated by getting drunk. The infant Prince Arn was named after Val’s youthful friend, Prince Arn of Ord. Val and Aleta\'s other children are the twins, Karen and Valeta (born 1951), Galan (1962) and Nathan (1979). Agents of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian abducted Nathan shortly after his birth, and he was eventually rescued by Arn. Earlier, Arn led an expedition to America in 1964. Val became a grandfather when Arn and his wife, Maeve, daughter of the traitorous Mordred, gave birth to Ingrid in 1987.[4][6][7]

History and myth

The historical and mythological elements of Prince Valiant were initially chaotic, but soon Foster attempted to bring the facts into order. Some elements of the story place it in the Fifth century, such as the death of Attila the Hun in 453 and Geiseric\'s sacking of Rome in 455, which Prince Valiant and Aleta witness. The murder of Aëtius in 454 differs from the historical version; Valiant and Gawain are blamed for the murder and must flee.

Slightly fantastic elements, like \"marsh monsters\" (a dinosaur-like creature) and witches, were present in the early years but were later downplayed (as was Merlin\'s and Morgan le Fay\'s use of magic), so that by 1942, the story became more realistic.[2]

The storyline is not historically accurate. While obviously meant to take place in the mid-Fifth century, Foster incorporated anachronistic elements: Viking Longships, Muslims, alchemists and technological advances not made before the Renaissance. The fortifications, armor and armament resemble the High Middle Ages.[2]

Other artists arrive

In 1970, after tryout strips by several artists, Foster invited John Cullen Murphy to collaborate on the strip.[4] Here is a list of the transition artists:

Hal Foster\'s Prince Valiant (June 19, 1938). Note Foster\'s compositional techniques, particularly how perspective creates a visual flow of Viking raiders from left to right, a flow that stops abruptly just before the figure of Prince Valiant highlighted against a dark background. The arch of the bridge further accentuates this dynamic.

#1756 Foster
#1757 Gray Morrow
#1758 Foster
#1759 Foster
#1760 Murphy
#1761 Foster
#1762 Wally Wood
#1763 Foster
#1764 Murphy
#1765 unknown
#1766 Murphy
#1767 unknown
#1768 Foster
#1769 Murphy
#1770 unknown
#1771-2 Murphy
#1773 Foster
#1774-5 Murphy
#1776 Foster
#1777-87 Murphy
#1788 Foster
#1789 on Murphy

From 1971 on, Murphy drew the strip from Foster scripts and pencil sketches. Foster continued to write the continuity until strip #2241 in 1980. Murphy then drew it solo with scripts by his son Cullen Murphy, an editor of The Atlantic. Stories by Cullen Murphy included many adventures in which Val is opposed by the Emperor Justinian. John Cullen Murphy\'s daughter, Mairead, did the lettering and coloring. In March 2004, Murphy retired and turned the strip over to his chosen successor, illustrator Gary Gianni, and the scripting duties were passed on to Mark Schultz. Coloring is by Scott Roberts.[2]

Awards

Hal Foster was recognized for his work on the strip with the Banshees\' Silver Lady award in 1952, followed by the National Cartoonists Society\'s Reuben Award in 1957, their Story Comic Strip Award in 1964, their Special Features Award in 1966 and 1967, the Gold Key award in 1977, and the Elzie Segar Award in 1978. He was inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 1996, and in 2005 he was inducted into the Joe Shuster Canadian Comic Book Creators Hall of Fame for his contributions to comic books. In 2006, Foster was inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame. At age 73, Foster was elected to membership in Great Britain\'s Royal Society of Arts, an honor given to very few Americans.

Murphy received the National Cartoonists Society Story Comic Strip Award for his work on the strip in 1971, 1974, 1976, 1978, 1984 and 1987. In 1995, the strip was one of 20 included in the Comic Strip Classics series of commemorative postage stamps.

Reprints

Hastings House produced seven hardback Prince Valiant books in the 1950s, using the illustrations by Foster but with the text simplified by Max Trell and for the last two books by James Flowers. This series was reprinted in Germany as Prinz Eisenherz (Prince Ironheart) and continued there for an additional five volumes.
Nostalgia Press published four hardback reprints in conjunction with King Features. Some entire panels were colored solid pink or solid purple.
Prince Valiant: An American Epic, from Manuscript Press, reprinted the first three years in three volumes, in the full original color and full page size. They also published a hardback omnibus of the three years, in a limited edition of 26 copies. ISBN #0-936414-09-X
Fantagraphics published a set of 50 trade paperbacks reprinting all of the strips written by Hal Foster, including those drawn by John Cullen Murphy.
Andrews McMeel published Prince Valiant - Far from Camelot, the only collection of award-winning creators Gary Gianni and Mark Schultz\'s current strips dating from November 21, 2004, to May 11, 2008.
A French reprinting of all the Foster-drawn strips was published by Editions Zenda in a green cloth, embossed hardcover series with dustjacket. Featuring two years\' worth of strips per volume, it was printed from the original color pages with typeset lettering.
Prince Valiant has often been reprinted in comic books. Feature Book #26 reprints most of the first year of the strip, and is the only comic book to have an original cover by Hal Foster. Many Foster strips were reprinted in the pages of Ace Comics and King Comics. Not reprints are seven Dell four-color Prince Valiant comic books — #567, 650, 699, 719, 788, 848, 900 — drawn by Bob Fuji, writer unknown. A 1973 Prince Valiant comic book reprinted Foster art with a simplified text intended to teach reading to children.
Prince Valiant Vol. 1: 1937-1938 and Prince Valiant Vol. 2: 1939-1940. Fantagraphics, 2010. Vol. 1: 978-1-60699-141-1 Vol. 2: 978-1-60699-348-4

Film and TV adaptations

Prince Valiant is a 1954 US motion picture by 20th Century Fox, filmed in color and Cinemascope. Directed by Henry Hathaway, it starred James Mason, Robert Wagner (in the title role), Janet Leigh and Sterling Hayden. The film was also adapted into a comic book.
The Legend of Prince Valiant, a 1991 animated US television series seen on The Family Channel in the US and CBBC in the UK, is available on DVD.[8]
Prince Valiant is a 1997 UK/Ireland/Germany movie. The soundtrack of the film score by David Bergeaud was released February 20, 2003 on Perseverance Records.

