Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur, or simply Prince Valiant, is a long-run comic strip

Comic strip

A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....

 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 3700 Sunday strip

Sunday strip

A Sunday strip is a newspaper comic strip format, where comic strips are printed in the Sunday newspaper, usually in a special section called the Sunday comics, and virtually always in color. Some readers called these sections the Sunday funnies...

s. Currently, the strip appears weekly in more than 300 American newspapers, according to its distributor, King Features Syndicate

King Features Syndicate

King Features Syndicate, a print syndication company owned by The Hearst Corporation, distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editorial cartoons, puzzles and games to nearly 5000 newspapers worldwide...

.

Edward

Edward VIII of the United Kingdom

Edward VIII was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth, and Emperor of India, from 20 January to 11 December 1936.Before his accession to the throne, Edward was Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall and Rothesay...

, the Duke of Windsor

Duke of Windsor

The title Duke of Windsor was created in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1937 for Prince Edward, the former King Edward VIII, following his abdication in December 1936. The dukedom takes its name from the town where Windsor Castle, a residence of English monarchs since the Norman Conquest, is...

, 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

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

 to the High Middle Ages

High Middle Ages

The High Middle Ages was the period of European history around the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries . The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which by convention end around 1500....

, with a few brief scenes from modern times (commenting on the "manuscript").

While drawing the Tarzan

Tarzan (comics)

Tarzan, a fictional character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, first appeared in the 1912 novel Tarzan of the Apes, and then in 23 sequels. The character proved immensely popular and quickly made the jump to other media, including comics.-Comic strips:...

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

William Randolph Hearst

William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...

, 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

Comic strip formats

Comic strip formats vary widely from publication to publication, so that the same newspaper comic strip may appear in a half-dozen different formats with different numbers of panels, different sizes of panels and different arrangement of panels.-Daily strip:...

 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 is a Nordic

Norsemen

Norsemen is used to refer to the group of people as a whole who spoke what is now called the Old Norse language belonging to the North Germanic branch of Indo-European languages, especially Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese, Swedish and Danish in their earlier forms.The meaning of Norseman was "people...

 prince from faraway Thule

Thule

Thule Greek: Θούλη, Thoulē), also spelled Thula, Thila, or Thyïlea, is, in classical European literature and maps, a region in the far north. Though often considered to be an island in antiquity, modern interpretations of what was meant by Thule often identify it as Norway. Other interpretations...

, located near Trondheim

Trondheim

Trondheim , historically, Nidaros and Trondhjem, is a city and municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. With a population of 173,486, it is the third most populous municipality and city in the country, although the fourth largest metropolitan area. It is the administrative centre of...

 on the Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 west coast. Early in the story, Valiant arrived at Camelot

Camelot

Camelot is a castle and court associated with the legendary King Arthur. Absent in the early Arthurian material, Camelot first appeared in 12th-century French romances and eventually came to be described as the fantastic capital of Arthur's realm and a symbol of the Arthurian world...

, where he became friends with Sir Gawain

Gawain

Gawain is King Arthur's nephew and a Knight of the Round Table who appears very early in the Arthurian legend's development. He is one of a select number of Round Table members to be referred to as the greatest knight, most notably in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight...

 and Sir Tristram

Tristan

Tristan is one of the main characters of the Tristan and Iseult story, a Cornish hero and one of the Knights of the Round Table featuring in the Matter of Britain...

. Earning the respect of King Arthur

King Arthur

King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...

 and Merlin, he became a Knight of the Round Table

Round Table (Camelot)

The Round Table is King Arthur's famed table in the Arthurian legend, around which he and his Knights congregate. As its name suggests, it has no head, implying that everyone who sits there has equal status. The table was first described in 1155 by Wace, who relied on previous depictions of...

. On a Mediterranean island, he met the love of his life, Aleta, Queen of the Misty Isles, whom he later married. He fought the Huns with his powerful Singing Sword

Singing Sword

The Singing Sword is the primary weapon of the fictional character Prince Valiant, a Knight of the Round Table in the service of King Arthur, in the long running comic strip Prince Valiant. Hal Foster created Prince Valiant in 1937....

, Flamberge, a magical blade created by the same enchanter who forged Arthur's Excalibur

Excalibur

Excalibur is the legendary sword of King Arthur, sometimes attributed with magical powers or associated with the rightful sovereignty of Great Britain. Sometimes Excalibur and the Sword in the Stone are said to be the same weapon, but in most versions they are considered separate. The sword was...

