Prince Valiant, Vol. 42: Arn's Trip to Thule

Prince Valiant (Paperback) #42

by Harold Foster, John Cullen Murphy

The greatest adventure epic since IBeowulf/I continues in this full-color series.Hal Foster's IPrince Valiant/I, about a noble knight in the days of King Arthur, began in newspapers in 1937 and continues to this day. Foster (1892-1982) introduced illustrative techniques#151;and the sensibilities and standards of such greats as Howard Pyle#151;to the comics page. Realistic depictions and sophisticated compositions had been curiously absent before him. Fantagraphics' deluxe, full-color library editions of IPrince Valiant/I each feature close to a year's worth of full-page Sunday strips, with this volume collecting strips from 1972-1973, written and roughed-out by Foster and finished by Foster's prodigious assistant, John Cullen Murphy, who took over much of the strip in 1971 and continues with it today.P

Genres: Comics, Fantasy, Graphic Novels

48 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2001

Reviews

[Michael P.]

The strip seems to have lost a step in two ways. John Cullen Murphy is clearly not spending the time on the art that Hal Foster had. Many panels are a close-up of a figure with no background or foreground, which had been the visual hallmark of the strip and the feature that gave it such power. The strips reproduced in this book also have strange and often inappropriate coloring. I don't know if this is due to reprinting bad source materials or if there had been a change in the original approach to coloring, but the result of both these things is far less impressive than the vast majority of the strips in previous years. The stories told are still fine.

[Little Timmy]

The incredible artwork of Hal Foster makes these a true treasure to read. Being able to go through a year's worth of the Sunday strips is fantastic. Awesome story and incredible art make these books get my highest recommendation.