Review- PRINCE VALIANT VOL. 4: 1943-1944

PRINCE VALIANT VOL. 4: 1943-1944 (Fantagraphics, First Printing, 2011; Hardcover)

Collects Prince Valiant Sunday strips 308-412, originally published on January 3, 1943- December 31, 1944

Writer and Artist: Hal Foster

It takes me forever to get through one of these books. I sit and stare at the artwork so long that I spend months and months reading each volume.

Prince Valiant is set to return home to Thule and has several minor adventures along the way. Nothing makes Val happy, as his heart yearns for the hand of Queen Aleta of the Misty Isles. So he does what any young man would do: he goes out and finds her. This is where the book ends, with Val kidnapping her on the eve of when she is going to pick a suitor to marry. Val and Aleta are on the run, being pursued by Aleta's subjects.

This stuff is required reading for lovers of art. There aren't many artists who are Hal Foster's peer, and his writing remains sharp and witty many decades later. I know that many comic book fans are leery of dipping their toes into the waters of the newspaper strips, but if you have ever been curious about how serious comics started then pick this book up. The writing and artwork are head and shoulders above anything published at the time and hold up even today.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 4.75 out of 5.

The OCD zone- While presented smaller than the original publications, these books are large enough that you get the feel of the artwork and can read the text with ease. They are also easier to handle than many strip books which are unwieldy due to the dimensions of newspapers 70-odd years ago.

Linework and Color restoration: The strips are scanned from pristine syndicate proofs. Color restoration is faithful to the original strips.

Paper stock: Matte coated stock with the slightest sheen to it.

Binding: Sewn binding.

Hardback cover notes: No dustjacket. Image part of the paper of the casewrap. Portion around the spine has a faux leather casewrap.

Review- PRINCE VALIANT VOL. 3: 1941-1942

PRINCE VALIANT VOL. 3: 1941-1942 (Fantagraphics, Second Printing, 2011; Hardcover)

Collects Prince Valiant Sunday strips 204-307, originally published on January 5, 1941- December 27, 1942

Writer and Artist: Hal Foster

I have fallen down the rabbit hole of comic strips. Gone is my interest in most modern comic books, replaced by the high art of Hal Foster and the rest of the geniuses who blazed the trail that folks take for granted nowadays. I fear that I have become something of a snob in my quest for the best of the best that this medium has to offer.

Hal Foster's wit is as sharp as his pen, with tongue planted firmly in cheek in regard to the institution of marriage. While the humor is so subtle that it might not seem particularly witty by today's hyper-saracastic standards it is well beyond what was going on in strips at the time. Foster is one of my top five artists of all time. He spent as much as 60 hours a week working on each strip, and it shows. This strip is way more detailed than it had to be. It blows my mind that Foster put so much effort into each panel for something that was essentially a throw away item. Think about it, folks- there were no collected edition like this in the early '40s, really, and not many people collected these strips. They were read and then thrown away.

Comic strips were where the money was, which is why the best artists worked on them. Compare this to any comic book of 1941-1942 and this blows it away. Syndicated strips were where the cash was. Comic books were the ghetto. The more I dig into the world of strips the less interested I am in modern comics, with the poor writing and cheap gimmicks.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 5 out of 5.

The OCD zone- Fantagraphics always produces top shelf high quality product. Their books may run fashionably late, but you'll never have to buy an “upgraded” or “remastered” version, as these books are points of pride and labors of love for the company.

DVD-style Extras included in this book: Foreword by Dan Nadel. (2 pages)

A Gallery of suppressed Prince Valiant images from 1939-1940. (2 pages)

A beheading in Camelot- the extended cut. (1 page)

Linework and Color: The strips are scanned from pristine syndicate proofs. This is as good as it is going to get.

Paper stock: Beautiful thick uncoated stock. It also smells terrific, as do as all Chinese made books.

Binding: Smyth sewn binding, nine stitches per signature. Book lays completely flat.

Hardback cover notes: No dustjacket. Image part of the paper of the casewrap. Portion around the spine has a rougher material to it as a design choice. 

Review- PRINCE VALIANT VOL. 2: 1939-1940

PRINCE VALIANT VOL. 2: 1939-1940 (Fantagraphics, Third Printing, 2012; Hardcover)

Collects Prince Valiant Sunday strips 99-203, originally published on January 1, 1939- December 29, 1940

Writer, Artist, and Colorist: Hal Foster

Things kick into high gear for Prince Valiant, or Val as he is often referred to in this strip. The Saxon army is set to invade Camelot, and things barrel along from one battle to the next. Against his father's wishes, he goes out as a knight in search of adventure. Val helps the exiled king of Thule retake his throne. After a brief encounter with a witch, Val helps the kingdom of Andelkrag repel an invasion of the Huns. 

The Huns then become a recurring antagonist, as Val forms a band of “Hun-Hunters”, which grow with each passing battle as the promise of riches thickens their ranks. Val gains 500 more after liberating Duke Cesario. Mighty Tristam and Sir Gawain from King Arthur's Court find Val and join him on a series of battles and adventures. Using their famed battle techniques they are able to make quick work of the Huns, in spite of their superior numbers.

