Overview

The first of a new six-volume series collecting the sketches and notes behind Hal Foster's creation of the Prince Valiant comic strip. In the works for several years, Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant Sketchbooks: An Illustrated Memoir presents never-before-published Prince Valiant art by the strip's legendary creator, Hal Foster, collected in a series of six annotated portfolio volumes. Part sketchbooks, part biography, part tutorial, part memoir¯Hal Foster's Prince Valiant Sketchbooks is an unprecedented look into Foster's personal life and creative process during his final nine years on the strip. It's also a fascinating look behind the curtains as Foster coached and interacted with his chosen successor: John Cullen Murphy. Produced with the full permission and participation of the Foster and Murphy families, this series is a testament to author and Prince Valiant historian Brian M. Kane's research prowess and determination to bring Hal Foster's creative process to light. This uniquely intimate view of Foster's creative process is a long-awaited dream come true for Prince Valiant fans. Over the course of these volumes, Kane annotates with painstaking clarity and thoroughness 366 penciled layout pages, 40 character sketches, and 577 text pages of Foster's descriptions and instructions for each panel. Also featured are an additional 143 pieces of art, mostly by Foster, 100 photographs detailing his life and career, and 123 personal letters and notes, all adding immeasurably to this exploration of Foster's life and art, as well as his collaboration with Murphy. Full-color illustrations throughout

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9798875001192

Table of Contents

Reviews

Every week from 1971-1979, Foster gave Murphy a detailed, descriptive panel-by-panel text page, a page of succinct but elegant panel captions that elevated the narrative around the visuals without describing them, a page of beautifully rendered pencil layouts, and, occasionally, a more fully rendered sketch for a new character he was introducing. Hal loved Prince Valiant of Thule ('Val'), his wife, Queen Aleta of the Misty Isles, and all the other personalities that lived in this world he created. They were as real to him as his own family and friends, and, in some inexplicable way, he was simply transcribing the stories they told him.--Brian M. Kane, from his introduction

There is one exceptional side-by-side example though: a comparison of Foster's final drawn Valiant strip as it appeared in newspapers, right next to the same strip later watercolored by Foster as a gift to his son. The difference between the garish, non-gradiated newspaper colors and Foster's delicate, heavenly watercolors is so extreme that I'll never look at a newspaper strip collection the same way.-- ""Cinema Sentries"" Every week from 1971-1979, Foster gave Murphy a detailed, descriptive panel-by-panel text page, a page of succinct but elegant panel captions that elevated the narrative around the visuals without describing them, a page of beautifully rendered pencil layouts, and, occasionally, a more fully rendered sketch for a new character he was introducing. Hal loved Prince Valiant of Thule ('Val'), his wife, Queen Aleta of the Misty Isles, and all the other personalities that lived in this world he created. They were as real to him as his own family and friends, and, in some inexplicable way, he was simply transcribing the stories they told him.--Brian M. Kane, from his introduction

Author Information

Hal Foster (1892-1982) created Prince Valiant in 1937. Though remaining involved with the strip until his death in 1982, Foster handed the bulk of the scripting and art chores over to his longtime assistant, John Cullen Murphy, in 1971. Brian M. Kane is a comics historian and adjunct professor at Ohio State University. He edited 18 volumes of Fantagraphics' collection of the Prince Valiant strip, as well as The Prince Valiant Companion.

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