. Val traveled to Africa and to America and helped his father regain his lost throne of Thule, usurped by the tyrant Sligon.

When the strip started in 1937, Val was five years old. The first episodes followed the youth through the wild Fens district of Britain with his father, the deposed King Aguar of Thule. When Val encountered the witch Horrit, she predicted he would have a life of adventure, noting that he would soon experience grief. Arriving home, Val discovered that his mother had died. Not long after that came his encounters with Gawain, gigantic creatures and the glory of Camelot, as detailed by Steve Donoghue:

At first, in the earliest months of Prince Valiant, Foster’s Arthurian England might easily be confused with the Cimmeria

Cimmeria (Conan)

Cimmeria is a fictional land of barbarians in antediluvian earth and the homeland of Conan the Barbarian in the works of Robert E. Howard.-Fictional history:...

 of Conan the Barbarian

Conan the Barbarian

Conan the Barbarian is a fictional sword and sorcery hero that originated in pulp fiction magazines and has since been adapted to books, comics, several films , television programs, video games, roleplaying games and other media...

: monsters abound. As a boy, Val fights a ‘dragon’ that looks a lot like a plesiosaur, and he fires his arrows at a rampaging swamp-turtle the size of a Zamboni

Ice resurfacer

An ice resurfacer is a truck-like vehicle or smaller device used to clean and smooth the surface of an ice rink. The first ice resurfacer was developed by Frank J. Zamboni in 1949 in the city of Paramount, California...

. But only a few installments later, this has sublimated somewhat into history: when Val saves his new friend Sir Gawain from a robber knight and Gawain decides to take the villain to Camelot for summary judgement from King Arthur, the whole party is at one point attacked by another enormous beast—only this time it’s a salt water crocodile!... When they all at length succeed in killing the beast, Val is outraged that Gawain would still seek to have the man tried before King Arthur. The young prince naturally speaks up in his outrage before the great king, his queen Guinevere and his feared wizard Merlin—and so a career at Camelot is born. Val becomes Gawain’s squire and almost immediately accompanies him on a quest, during which Gawain is captured and Val must use his wits—smiling and laughing the whole time—to free his mentor. On the trip, Gawain is seriously wounded, and the large panel where Val finally gets him back to Camelot is Foster’s first genuine visual show-stopper in the strip.

Val acquired the Singing Sword in 1938. The original owner of the Singing Sword was Prince Arn of Ord, Valiant's rival for the maid Ilene. The two men put aside their differences when Ilene was kidnapped by Viking raiders on her way to Ord. Arn handed Valiant the charmed sword so he could hold back their pursuers while Arn rode ahead to free Ilene. The pair continued in their efforts to rescue Ilene, eventually discovering that she was killed in a shipwreck. Arn gave the Singing Sword to Valiant after that adventure, and the two parted as friends. Later in the series it was mentioned that the Singing Sword is a sister to King Arthur's Excalibur.

In 1939, he was knighted by King Arthur, and the following year, he aided in restoring his father as King of Thule. Moving across Britain, Europe, and the Holy Land, Val fought invading Goths, Huns and Saxons. In 1946, shortly after Val married Aleta, she was kidnapped by the Viking raider Ulfran. Val's pursuit took him past the Shetland Islands, the Faroe Islands

Faroe Islands

The Faroe Islands are an island group situated between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately halfway between Scotland and Iceland. The Faroe Islands are a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, along with Denmark proper and Greenland...

, Iceland

Iceland

Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...

, Greenland

Greenland

Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...

, Newfoundland and the Saint Lawrence River

Saint Lawrence River

The Saint Lawrence is a large river flowing approximately from southwest to northeast in the middle latitudes of North America, connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. It is the primary drainage conveyor of the Great Lakes Basin...

, arriving at Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls

The Niagara Falls, located on the Niagara River draining Lake Erie into Lake Ontario, is the collective name for the Horseshoe Falls and the adjacent American Falls along with the comparatively small Bridal Veil Falls, which combined form the highest flow rate of any waterfalls in the world and has...

 1,000 years before Columbus. Defeating Ulfran, Val was reunited with Aleta, and the couple spent that winter with friendly Native Americans

Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

.

