Say, that Demon looks familiar
Here are two Sunday PRINCE VALIANT pages from December 1937. The word "epic" has been so trivialized that it's hardly useful anymore. Maybe it should be retired for a generation until it regains some of its power. In any case, PRINCE VALIANT actually was an epic in the original sense. Looking over Harold Foster's gorgeous art and getting into the solid storytelling, I'm struck by how well-done it was and how it was just one of a dozen strips you could read every week as part of your newspaper. It looks as if newspapers are declining fast and may soon be just a minor curiosity to a relative handful of readers. But certainly, as far as Sunday comics go, newspapers are just a faint echo of what they once were.
So. The young and idealistic Val is trying to prove himself to the knights at Arthur's court and he applies himself to ridding the land of the oppressive "Ogre," a lord who rules his turf through terror. Catching a goose, Valiant fashions a disguise from its body....
He then goes on to throw the deceased Ogre's soldiers into panic by taunting them as this demonic figure, appearing briefly from the shadows, swinging overhead and cackling, getting on their nerves big time.
Well, looks like Prince Valiant is not out of trouble yet, judging by that last panel. Actually, he would go on every Sunday until 1971 under Foster's crafting. The strip wasn't just about daring duels and huge battles in every land (although there was plenty of that). Val married and raised a son, and family drama (and family comedy) were just as important to the story. PRINCE VALIANT was excessively well-done and remains a high point of American comics. Now, in 1972, Jack Kirby drew on Foster's art for an image. Kirby's Fourth World saga had been skewered and aborted at DC, so he created a pair of new titles which (while still good and whose characters are still being used today) were essentially throw-aways for him. One was KAMANDI. The other was about Merlin's servant, a rascal named Etrigan (who looked identical to Prince Valiant's impromptu disguise back in 1937).