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Prince Valiant, Vol. 1: 1937-1938 (2009)

by Hal Foster(Favorite Author)

4.37 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1606991418 (ISBN13: 9781606991411)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Fantagraphics

series

Prince Valiant (Hardcover)

review 1: After 70 years or so, the first Prince Valiant volume remains surprisingly young at heart. When I was a teenage girl, the Sunday Prince Valiant strips by John Cullen Murphy were the antithesis of cool, yet to my embarrassment, I had found myself caring about the characters and becoming immersed in its rich, Byzantine world, waiting impatiently for the next week's installment. Yet despite my enthusiasm, by this time, Prince Valiant already had a wife and grandkids, an impenetrably long backstory, and only six panels to work with.Forget Grandpa Spock. In 1938, Prince Valiant was a headstrong teenage boy, eager to prove himself and up to his eyes in trouble. It’s a timeless story, and Hal Foster inhabits his lordly Camelot and wild, Viking-beset England with seemingly fresh... more marvels and wonders. Despite its venerable reputation, the comic is surprisingly witty and fun. I was maybe expecting ponderous, pseudo-medieval prose and earnestly dull combat, and instead found a likable, rambunctious hero who relies on wits and resourcefulness more than epic sword fighting skills. (Though there’s plenty of that too, and it’s plenty satisfying to see). I was also surprised by how funny the comics are, despite their reputation for being a “serious” comics. There’s as much banter as you can get for a comic that has no speech bubbles- I didn’t laugh out loud, but it made me smile.To say this new 2009 edition by Fantagraphics is fucking gorgeous would be an understatement. The meticulous color correction is itself a work of art, and a welcome relief from the dingy old thing in my school library, whose colors were nauseating, frequently featuring flesh tones of Pepto-Bismol spam-pink. Instead of wondering when my eyeballs would start to bleed, I found my eyes lingering over delicate sunsets, jaw-dropping castle vistas, and morning mists over the English fens.I had wondered if Hal Foster’s original Prince Valiant, in all its full-page, full-color Golden Age glory, would be just as bold, exciting, and full of pageantry as all medieval adventures should be.It is.
review 2: This is a terrifically packaged book of the first year of Prince Valiant's Sunday comic strip. I had read these before in one of the earlier cumulations, but this volume replicates the full size of the strip from the newspapers and the quality is significantly better, plus this book includes an interview with Hal Foster. Prince Val's adventures hold up well as he establishes himself in the Court of King Arthur as Sir Gawain's squire and fights beasts in the English fens and kills a dozen or so sinister men at arms (I'd forgotten how violent these adventure were - Val is always ready to throw down). I'm looking forward to his upcoming adventures. less

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