In the strip dated August 31, 1947, Prince Arn, their first son, was born in America, and Val celebrated by getting drunk. The infant Prince Arn was named after Val’s youthful friend, Prince Arn of Ord. Val and Aleta's other children are the twins, Karen and Valeta (born 1951), Galan (1962) and Nathan (1979). Agents of the Byzantine

Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

 Emperor Justinian

Justinian I

Justinian I ; , ; 483– 13 or 14 November 565), commonly known as Justinian the Great, was Byzantine Emperor from 527 to 565. During his reign, Justinian sought to revive the Empire's greatness and reconquer the lost western half of the classical Roman Empire.One of the most important figures of...

 abducted Nathan shortly after his birth, and he was eventually rescued by Arn. Earlier, Arn led an expedition to America in 1964. Val became a grandfather when Arn and his wife, Maeve, daughter of the traitorous Mordred

Mordred

Mordred or Modred is a character in the Arthurian legend, known as a notorious traitor who fought King Arthur at the Battle of Camlann, where he was killed and Arthur fatally wounded. Tradition varies on his relationship to Arthur, but he is best known today as Arthur's illegitimate son by his...

, gave birth to Ingrid in 1987.

History and myth

The historical and mythological elements of Prince Valiant were initially chaotic, but soon Foster attempted to bring the facts into order. Some 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

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 in 455, which Prince Valiant and Aleta witness. The murder of Aëtius

Flavius Aëtius

Flavius Aëtius , dux et patricius, was a Roman general of the closing period of the Western Roman Empire. He was an able military commander and the most influential man in the Western Roman Empire for two decades . He managed policy in regard to the attacks of barbarian peoples pressing on the Empire...

 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

Morgan le Fay

Morgan le Fay , alternatively known as Morgane, Morgaine, Morgana and other variants, is a powerful sorceress in the Arthurian legend. Early works featuring Morgan do not elaborate her character beyond her role as a fay or magician...

's use of magic), so that by 1942, the story became more realistic.

The storyline is not historically accurate. While obviously meant to take place in the mid-Fifth century, Foster incorporated anachronistic elements: Viking

Viking

The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...

 Longship

Longship

Longships were sea vessels made and used by the Vikings from the Nordic countries for trade, commerce, exploration, and warfare during the Viking Age. The longship’s design evolved over many years, beginning in the Stone Age with the invention of the umiak and continuing up to the 9th century with...

s, Muslim

Muslim

A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

s, alchemist

Alchemy

Alchemy is an influential philosophical tradition whose early practitioners’ claims to profound powers were known from antiquity. The defining objectives of alchemy are varied; these include the creation of the fabled philosopher's stone possessing powers including the capability of turning base...

s and technological advances not made before the Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

. The fortifications, armor and armament resemble the High Middle Ages

High Middle Ages

The High Middle Ages was the period of European history around the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries . The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which by convention end around 1500....

.

Other artists arrive

In 1970, after tryout strips by several artists, Foster invited John Cullen Murphy

John Cullen Murphy

John Cullen Murphy was an American illustrator best known for his three decades of work on the Prince Valiant comic strip....

 to collaborate on the strip. Here is a list of the transition artists:

• #1756 Foster
• #1757 Gray Morrow
  Gray Morrow
  Dwight Graydon "Gray" Morrow was an American illustrator of paperback books and comics.-Biography:Born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Morrow is best known as art director of Spider-Man between 1967 and 1970 and as illustrator of the syndicated Tarzan, Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon and Prince Valiant comic...
  
  
• #1758 Foster
• #1759 Foster
• #1760 Murphy
• #1761 Foster
• #1762 Wally Wood
  Wally Wood
  Wallace Allan Wood was an American comic book writer, artist and independent publisher, best known for his work in EC Comics and Mad. He was one of Mads founding cartoonists in 1952. Although much of his early professional artwork is signed Wallace Wood, he became known as Wally Wood, a name he...
  
  
• #1763 Foster
• #1764 Murphy
• #1765 unknown
• #1766 Murphy
• #1767 unknown
• #1768 Foster
• #1769 Murphy
• #1770 unknown
• #1771-2 Murphy
• #1773 Foster
• #1774-5 Murphy
• #1776 Foster
• #1777-87 Murphy
• #1788 Foster
• #1789 on Murphy

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

Cullen Murphy

John Cullen Murphy, Jr. is an American writer and editor probably best known for his work at The Atlantic, where he served as managing editor and editor ....

