Hal Foster's Prince Valiant Sketchbooks: An Illustrated Memoir

Every week from 1971-1979, Foster gave Murphy a detailed, descriptive panel-by-panel text page, a page of succinct but elegant panel captions that elevated the narrative around the visuals without describing them, a page of beautifully rendered pencil layouts, and, occasionally, a more fully rendered sketch for a new character he was introducing. Hal loved Prince Valiant of Thule (‘Val’), his wife, Queen Aleta of the Misty Isles, and all the other personalities that lived in this world he created. They were as real to him as his own family and friends, and, in some inexplicable way, he was simply transcribing the stories they told him.–Brian M. Kane, from his introduction

Hal Foster (1892-1982) created Prince Valiant in 1937. Though remaining involved with the strip until his death in 1982, Foster handed the bulk of the scripting and art chores over to his longtime assistant, John Cullen Murphy, in 1971.

Brian M. Kane is a comics historian and adjunct professor at Ohio State University. He edited 18 volumes of Fantagraphics’ collection of the Prince Valiant strip, as well as The Prince Valiant Companion.