Prince Valiant
Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur, often simply called Prince Valiant, is an American 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 4000 Sunday strips. The strip appears weekly in more than 300 American newspapers, according to its distributor, King Features Syndicate. As the Duke of Windsor, Edward VIII called "Prince Valiant" the "greatest contribution to English literature in the past hundred years". 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"). 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. "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. Characters and story. The setting is Arthurian. Valiant (Val) is a Nordic prince from Thule, located near present-day Trondheim on the Norwegian coast. Early in the story Valiant arrives at Camelot where he becomes friends with Sir Gawain and Sir Tristram. Earning the respect of King Arthur and Merlin, he becomes a Knight of the Round Table. On a Mediterranean island he meets the love  of his life, Aleta, Queen of the Misty Isles, whom he later marries. He fights the Huns with his powerful Singing Sword, which, in a 1939 strip, a witch identifies with the legendary sword "Flamberge", a magical blade apparently created by the same enchanter who forged Arthur's Excalibur. Val travels to Africa and America and later helps his father regain his lost throne of Thule, which has been usurped by the tyrant Sligon. When the strip starts in 1937, Val is five years old. The first episodes follow the youth through the wild Fens district of Britain with his  father, the deposed King Aguar of Thule. When Val encounters the witch Horrit she predicts he will have a life of adventure, noting that he will soon experience grief. Arriving home, Val discovers that his mother has died. Not long after this come encounters with Gawain, with gigantic creatures and with the glory of Camelot. Steve Donoghue comments: Val acquires the Singing Sword in strips from 1938. The original owner of the Singing Sword is Prince Arn of Ord, Valiant's rival for the maid Ilene. The two men put aside their differences when Ilene is kidnapped by Viking raiders  on her way to Ord. Arn hands Valiant the charmed sword to help him hold back their pursuers while he himself rides ahead to free Ilene. The pair continue in their efforts to rescue Ilene, eventually discovering that she has been killed in a shipwreck. Arn gives the Singing Sword to Valiant after that adventure and the two part as friends. Later in the series it is mentioned that the Singing Sword is a sister to King Arthur's Excalibur. In the strips from 1939 Val is knighted by King Arthur, and the following year, he helps to restore his  father as King of Thule. Moving across Britain, Europe, and the Holy Land, Val fights invading Goths, Huns and Saxons. In 1946, shortly after Val marries Aleta, she is kidnapped by the Viking raider Ulfran. Val's pursuit takes 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 is reunited with Aleta, and the couple spend that winter with friendly Native Americans. In the strip dated August 31, 1947, Prince Arn, their first son, is born in America, and Val celebrates by  getting drunk. The infant Arn is named after Val's old friend, Prince Arn of Ord. Val and Aleta's other children are the twins, Karen and Valeta (born 1951), Galan (1962) and Prince Nathan (1979). Agents of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian abduct Nathan shortly after his birth, and he is eventually rescued by Arn. Earlier, in strips from 1964, Arn leads an expedition to America. In strips from 1987 Val becomes a grandfather when Arn and his wife, Maeve, daughter of the traitorous Mordred, give birth to Ingrid. History and myth. The historical and mythological elements of "Prince Valiant  were initially chaotic, but soon Foster attempted to bring the facts into order. Many 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. The storyline is by no means historically accurate. While obviously meant to take place during the Later Roman Empire, Foster incorporated anachronistic elements: Viking longships, knights, Muslims, alchemists and technological advances not made before the Renaissance. The fortifications, dresses, armor and armament resemble the High Middle Ages rather than the fifth century. Other artists. In 1970, after tryout strips by several artists, Foster invited John Cullen Murphy to collaborate on the strip. Here is a list of the transition artists: 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. Scripting duties were passed on to Mark Schultz with Scott Roberts providing the coloring. Schultz continued as the writer when Thomas Yeates  began as the strip's artist on April 1, 2012. 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.