, 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

Gary Gianni

Gary Gianni is an American comics artist best known for the syndicated newspaper comic Prince Valiant.-Biography:Gianni graduated from the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts in 1976...

, and the scripting duties were passed on to Mark Schultz. Coloring is by Scott Roberts.

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

National Cartoonists Society

The National Cartoonists Society is an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States. It presents the National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Society was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the troops...

'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

Society of Illustrators

The Society of Illustrators is a professional society based in New York City. Founded in 1901, the mission of the Society is to promote the art and appreciation of illustration, as well as its history...

 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

Comic Strip Classics

The Comic Strip Classics series of commemorative postage stamps was issued by the US Postal Service in 1995 to honor the centennial of the newspaper comic strip....

 series of commemorative postage stamps.

Reprints

• Hastings House produced seven hardback Prince Valiant books in the 1950s, using the illustrations by Foster but with the text simplified by Max Trell and for the last two books by James Flowers. This series was reprinted in Germany as Prinz Eisenherz (Prince Ironheart) and continued there for an additional five volumes.
• Nostalgia Press
  Woody Gelman
  Woodrow Gelman , better known as Woody Gelman, was a publisher, a cartoonist, a novelist and an artist-writer for animation and comic books. As the publisher of Nostalgia Press, he pioneered the reprinting of vintage comic strips in quality hardcovers and trade paperbacks...
  
   published four hardback reprints in conjunction with King Features. Some entire panels were colored solid pink or solid purple.
• Prince Valiant: An American Epic, from Manuscript Press
  Manuscript Press
  Manuscript Press is a small press publisher started by Rick Norwood in 1976 and currently located in Mountain Home, Tennessee. It specializes in previously unpublished novels by science fiction authors such as Hal Clement and R. A. Lafferty and also in reprints of comic strips such as Prince...
  
  , reprinted the first three years in three volumes, in the full original color and full page size. They also published a hardback omnibus of the three years, in a limited edition of 26 copies. ISBN #0-936414-09-X
• Fantagraphics published a set of 50 trade paperbacks reprinting all of the strips written by Hal Foster, including those drawn by John Cullen Murphy.
• Andrews McMeel published Prince Valiant - Far from Camelot, the only collection of award-winning creators Gary Gianni and Mark Schultz's current strips dating from November 21, 2004, to May 11, 2008.
• A French reprinting of all the Foster-drawn strips was published by Editions Zenda in a green cloth, embossed hardcover series with dustjacket. Featuring two years' worth of strips per volume, it was printed from the original color pages with typeset lettering.
• Prince Valiant has often been reprinted in comic book
  Comic book
  A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
  
  s. Feature Book #26 reprints most of the first year of the strip, and is the only comic book to have an original cover by Hal Foster. Many Foster strips were reprinted in the pages of Ace Comics
  Ace Comics
  Ace Comics was a comic book series published by David McKay Publications between 1937 and 1949 — starting just before the Golden Age era of comics...
  
   and King Comics
  King Comics
  King Comics, a short-lived comic book imprint of King Features Syndicate, was an attempt by King Features to publish comics of its own characters, rather than through other publishers. The line ran for approximately a year-and-a-half, with its series cover-dated from August 1966 to December 1967...
  
  . Not reprints are seven Dell
  Dell Comics
  Dell Comics was the comic book publishing arm of Dell Publishing, which got its start in pulp magazines. It published comics from 1929 to 1973. At its peak, it was the most prominent and successful American company in the medium...
  
   four-color Prince Valiant comic books — #567, 650, 699, 719, 788, 848, 900 — drawn by Bob Fuji, writer unknown. A 1973 Prince Valiant comic book reprinted Foster art with a simplified text intended to teach reading to children.
• Prince Valiant Vol. 1: 1937-1938 and Prince Valiant Vol. 2: 1939-1940. Fantagraphics, 2010. Vol. 1: 978-1-60699-141-1 Vol. 2: 978-1-60699-348-4

Film and TV adaptations

• Prince Valiant
  Prince Valiant (1954 film)
  Prince Valiant is a 1954 adventure film in Technicolor and Cinemascope, based on the comic strip of the same name by Hal Foster. A young man seeks to join the Knights of the Round Table in order to restore his father to his own kingship, and uncovers a plot against King Arthur.-Plot summary:The...
  
  is a 1954
  1954 in film
  The year 1954 in film involved some significant events and memorable ones.-Events:*May 12 - The Marx Brothers' Zeppo Marx divorces wife Marion Benda...
  