Note Foster's use of light and shade in the last panel.

Val's on again, off again sidekick Slith finds true love with Hulta. Once they decide to get married, Hal Foster's razor sharp dry wit comes into play. His opinion of marriage is hysterical. I quote the following caption from strip 169: “And he writes very bad poems to her beauty and she sings to him little idle songs and all those who are annoyed by this imbecility reflect that marriage will soon put an end to their nonsense!” Wow! There are several other examples of Foster's tongue in cheek humor, but his dry delivery really hits the sweet spot for me. Such subtlety is a lost art. 

Another example of Foster's humor.

While the bulk of this strip is rooted in a sort of reality, or at least a mostly realistic portrayal of Europe in the Middle Ages/Renaissance, there are occasional flairs of fantasy. Val encounters a giant, who in truth is merely a person who suffers from some kind of glandular disorder. Myths are rooted in some kind of reality, and Foster paints giants in a realistic light while keeping the initial premise of fantasy. This strip is mostly sort of set in the mid-5^th century. 

Prince Valiant, Mighty Tristam and Sir Gawain arrive in the latter days of Rome. Here they fall prey to the evil machinations of Emperor Valentinian. Valentinian is jealous of General Aetius and decides to kill two birds with one stone by framing Val for his assassination when in truth it is Valentinian's men who do the deed. When friends of Aetius disrupt the trial, the three knights make their break. With the entire army of Rome hot on their heels they decide to split up and go their separate ways to better elude their pursuers. Val books passage to Sicily, and when the greedy captain decides he likes the look of Val's purse, he decides to drug him and steal his money. Val switches goblets and it is the captain who gets drugged! Val switches cloaks with the captain and, under darkness of night, the crew mistakenly throws their captain overboard. Val then assumes control of the ship as a storm blows in. Talk about a cliffhanger. Luckily for me I have Volume 3 in hand and can read it at my leisure. 

Hal Foster's artwork is truly superb, easily among the best artists to ever grace the medium. While I don't outright discount Photoshop as I believe that it is a valuable tool in any modern comic book artist's belt, Foster did not have the benefit of it and his work outshines them all. His panel composition, detail, and coloring are all pen and brush and blow my mind. This stuff belongs on walls in fine art museums, it is that good. Imagine if Renaissance era artists drew comic strips. Foster would have been royalty in another age.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 5 out of 5.

The OCD zone- Fantagraphics always, always, always produces top shelf high quality product. Their books may run fashionably late, but you'll never have to buy an “upgraded” or “remastered” version, as these books are points of pride and labors of love for the company.

DVD-style Extras included in this book: Yes, He Was A Cartoonist- Foreword by Mark Schultz (3 pages).

Linework and Color restoration rating: 5 out of 5. The strips are scanned from pristine syndicate proofs. This is as good as it is going to get. Manuel Caldas was set to launch a competing line to this series in a larger, softcover format, with the main difference being full blown “frame up” color restoration from black and white European film. While the results that I saw from a few of his samples looked gorgeous, I, along with many other folks, could not justify buying into his line with these already excellent Fantagraphics editions already in hand. He pulled the plug on his line, and sent out a scathing email. I understand his disappointment at not getting his better-than-the-best version to market, but these Fantagraphics books are really, really nice. Nice enough for even the most anal-retentive OCD suffering person like myself to sleep soundly at night.

Paper rating: 5 out of 5. Beautiful thick uncoated stock paper with a very, very slight sheen. It also smells terrific, as do as all Chinese made books.

Binding rating: 5 out of 5. High quality Smyth sewn binding, nine stitches per signature, with room for the book block to flex within the casing, allowing the book to lay perfectly flat from the first page to the last as God intended.

Hardback cover coating rating: 4 out of 5. Fantagraphics does not use dustjackets on their books. The image is printed on the hardback itself, in this case one coated with a dull matte finish. My copy had a few light scuff marks by the time that I was done reading it, and that is with being handled in a most anal-retentive fashion. You might not even notice such things, but I suspect that if you are still reading this far down in The OCD zone that you will.

Buy PRINCE VALIANT VOL. 2: 1939-1940 HC at InStockTrades!

Review- PRINCE VALIANT VOL. 1: 1937-1938

PRINCE VALIANT VOL. 1: 1937-1938 (Fantagraphics, Fourth Printing, 2011; Hardcover)

Collects Prince Valiant Sunday strips 1-98, originally published on February 13, 1937- December 25, 1938

Writer and Artist: Hal Foster

As part of my ongoing effort to gain a wider perspective on the history of the medium, I decided to dive into Prince Valiant after years of procrastination. I have to be in the right mood to enjoy certain eras of comics, be it Golden Age material, Silver Age, Bronze Age, Modern Age, Post-Modern Age, etc. Having said that, I enjoyed this intermittently. Sometimes I read one or two pages, other times 40 pages in one sitting. It is superb for the time and holds up really well today.

