Prince Valiant was one of a number of adventure strips, bigger in size and bigger in scope.
by Rich Watson
Between the time when audiences first relied on daily newspapers and the rise of the internet, there was an age undreamed of in comic strips. And unto this, Prince Valiant: destined to take his place among the epic characters presented every Sunday. It is I, his chronicler, who alone can tell thee of his saga.
Let me tell you of the days of high adventure!
Adventure comic strips
Comics in general—artwork presented in linear sequence—has a long history, in many forms. The modern era, in newspapers (long before comic books) is believed to begin in the late nineteenth century with the strip The Yellow Kid. Comics printed on Sundays came in color.
Some took up entire pages, such as the fantasy series Little Nemo in Slumberland. Adventure strips were well suited for this format.
In 1929, Tarzan and Buck Rogers debuted in newspapers. There were precedents, but these two are considered the ones where adventure strips took off.
The website for Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burroughs describes the Tarzan strip as one in which “readers found Tarzan’s adventures with ancient Egyptians, modern criminals, Vikings, dinosaurs, killer apes, and a slew of provocative queens and princesses mesmerizing.” As for Buck Rogers, the Encyclopedia Britannica says it “introduced and popularized such science-fiction paraphernalia and concepts as ray guns, robots, and rocket ships that previously had been written about only in pulp magazines.”
The thirties and forties saw a rise in this genre, with strips like Flash Gordon, Terry and the Pirates, Scorchy Smith, Rip Kirby and Steve Canyon. They took the reader to faraway places, around this world and other, imaginary ones. They also reflected the growing emergence of the United States as a world power.
Among them was Prince Valiant.
Harold Foster: from Tarzan to Prince Valiant
Canadian artist Harold Foster created PV. Foster was a notable illustrator in Chicago, creating magazine covers and ads for, among others, Popular Mechanics and the Southern Pacific and Illinois Pacific Railroads.
In 1928, Foster, selected by his Chicago advertising studio, adapted Tarzan for the comic strip in Britain. Months later, in 1929, the strip came to America. He illustrated it until 1937 (minus one year, 1930), but others wrote it. Despite Tarzan’s success, the lack of story input irked Foster, who wanted a character of his own.
He developed PV in his spare time. When Tarzan ended, Foster took his proposed new strip to William Randolph Hearst’s King Features Syndicate, who offered full creative control and ownership.
PV premiered in 1937. It told a continuous story of a prince who grows to become an Arthurian knight of the Round Table. He helps his father regain his usurped throne. Later, PV travels the world, marries, and has children. Foster’s intricate, detailed artwork created a fantasy world which combined magical elements with real-life events, such as the sacking of Rome.
The strip first in Saturday newspapers, then in Sunday papers, in color.
It took up a full page.
Full-page newspaper strips
Full-page strips allowed for greater storytelling possibilities. Little Nemo, for example, experimented with panel sizes and layout, owing to the genius of artist Winsor McCay.
Other strips, like Alley Oop, Buck Rogers, and Thimble Theater used full pages. Sometimes there was a smaller “topper” strip above or below the main strip.
With PV, Foster also used different page layouts. Like Tarzan, he eschewed word balloons in favor of text, integrated in the panels with the art.
The decline of adventure strips
Post-war, the changed world, one more sophisticated and less black-and-white, not to mention changes in newspaper strip format (more ads, for example, plus more comics per page) and the emergence of television to depict the world on a regular basis, led to a decline in adventure strips.
After Hearst died in 1951, Foster’s editors insisted on smaller PV installments. He worked with assistants, including his son Arthur. Foster continued drawing PV until 1971. He stopped drawing the strip, but continued writing it and laying it out. Other artists drew it after him.
Foster died in 1982. No less than King Edward VIII called PV the “greatest contribution to English literature in the past hundred years.”
PV and other adventure strips remain today, though not in as grand a format as before. This 2024 article highlights a few.
———
Have you read Prince Valiant? Leave a comment and let me know!
Share if you liked this post
⬇️
No comments:
Post a Comment