   US
  United States
  The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
  
   motion picture by 20th Century Fox
  20th Century Fox
  Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
  
  , filmed in color and Cinemascope
  CinemaScope
  CinemaScope was an anamorphic lens series used for shooting wide screen movies from 1953 to 1967. Its creation in 1953, by the president of 20th Century-Fox, marked the beginning of the modern anamorphic format in both principal photography and movie projection.The anamorphic lenses theoretically...
  
  . Directed by Henry Hathaway
  Henry Hathaway
  Henry Hathaway was an American film director and producer. He is best known as a director of Westerns, especially starring John Wayne.-Background:...
  
  , it starred James Mason
  James Mason
  James Neville Mason was an English actor who attained stardom in both British and American films. Mason remained a powerful figure in the industry throughout his career and was nominated for three Academy Awards as well as three Golden Globes .- Early life :Mason was born in Huddersfield, in the...
  
  , Robert Wagner
  Robert Wagner
  Robert John Wagner is an American actor of stage, screen, and television.A veteran of many films in the 1950s and 1960s, Wagner gained prominence in three American television series that spanned three decades: It Takes a Thief , Switch , and Hart to Hart...
  
   (in the title role), Janet Leigh
  Janet Leigh
  Janet Leigh , born Jeanette Helen Morrison, was an American actress. She was the wife of actor Tony Curtis from June 1951 to September 1962 and the mother of Kelly Curtis and Jamie Lee Curtis....
  
   and Sterling Hayden
  Sterling Hayden
  Sterling Hayden was an American actor and author. For most of his career as a leading man, he specialized in westerns and film noir, such as Johnny Guitar, The Asphalt Jungle and The Killing. Later on he became noted as a character actor for such roles as Gen. Jack D. Ripper in Dr...
  
  . The film was also adapted into a comic book.
• The Legend of Prince Valiant
  The Legend of Prince Valiant
  The Legend of Prince Valiant is an American animated television series based on the Prince Valiant comic strip created by Hal Foster. Set in the time of King Arthur, it's a family-oriented adventure show about an exiled prince who goes on a quest to become one of the Knights of the Round Table. He...
  
  , a 1991 animated
  Animation
  Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
  
   US television
  Television
  Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
  
   series seen on The Family Channel
  ABC Family
  ABC Family, stylized as abc family, is an American television network, owned by ABC Family Worldwide Inc., a subsidiary of the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company...
  
   in the US and CBBC
  CBBC
  CBBC is one of two brand names used for the BBC's children's television strands. Between 1985 and 2002, CBBC was the name given to all the BBC's programmes on TV for children aged under 14...
  
   in the UK, is available on DVD.
• Prince Valiant
  Prince Valiant (1997 film)
  Prince Valiant is a 1997 independent sword and sorcery film directed by Anthony Hickox. It is based on the long running Prince Valiant comic strip of Hal Foster, some panels of which were used in the movie.-Plot:...
  
  is a 1997
  1997 in film
  -Events:* The original Star Wars trilogy's Special Editions are released.* Production begins on Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.* Titanic becomes the first film to gross US$1,000,000,000 at the box office making it the highest grossing film in history until Avatar broke the record in 2010.*...
  
   UK
  United Kingdom
  The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
  
  /Ireland
  Ireland
  Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
  
  /Germany
  Germany
  Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
  
   movie. The soundtrack of the film score
  Film score
  A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
  
   by David Bergeaud
  David Bergeaud
  David Bergeaud also known as "KOR", is a film, television, and video game musician.Bergeaud was born in Paris and began his musical education at the age of five...
  
   was released February 20, 2003 on Perseverance Records
  Perseverance Records
  Perseverance Records is a record label which releases film scores on CD and online. Releases are usually accompanied by extensive, well-researched booklets...
  
  .

