Definitive Prince Valiant Companion

by Brian Kane

In Anticipation of the seventy-fifth annivesary of comics' longest running adventure strip, and to celebrate their own just-launced reprinting of the strips' classic earliest years, Fantagraphics is proud to present an expanded version of this hard-to-find collector's item.
Compiled by award-winning Foster biographer Brian M. Kane, THE DEFINITIVE PRINCE VALIANT COMPANION beautifully showcases the careers of Hal Foster, John Cullen Murphy, and Gary Gianni. In addition to updating the original version's story synopsis section with over 30 years of material, The Definitive Prince Valiant Companion also contains rare and new articles, a never-before-printed newspaper feature from 1949, Foster's final interview, and interviews with John Cullen Murphy, Gary Gianni and Mark Schultz, a foreward by comics historian Brian Walker, and an introduction by Pulitzer Prize winning authore Ray Bradbury.

Genres: Comics

160 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2009

Reviews

[David Allen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was expecting a more user-friendly guide to the Prince Valiant universe, one that would compile every known Foster interview. The actual book is for the uber-fan, which I thought I was until laboring to read the 60 pages of tiny type recounting every PV adventure. OK, but for diehards only. Also, the synopses are laden with typos uncorrected in the 17 years since the first edition. Is this really "definitive"?

[Rob Hermanowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is more of a reference book rather than a book to read cover-to-cover in a few sessions. It has nice summaries of all of the storylines of the ongoing "Prince Valiant" comic strip, as well as interviews and biographical information on Hal Foster and other artists who wrote (and are writing) "PV." Essential for the fan!