Camera-ready comic art drawing for Prince Valiant

This pen-and-ink drawing produced for the Prince Valiant comic strip discusses an oncoming army ready to invade Britain, and shows Prince Valiant going out to warn his countrymen.

Harold Rudolf "Hal" Foster (1892-1982) was a Canadian-born comic artist. In 1928, after studying art in Chicago, he created the Tarzan comic strip, based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs novels. Foster then created Prince Valiant and was hired by William Randolph Hearst. He continued drawing the strip until he chose John Cullen Murphy to succeed him by 1971. Murphy began officially writing the strip in 1975 as well.

Prince Valiant (1937- ) tells the story of the 5th-century character named Val who is haunted by a prophecy of exploits and unhappiness. After an early storyline dealing with the death of his mother, Val meets King Arthur and Lancelot, and then becomes a knight. Prince Valiant eventually marries Queen Aleta of the Misty Isles but shortly after their wedding Aleta is kidnapped and subsequent strips see Val traveling around the world to find her. In 1946 the tale includes the reunion of the couple in the New World at Niagara Falls. Prince Valiant appeared in comic book form in 1941. The story was the subject of a feature film in 1954.

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