I'll start with the low hanging fruit by stating that Hal Foster's artwork is absolutely brilliant. My subpar photography shot in odd hours doesn't do his artwork justice. The introduction states that Foster spent 50-60 hours a week on each strip, and it shows. Every panel is brilliantly composed, and his artwork is lush and lifelike. I seriously doubt that we will ever see artists on par with Foster or Alex Raymond again because youngsters these days are glued to their phones and won't take the time necessary to cultivate their talent. The few that will be artists will rely on Photoshop and never learn to be good artists first in terms of panel composition, speed, accuracy, etc. I have no problem with Photoshop as a tool in an artist's tool belt (so to speak), but it seems to me that many modern artists cannot draw without it. 

One of the more interesting things about this strip is that it occurs in mostly real time. Once Prince Valiant leaves the fens and sets out seeking adventure, two years elapses over 19 months of strips. Of course lots of thing occur between and even off panel, with the narrative serving to carry the weight of the story. One can only imagine how many arcs modern comic writers could milk out of each week's strip. 

This is the strip that Jack Kirby STOLE the design for the Demon from.

The series begins with Val's father, the King of Thule, being chased out of his kingdom with his army in tow, forced to find a new place to live. Thule's young son Val comes of age while living in the Fens before setting out in search of adventure. Vikings, Marsh Lizards, giant prehistoric turtles, giant sea-crocodiles, King Arthur, Lancelot, Merlin, and more are among the things Prince Valiant encounters on his journeys. I love all of the beautifully rendered castles, forests, and knights. The various “monsters” Val encounters give the series the occasional dash of fantasy over the more plausible medieval aspects. 

The strip was technically called Prince Valiant In The Days Of King Arthur by Harold R. Foster at this point in time. I'll let you know if and when the titles gets changed in subsequent volumes. This volume ends with Val warning King Arthur of the impending Saxon invasion. I am going to crack open Volume 2 right now...

Junk Food For Thought rating: 5 out of 5. 

The OCD zone- Fantagraphics always, always, always produces top shelf high quality product. Their books may run fashionably late, but you'll never have to buy an “upgraded” or “remastered” version, as these books are points of pride and labors of love for the company.

DVD-style Extras included in this book: Two informative introductions and one page which explains the history and differences in the various book versions of the strip over the years.

Linework and Color restoration rating: 5 out of 5. With the exception of 17 strips, all of these are scanned from pristine engraver proofs. Out of those 17, 10 are from European proofs. A pleasant surprise occurred to the editors when comparing these to the original US strips: Foster's unedited artwork in one panel where a man has a sword protruding from his chest, and his unedited dialogue in another.

The first ten strips were extremely scarce, so the restoration there is a bit more crude than what you find from April 24, 1937 on. It's perfectly serviceable but is not as crisp as the bulk of the material.

While Prince Valiant has been collected several times over the years (as far back as the 1950s), this is the first time that the original color palette has been maintained throughout the entire process. This is that definitive “Blu-Ray edition” that you have always wanted to see.

Paper rating: 5 out of 5. Beautiful thick uncoated stock paper with zero sheen. It also smells terrific, as do as all Chinese made books.

Binding rating: 5 out of 5. High quality sewn binding with room for the casing to flex, allowing this beast of a book to lay perfectly flat from the first page to the last.

Hardback cover coating rating: 4 out of 5. Fantagraphics does not use dustjackets on their books. The image is printed on the hardback itself, in this case one coated with a dull matte finish. This books will look fine over the long term but the coating is not rigorous enough for long term store shelf life.

This book is currently unavailable at InStockTrades, but there are plenty of other PRINCE VALIANT books available, including the Definitive Prince Valiant Companion, which I now want.

The Disneyfication of Star Wars

My family and I went on vacation to Disneyworld in Orlando, FL in June. When I dumped all of our pictures on my computer, I meant to post these here on my blog. I'm certain that the hardcore Star Wars toy collectors and fans are well aware of these, but for us “average” Star Wars fans these should be an eye opener.

My son got to do the Jedi Training Academy.

There were tons of Star Wars related things at Disney Hollywood Studios. I'll try not to bore you with all of them. Here is my son and daughter on Speeder Bikes.

My son loves Indiana Jones ever since he caught a snippet of the second movie on cable. They had an Indiana Jones stunt spectacular thing that we all enjoyed. They also had this exclusive 5 pack of action figures which my son begged me for but I told him no. When he was in the restroom I bought it and stuffed it in my backpack. He'll get it for his birthday soon.

We also did Universal Studios and the Universal Islands of Adventure. The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror gift shop had these sweet action figures that I wanted but didn't buy because I buy too many comic books.

They think they're Batman. Wrong universe, hatchlings mine.

There was a Toonville thing there, and I saw this Prince Valiant image on the pillar and was so geeked. I am currently reading Volume 1 of the Fantagraphics series of hardcovers and am loving it. I would have totally bought a T-shirt but there wasn't a scrap of Prince Valiant merchandise to be found in the shop. I voiced my displeasure at this development to the employee who looked at me like I was a nut. “Who is Prince Valiant?” 

All of the parks are Coca-Cola exclusive. I was twitching and scratching my arms for a Diet Mountain Dew fix. I finally got a bottle at the airport. Their bottles look way different than our 20 oz. bottles do here in Michigan.