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Prince Valiant
Jan. 8th, 2023 08:12 amAs part of my general Arthurian deep-dive, I’ve begun a reread of Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant comic, which I first devoured in high school (often with squeals of rage about the gender politics, which never stopped me from going on to the next book). The comic was originally published on Sundays only, as a full-page, full-color visual extravaganza, featuring busty women, shirtless men, brightly colored pennants flapping in the breeze, stunning action scenes, scantily clad priestesses standing outside stone circles, Prince Valiant homoerotically wrestling with Sir Gawain, etc. etc.
Foster is a master class in how to pack a ton of action into a small space. Almost every single newspaper page moves the story forward precipitously, although occasionally Foster pauses for, say, a spread where the payoff is our first glorious glimpse of the topless towers of Camelot, a breath-taking storybook castle.
However, for the most part the story moves on at a gallop. In volume 1, 1937-1938 (two years of Sunday strips; about 100 pages, therefore), Prince Valiant’s father, a Viking king, is driven from his homeland by a foul usurper! The family settles in the English fens, and Val spends his childhood battling prehistoric monsters and giant turtles in the wetlands. (Foster got his start with a Tarzan comic strip and the number of giant deadly animals in these early comic strips reflects this).
Once grown, Val sets off for Camelot, tames a wild horse, falls in with Sir Gawain, and over the course of a couple adventures (battling foul knights, etc.) becomes Sir Gawain’s squire. Sir Gawain is kidnapped! Val saves him! Then Val falls in love with the fair Ilene, only to discover that Ilene has been previously betrothed to a Prince Arn, and Val and Arn are in the act of fighting to the death for her hand when it transpires that Ilene has been KIDNAPPED. At once Val and Arn team up, but after doughty rescue attempts, the kidnapper’s ship is wrecked and the fair Ilene is drowned!!
(Later on Val names his firstborn son Arn. It occurs to me only now that perhaps these things are related.)
In high school I loathed the Ilene storyline: it never even occurred to these two dorks that perhaps they should let the girl choose? I might have stopped reading, except that my dad only had an incomplete set of the comic, and the very next volume in our collection featured Aleta, Queen of the Misty Isles, whom Val has kidnapped for vengeance -
(The storyline picked up after the kidnapping and I can’t wait to see how this plays out, because as far as I can tell he just walked into the throne room and carried her off! Right in front of her guards! Was she winking and nodding, all, “Let this barbarian kidnap me, I like his moxie”?)
Anyway, vengeance. Val and Aleta ride CHAINED TOGETHER through TRACKLESS DESSERTS! At one point Val FAINTS OFF HIS HORSE and Aleta bathes his fevered brow and then goes to a nearby traders’ camp to dance for their supper. One of the traders likes her a bit too much, but Aleta carries a dagger in her garter and is perfectly capable of dispatching a lesser bad guy on her own! (You can see why this was more to my taste than Ilene who doesn’t even try to swim to Val’s ship during the ship chase.)
Aside from Aleta’s kidnapping, I am VERY excited to learn the conclusion of Taloon’s story once I get that far. The conclusion of Taloon’s story will be that she marries the guy marked as her love interest because this is how all subplots conclude in Prince Valiant, but NONETHELESS.
Foster is a master class in how to pack a ton of action into a small space. Almost every single newspaper page moves the story forward precipitously, although occasionally Foster pauses for, say, a spread where the payoff is our first glorious glimpse of the topless towers of Camelot, a breath-taking storybook castle.
However, for the most part the story moves on at a gallop. In volume 1, 1937-1938 (two years of Sunday strips; about 100 pages, therefore), Prince Valiant’s father, a Viking king, is driven from his homeland by a foul usurper! The family settles in the English fens, and Val spends his childhood battling prehistoric monsters and giant turtles in the wetlands. (Foster got his start with a Tarzan comic strip and the number of giant deadly animals in these early comic strips reflects this).
Once grown, Val sets off for Camelot, tames a wild horse, falls in with Sir Gawain, and over the course of a couple adventures (battling foul knights, etc.) becomes Sir Gawain’s squire. Sir Gawain is kidnapped! Val saves him! Then Val falls in love with the fair Ilene, only to discover that Ilene has been previously betrothed to a Prince Arn, and Val and Arn are in the act of fighting to the death for her hand when it transpires that Ilene has been KIDNAPPED. At once Val and Arn team up, but after doughty rescue attempts, the kidnapper’s ship is wrecked and the fair Ilene is drowned!!
(Later on Val names his firstborn son Arn. It occurs to me only now that perhaps these things are related.)
In high school I loathed the Ilene storyline: it never even occurred to these two dorks that perhaps they should let the girl choose? I might have stopped reading, except that my dad only had an incomplete set of the comic, and the very next volume in our collection featured Aleta, Queen of the Misty Isles, whom Val has kidnapped for vengeance -
(The storyline picked up after the kidnapping and I can’t wait to see how this plays out, because as far as I can tell he just walked into the throne room and carried her off! Right in front of her guards! Was she winking and nodding, all, “Let this barbarian kidnap me, I like his moxie”?)
Anyway, vengeance. Val and Aleta ride CHAINED TOGETHER through TRACKLESS DESSERTS! At one point Val FAINTS OFF HIS HORSE and Aleta bathes his fevered brow and then goes to a nearby traders’ camp to dance for their supper. One of the traders likes her a bit too much, but Aleta carries a dagger in her garter and is perfectly capable of dispatching a lesser bad guy on her own! (You can see why this was more to my taste than Ilene who doesn’t even try to swim to Val’s ship during the ship chase.)
Aside from Aleta’s kidnapping, I am VERY excited to learn the conclusion of Taloon’s story once I get that far. The conclusion of Taloon’s story will be that she marries the guy marked as her love interest because this is how all subplots conclude in Prince Valiant, but NONETHELESS.
