Prince Valiant, Vol. 4: 1943-1944 (PRINCE VALIANT HC)

I am so happy to have found this; what a great way to pass the cold, wet, winter days than to cozy up on the couch with the cat and one of these books. I never really paid much attention to Prince Valiant before, but for some reason over the past year I had been drawn to it every time I flipped through the comics section of the sunday paper when I would find it by chance at a coffee shop. A few times, I guiltily cut out the strip from the paper with my swiss army knife scissors and took it home, so appealing was the art work. I know the new strip is done by a different artist, but it still caught my eye, and eventually, I checked on Amazon and was amazed to find all these great books by the original artist being reprinted.The format, layout, and printing is really top-notch. These books are a pleasure to hold, behold, and read.The artwork is mesmerizing, especially the scenes of trees, forests, rivers, oceans, and mountains. Nothing is static, all of Foster's art seems to move, to be alive, even though it is "just" comic strip art. I especially love Hal Foster's touch when it comes to his treatment of boats and water scenes of all kinds; just magical.I find the scenes really relaxing, and inspiring, reminding me of my own "adventures," when I was younger, though mine rarely involved swords and battle axes.

About 40 years ago, my father get two Nostalgia Press books of Prince Valiant. I loved the strip, but the binding was terrible, and they only had about 3-4 years worth of strips. I've been looking for extend the collection every since, but reprints were all terrible and often B&W and abridged. When Fantagraphics reprinted the entire run about a decade ago, I got some, but they were hard to find and were paperback.These new books are literally something I've been looking for for my entire life.These new books have vinyl covers, which are a little cheap, but much more durable than the paperbacks. More importantly, the comics are beautiful. The printing is a little larger than the old Nostalgia books, and the coloring is better. This was obviously a labor of love. Where I have over-laps, I've compared the coloring and printing. The Nostalgia books better reflect the words in the story and often color in scenes that were all blocked in one color in the older book.I bought the first one for $80 and was immediately ready to shell out that much for each. To find them for only $14 was an added bonus.If you already love Prince Valiant, buy them without hesitation.If you've read it in the newspaper but weren't impressed, buy it and you'll understand why it is considered such a classic -- the old Hal Foster stips were soooooo much better than the ones today.

It was a great pleasure to get another volume of the early Prince Valiant pages. When I was a young man I took the train from the suburbs to the Boston Public Library to view the bound copies of the Boston Post (just to look at the Hal Foster Tarzan and Prince Valiant pages); I would walk through history Sunday by Sunday, copying stunning images in an attempt to capture their beauty with my own pen and ink. At some point it was all transferred to microfilm (I think), but you just can't beat full color on paper. I am very happy that Syracuse University made these great pages available to Fantagraphics Books.In the end, I gave up on my youthful ambition to become a cartoonist, but I never lost my love of the fabulous artwork. I miss the look and feel of the newsprint (not to mention the full newspaper size), but feel very fortunate to have another volume of Prince Valiant on my shelf, available whenever the mood strikes me to look at Hal Foster's great artwork. I also found the extra materials, especially the article about the Medieval Castle, to be very interesting and informative.

Hal Foster's glorious saga has been captured here in full color - together with his full text. Arthurian lore is wed together with a heroic quest across the expanse of much of the known world of olden days.I like The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Star Wars, and Harry Potter, but I was raised on Prince Valiant, and I prefer his adventures to all that came after him!I look forward to 2 volumes each year (one for my birthday, and one for Christmas) until I have all Foster's work on this adventure strip (can't rightly call it a cartoon, can you?). I'm 66 now: will I make it? I don't really care- I'm just avidly looking forward to the next Prince Valiant book, exactly as I used to tear into the Sunday funnies each week!

The original art work of Hal Foster is quite extraordinary. I purchased the first four volumes of Fantagraphic's Books Inc. Prince Valiant saga. I was not disappointed. The art work was awesome! I am eagerly awaiting "Prince Valiant Volume V". I conducted a side-by-side comparison of Mr. Foster's art work and storylines with the work of the current artists and writers presenting Prince Valiant in our Sunday newspaper. Suffice it to say that it wasn't a contest. When looking at a frame of Mr. Foster's work, I instinctively knew I was looking at the work of a master artist. The scenes are depicted with such minute detail that it was very pleasing to the eye, much like a high megapixel camera photograph or an HD TV as opposed to a SD TV. I will obtain all of Fantafraphic's Prince Valiant books. These books should be used as exemplars of what a comic strip should look like.

I bought copies of this book for 2 or my sons, who have loved Prince Valiant since they were kids. They were disappointed on Christmas, because the books were not in stock at that time, and so I bought them #5 and 6 instead, with the promise that Volume 4 was to come. The reproduction of the artwork is very nice, and the book has a nice feel to it. If you're a fan of Prince Valiant, this entire series is not to be missed.

Credo che, insieme a quella di Ciscato, questa sia la miglior versione di Prince Valiant si sia mai vista, quella gigante di Nerbini era semplicemente inguardabile e quella di Conti presentava volumi di troppe pagine per poterle apprezzare con il brossurato, qui siamo al mix giusto; se amate il personaggio se volete un'edizione degna di una Biblioteca di classe ve la consiglio altamente, pagine bianchissime, colori vividi carta di ottima qualità, insomma la miscela giusta per il successo...prendeteli senza indugio

Hal Foster delivers here some stunning pages, perfectly crafted, a relief for sore eyes. His storytelling is light and inventive as usual, far from the complexities of other characters, but still highly enjoyable. A must have for everyone who appreciates the compelling beauty of his drawings.

Malgré, semble-t-il, un retard provoqué par les douanes, l'album est arrivé à bon port. Comme d'habitude, il est superbe ( L'éditeur Anglais a fait un travail phénoménal). Merci aussi au vendeur. Et merci également au contact Amazon, sa réactivité et sa gentillesse sont très rassurantes.

muy contento con el libro y es perfecto. El producto se corresponde plenamente con mis espectativas y les estoy muy agradecido por ello. Gracias por todo

Fantastic series, highly recommended for anyone that loves medieval adventures!