Prince Valiant

Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant, about a noble knight in the days of King Arthur, began in newspapers in 1937 and continues to this day. It was Foster (1892-1982) who introduced illustrative techniques — and the sensibilities and standards of such greats as Howard Pyle — to the comics page. Realistic depictions and sophisticated compositions had been curiously absent before him. He is still considered to be comics’ supreme classicist.

Fantagraphics’ deluxe, full-color library editions of Prince Valiant each feature close to a year's worth of full-page Sunday strips,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 continued until his passing in 2004. His son, Cullen Murphy, continues to write the strip in between serving as the managing editor for The Atlantic.

"That Foster was the most virtuosic comics artist of his time, there is some merit to the claim." – Sunday

"Prince Valiant’s adventures fighting the enemies of Camelot appeared in more than 200 newspapers and inspired a movie starring Robert Wagner and Janet Leigh. […] The Duke of Windsor, who reigned as King Edward VIII until his abdication in 1936, once described Prince Valiant as "the greatest contribution to English literature in the past 100 years." – National Post

"Foster’s meticulously detailed, painstakingly researched, vividly realistic, and often breathtaking illustration made him one of the most revered artists in the comic field." – Library Journal