Other media

• In addition to two Prince Valiant phonograph records (released in 1947 and 1968) and three coloring books, Treasure Books published a small 1954 children's book with Foster art in color.
• Marvel Comics
  Marvel Comics
  Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
  
   published a four-part miniseries
  Miniseries
  A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
  
   titled Prince Valiant in the 1990s.
• Chaosium
  Chaosium
  Chaosium is one of the longer lived publishers of role-playing games still in existence. Founded by Greg Stafford, its first game was actually a wargame, White Bear and Red Moon, which later mutated into Dragon Pass and its sequel, Nomad Gods...
  
   produced a Prince Valiant
  Prince Valiant (role-playing game)
  Prince Valiant: The Story-Telling Game is the official role-playing game based on Hal Foster's comic strip of the same name. Created by Greg Stafford the game was first published by Stafford's company, Chaosium, in 1989.-Setting:...
  
  role-playing game
  Role-playing game
  A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
  
  . In 1999, Pyramid
  Pyramid (magazine)
  Pyramid is a gaming magazine, publishing articles primarily on role-playing games, but including board games, card games, and other sorts of games. It began life in 1993 as a print publication of Steve Jackson Games for its first 30 issues, though it has been published on the Internet since March...
  
  magazine named the Prince Valiant Role-playing Game as one of "The Millennium's Most Underrated Games". Editor Scott Haring commented, "Prince Valiant was designed as a beginner's introduction to roleplaying... Perhaps the subject matter's perceived lack of 'cool' killed this game, but it deserved better."
• In the Arthurian TV show Merlin
  Merlin (TV series)
  Merlin is a British fantasy-adventure television programme by Julian Jones, Jake Michie, Julian Murphy and Johnny Capps. It began broadcasting on BBC One on 20 September 2008. The show is based on the Arthurian legends of the wizard Merlin and his relationship with Prince Arthur but differs from...
  
  , Will Mellor
  Will Mellor
  William "Will" Mellor is an English actor. He is known for his roles as Jambo Bolton in Hollyoaks, Gaz Wilkinson in comedy, Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps...
  
   plays a knight named Valiant.

Cultural references

• Harvey Kurtzman
  Harvey Kurtzman
  Harvey Kurtzman was an American cartoonist and the editor of several comic books and magazines. Kurtzman often signed his name H. Kurtz, followed by a stick figure Harvey Kurtzman (October 3, 1924, Brooklyn, New York – February 21, 1993) was an American cartoonist and the editor of several comic...
  
   and Wally Wood
  Wally Wood
  Wallace Allan Wood was an American comic book writer, artist and independent publisher, best known for his work in EC Comics and Mad. He was one of Mads founding cartoonists in 1952. Although much of his early professional artwork is signed Wallace Wood, he became known as Wally Wood, a name he...
  
   satirized the strip with Prince Violent in Mad
  Mad (magazine)
  Mad is an American humor magazine founded by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines in 1952. Launched as a comic book before it became a magazine, it was widely imitated and influential, impacting not only satirical media but the entire cultural landscape of the 20th century.The last...
  
  #13 (July 1954).
• Prince Valiant once used the guise of a demon, and that costume was an inspiration to Jack Kirby
  Jack Kirby
  Jack Kirby , born Jacob Kurtzberg, was an American comic book artist, writer and editor regarded by historians and fans as one of the major innovators and most influential creators in the comic book medium....
  
   for his character, Etrigan the Demon. The same panel also inspired the Italian creative team EsseGesse
  EsseGesse
  EsseGesse was an Italian team of cartoonists, most famous for their Western comics, which was hugely popular in the 1950s, and were translated to French, Serbo-Croatian, Turkish, Greek, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian....
  
   on their comic series Kinowa.
• Bugs Bunny
  Bugs Bunny
  Bugs Bunny is a animated character created in 1938 at Leon Schlesinger Productions, later Warner Bros. Cartoons. Bugs is an anthropomorphic gray rabbit and is famous for his flippant, insouciant personality and his portrayal as a trickster. He has primarily appeared in animated cartoons, most...
  
   parodied the strip in Prince Violent
  Prince Violent
  Prince Violent is a 1961 Looney Tunes cartoon starring Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam directed by Friz Freleng and Freleng's longtime layout artist Hawley Pratt.- Plot :...
  
  (renamed Prince Varmint for television) with Bugs defending a castle against Viking raider Yosemite Sam
  Yosemite Sam
  Yosemite Sam is an American animated cartoon character in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons produced by Warner Bros. Animation. The name is somewhat alliterative and is inspired by Yosemite National Park...
  