Other media The Medieval Castle (1957) collected the comic strip which ran beneath Prince Valiant in 1944-45 as a result of the government\'s WWII request that syndicates reduce strip size to save paper for the war effort. The three-panel strip followed the adventures of two young English squires, Arn and Guy, during the First Crusade.

In addition to two Prince Valiant phonograph records (released in 1947 and 1968) and three coloring books, Treasure Books published a small 1954 children\'s book with Foster art in color.
Marvel Comics published a four-part miniseries titled Prince Valiant in the 1990s.
Chaosium produced a Prince Valiant role-playing game.[9][10] In 1999, Pyramid magazine named the Prince Valiant Role-playing Game as one of \"The Millennium\'s Most Underrated Games\". Editor Scott Haring commented, \"Prince Valiant was designed as a beginner\'s introduction to roleplaying... Perhaps the subject matter\'s perceived lack of \'cool\' killed this game, but it deserved better.\"[11]
In the Arthurian TV show Merlin, Will Mellor plays a knight named Valiant.

Cultural references

Harvey Kurtzman and Wally Wood satirized the strip with Prince Violent in Mad #13 (July 1954).
Prince Valiant once used the guise of a demon, and that costume was an inspiration to Jack Kirby for his character, Etrigan the Demon.[12] The same panel also inspired the Italian creative team EsseGesse on their comic series Kinowa.
Bugs Bunny parodied the strip in Prince Violent (renamed Prince Varmint for television) with Bugs defending a castle against Viking raider Yosemite Sam.
In the Academy Award-winning short Knighty Knight Bugs, King Arthur sends court jester Bugs to recover the Singing Sword from the Black Knight, portrayed as Yosemite Sam in black armor.
Dave Sim did a weekly Prince Valiant parody, Silverspoon, in The Buyer\'s Guide to Comic Fandom. The strip employed Foster\'s illustrations/captions format. Sim\'s comic book series Cerebus the Aardvark contained a Prince Valiant parody with illustrations/captions.
In Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, the main character, Eddie Valiant, used a singing sword against Judge Doom. However, the sword was drawn as Frank Sinatra singing \"Witchcraft\", a wordplay of the name of the sword.
In Beetlejuice, Lydia (Winona Ryder) tells Adam and Barbara (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) that her step-mother (Catherine O\'Hara), who is shown in a semi-drugged stupor, is \"sleeping with Prince Valium.\"
In Space Balls, actor Jim J. Bullock is Prince Valium, the consistently-sleepy suitor of Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga) who Vespa leaves at the altar.
In the Defenders of the Earth episode \"Terror in Time,\" Valiant appeared as a guest.
There is a street sharing the character\'s name; a Prince Valiant Court exists in Franklin, Tennessee (USA).
The the second episode in the first series of BBC series Merlin titled \"Valiant\" features a Knight Valiant who dishonourably uses an enchanted shield and dies in a duel with Arthur during the tournament finale.

References

^ a b Syracuse University: Hal Foster Papers.
^ a b c d e Goldberg, Todd and Carl Horak, edited by Don Markstein and Rick Norwood. A Prince Valiant Companion. Manuscript Press. ISBN 0-936414-07-3
^ Foster, Hal. Prince Valiant, Page 92, panel 7. Prince Valiant Annotations.
^ a b c d e Markstein, Don. Toonopedia: Prince Valiant
^ a b Donoghue, Steve. Open Letters Monthly, \"Prince of a Lost Realm\".
^ a b Bayly, Michael. \"Valiant Prince Turns Fifty\". Canberra Times, April 1987.
^ The Characters
^ Carter, R. J. \"DVD Review: The Legend of Prince Valiant - The Complete Series, Vol. 1,\" July 7, 2006.
^ Stafford, Greg, Krank, Charlie, Willis, Lynn and Dunn, William G., Prince Valiant: The Story-telling Game, Chaosium, Albany, 1989, illustrations by Hal Foster and John Cullen Murphy, 128 pp. soft cov., ISBN 0-933635-50-8
^ \"RPGnet entry: Prince Valiant\". RPGnet. id=\"cite_note-10\">^ Haring, Scott D. (1999-11-25). \"Second Sight: The Millennium\'s Most Influential Company and The Millennium\'s Most Underrated Game\". Pyramid (online). Retrieved 2008-02-17.
^ The Demon - Don Markstein\'s Toonopedia

Sources

Hal Foster: Prince of Illustrators by Brian M. Kane, Vanguard Productions, 2001. IPPY Award-winning biography of Hal Foster. ISBN 1-887591-25-7
A Prince Valiant Companion by Todd Goldberg and Carl Horak, edited by Don Markstein and Rick Norwood, Manuscript Press. ISBN 0-936414-07-3
The Definitive Prince Valiant Companion compiled by Brian M. Kane, Fantagraphics Books, 2009. ISBN 978-1-60699-305-7

External links

A Prince Named Valiant: A celebration of the finest work ever produced in the comic art medium
Prince Valiant Resource Center
King Features: Prince Valiant
Foster biography by Brian Kane
Legend of Prince Valiant Forum
IMDb: Prince Valiant (1954)
IMDb:The Legend of Prince Valiant (1991)
IMDb: Prince Valiant (1997)

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