Prince Valiant (Fantagraphics)

All comic strip content in this series is reproduced from Foster's original engraver's proofs, in full original; and the original coloring has been restored in a reproduction for the first time. Previous collections of Prince Valiant have never had such good material as a base for reproduction.[2][3][4] These proofs were ones preserved by Foster himself and, after his passing, donated to Syracuse University, which provided Fantagraphics with scans of these proofs for this collection. Recent advancements in digital color technology now permit a better and more faithful reproduction compared to previous Prince Valiant collections, e.g. the Nostalgia Press' collection from the 1960s and Fantagraphics Books previous trade paperback collection published between 1984 and 2004. These earlier collections did recolor the comic strip but not accordingly to the appearance it had in newspapers when first published. The line work of these older collections also appear subpar to that in this latest Fantagraphics' Prince Valiant collection.[5]

While the volumes of this book collection measure 10.25 by 14 inches (260 mm × 356 mm), the original newspaper publication of the comic strip were usually printed on a full broadsheet page, where it appeared measuring 15 by 22.75 inches (381 mm × 578 mm). The largest reproduction of Prince Valiant, yet, is in the Artist's Edition book: Fantagraphics Studio Edition: Hal Foster's Prince Valiant, ISBN 978-1-60699-897-7, also published by Fantagraphics Books, measuring 17 by 23.25 inches (432 mm × 591 mm).[6] Hal Foster originally drew a whole Prince Valiant Sunday page on paper stock measuring 26 by 35 inches (660 mm × 890 mm), which makes this collection series' area size equal to about 16 percent of the original art size.[7]

The supplementary material features interviews with comic historians and with Hal Foster himself, original artwork,[8] essays,[9] biographical sketches by Hal Foster, as well as galleries of dropped panels (those deemed too risqué or violent). In the fourth volume, spanning the years 1943 to 1944, the comic strip tale The Medieval Castle, a separate strip Foster drew, is included. This strip was a tale he drew when he split up the page he was allowed for the Prince Valiant strip during the Second World War, due to a paper shortage and newspaper space being at a premium, splitting his full one-page spread between three-quarters of a page for Prince Valiant and one-quarter for The Medieval Castle, in order to make it easy for editors to remove the non-Prince Valiant strip to free-up space for something of greater importance in wartime. The plot of The Medieval Castle revolves around the childhood and life of two young princes in a medieval castle.[10]