  .
• In the Academy Award-winning short Knighty Knight Bugs
  Knighty Knight Bugs
  Knighty Knight Bugs is a 1958 Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Friz Freleng, produced by Warner Bros. Cartoons and released by Warner Bros....
  
  , King Arthur sends court jester Bugs to recover the Singing Sword from the Black Knight
  Black Knight (Arthurian legend)
  The Black Knight is the title given to several characters in Western literature. In Arthurian legend he is a knight who tied his wife to a tree after hearing she had exchanged rings with Perceval...
  
  , portrayed as Yosemite Sam
  Yosemite Sam
  Yosemite Sam is an American animated cartoon character in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons produced by Warner Bros. Animation. The name is somewhat alliterative and is inspired by Yosemite National Park...
  
   in black armor.
• Dave Sim
  Dave Sim
  David Victor Sim is an award-winning Canadian comic book writer and artist.A pioneer of self-published comics and creators' rights, Sim is best known as the creator of Cerebus the Aardvark, a comic book published from 1977 to 2004, which chronicles its main character in a 6,000-page self-contained...
  
   did a weekly Prince Valiant parody, Silverspoon, in The Buyer's Guide to Comic Fandom. The strip employed Foster's illustrations/captions format. Sim's comic book series Cerebus the Aardvark
  Cerebus the Aardvark
  Cerebus the Aardvark, or simply Cerebus , is an independent comic book, written and illustrated by Canadian artist Dave Sim, with backgrounds by fellow Canadian Gerhard. Cerebus ran for 300 issues from December 1977 to 2004, and was over 6000 pages long, the longest-running original...
  
  contained a Prince Valiant parody with illustrations/captions.
• A 1985 issue of Mad
  Mad (magazine)
  Mad is an American humor magazine founded by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines in 1952. Launched as a comic book before it became a magazine, it was widely imitated and influential, impacting not only satirical media but the entire cultural landscape of the 20th century.The last...
  
  had a recurring section, "The Nasty File", billed as, "Snippets that were considered too insulting to publish!" One such "file" was on Phil Donahue
  Phil Donahue
  Phillip John "Phil" Donahue is an American media personality, writer, and film producer best known as the creator and host of The Phil Donahue Show. The television program, also known as Donahue, was the first to use a talk show format. The show had a 26-year run on U.S...
  
  , noting that he had his hair done by the same famous hairdresser who "beautified Prince Valiant, Pete Rose
  Pete Rose
  Peter Edward Rose , nicknamed "Charlie Hustle", is a former Major League Baseball player and manager. Rose played from 1963 to 1986, and managed from 1984 to 1989....
  
   and Lassie
  Lassie
  Lassie is a fictional collie dog character created by Eric Knight in a short story expanded to novel length called Lassie Come-Home. Published in 1940, the novel was filmed by MGM in 1943 as Lassie Come Home with a dog named Pal playing Lassie. Pal then appeared with the stage name "Lassie" in six...
  
  ".
• In Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, the main character, Eddie Valiant, used a singing sword against Judge Doom. However, the sword was drawn as Frank Sinatra
  Frank Sinatra
  Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
  
   singing "Witchcraft
  Witchcraft (song)
  "Witchcraft" is a popular song from 1957 composed by Cy Coleman with lyrics by Carolyn Leigh. It was released as a single by Frank Sinatra, and reached number twenty in the U.S., spending sixteen weeks on the charts....
  
  ", a wordplay of the name of the sword.
• In Beetlejuice
  Beetlejuice
  Beetlejuice is a 1988 American comedy horror film directed by Tim Burton, produced by The Geffen Film Company and distributed by Warner Bros...
  
  , Lydia (Winona Ryder
  Winona Ryder
  Winona Ryder is an American actress. She made her film debut in the 1986 film Lucas. Ryder's first significant role came in Tim Burton's Beetlejuice as a goth teenager, which won her critical and commercial recognition...
  
  ) tells Adam and Barbara (Alec Baldwin
  Alec Baldwin
  Alexander Rae "Alec" Baldwin III is an American actor who has appeared on film, stage, and television.Baldwin first gained recognition through television for his work in the soap opera Knots Landing in the role of Joshua Rush. He was a cast member for two seasons before his character was killed off...
  
   and Geena Davis
  Geena Davis
  Virginia Elizabeth "Geena" Davis is an American actress, film producer, writer, former fashion model, and a women's Olympics archery team semi-finalist...
  
  ) that her step-mother (Catherine O'Hara
  Catherine O'Hara
  Catherine Anne O'Hara is a Canadian-American actress and comedienne. She is well known for her comedy work on SCTV, and her roles in the films After Hours, Beetlejuice, Home Alone, and The Nightmare Before Christmas, and also in the mockumentary films written and directed by Christopher Guest...
  
  ), who is shown in a semi-drugged stupor, is "sleeping with Prince Valium."
• In Space Balls, actor Jim J. Bullock is Prince Valium, the consistently-sleepy suitor of Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga
  Daphne Zuniga
  Daphne Eurydice Zuniga is an American actress known for her roles as Jo Reynolds on the Fox primetime soap Melrose Place, as Victoria Davis on The CW teen drama One Tree Hill and as Princess Vespa in Spaceballs.-Early life:...
  
  ) who Vespa leaves at the altar.
• In the Defenders of the Earth
  Defenders of the Earth
  Defenders of the Earth is an animated television series produced in 1986, narrated by Corey Burton and featuring characters from three comic strips distributed by King Features Syndicate—Flash Gordon, the Phantom, and Mandrake the Magician—battling the Flash Gordon villain Ming the Merciless in the...
  
  episode "Terror in Time," Valiant appeared as a guest.
• There is a street sharing the character's name; a Prince Valiant Court exists in Franklin, Tennessee
  Franklin, Tennessee
  Franklin is a city within and the county seat of Williamson County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 62,487 as of the 2010 census Franklin is located approximately south of downtown Nashville.-History:...
  
   (USA).
• The the second episode in the first series of BBC series Merlin
  Merlin (TV series)
  Merlin is a British fantasy-adventure television programme by Julian Jones, Jake Michie, Julian Murphy and Johnny Capps. It began broadcasting on BBC One on 20 September 2008. The show is based on the Arthurian legends of the wizard Merlin and his relationship with Prince Arthur but differs from...
  
   titled "Valiant" features a Knight Valiant who dishonourably uses an enchanted shield and dies in a duel with Arthur during the tournament finale.
• Richard Marcinko
  Richard Marcinko
  Richard "Dick" Marcinko , is a retired Commander in the United States Navy and a former Navy SEAL. He was the first Commanding Officer of SEAL Team Six and Red Cell...
  
   in his autobiographical work Rogue Warrior
  Rogue Warrior
  Rogue Warrior may refer to:* Richard Marcinko , former Navy SEAL and best-selling author, nicknamed "Rogue Warrior"* Rogue Warrior , a book by Richard Marcinko...
  
  notes one of his men was given the call sign "Prince Valiant", or PV for short as he had a hairstyle like the comic's protagonist.

Sources

• Hal Foster: Prince of Illustrators by Brian M. Kane, Vanguard Productions, 2001. IPPY Award-winning biography of Hal Foster. ISBN 1-887591-25-7
• A Prince Valiant Companion by Todd Goldberg and Carl Horak, edited by Don Markstein and Rick Norwood
  Rick Norwood
  Rick Norwood is an American publisher, mathematician, comics historian and short story author.Born in Franklin, Louisiana, Norwood attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was one of four writer-editors of the early underground comic God Comics, along with Bill Osten, Durk...
  
  , Manuscript Press
  Manuscript Press
  Manuscript Press is a small press publisher started by Rick Norwood in 1976 and currently located in Mountain Home, Tennessee. It specializes in previously unpublished novels by science fiction authors such as Hal Clement and R. A. Lafferty and also in reprints of comic strips such as Prince...
  
  . ISBN 0-936414-07-3
• The Definitive Prince Valiant Companion compiled by Brian M. Kane, Fantagraphics Books, 2009. ISBN 978-1-60699-305-7

External links

• A Prince Named Valiant: A celebration of the finest work ever produced in the comic art medium
• Prince Valiant Resource Center
• King Features: Prince Valiant
• Foster biography by Brian Kane
• Legend of Prince Valiant Forum
• IMDb: Prince Valiant (1954)
• IMDb:The Legend of Prince Valiant (1991)
• IMDb: Prince Valiant (1997)