[Prince Valiant] FOSTER, Harold Rudolf

Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur. Number 1, May 1954 to Number 20, February 1956 [all published]

Sydney, Associated Newspapers Ltd, 1954 to 1956 [first edition thus].

Quarto, 20 numbers bound with their original colour-pictorial wrappers in one volume, with each number comprising 24 pages (32 pages in the last one) of black and white comic strip artwork on acidic newsprint.

Later synthetic binder's cloth (lettered in gilt on the spine) lightly marked; front cover of the first issue slightly creased, with a short sealed tear to the leading margin (and to two other leading margins elsewhere); a few trifling signs of use and age, with the acidic paper lightly tanned, but overall in near-fine condition throughout, albeit slightly trimmed.

Canadian-born cartoonist Harold Rudolf (Hal) Foster (1892-1982) created the long-running 'Prince Valiant'; it began in full-color tabloid sections in Hearst newspapers on 13 February 1937. Foster's direct involvement ceased in 1980, but the strip has been continued by other artists and authors to this day. 'The main character was a Viking prince taken as a child from his homeland to the medieval England of King Arthur. Beautifully drawn, the strip was an exciting re-creation of the period, rich with carefully researched details of armour, dwellings, and scenery' ('Encyclopedia Britannica'). Wikipedia suggests otherwise: 'The historical and mythological elements of "Prince Valiant" were initially chaotic, but soon Foster attempted to bring the facts into order. Many elements of the story place it in the fifth century ... The storyline is by no means historically accurate. While obviously meant to take place during the Later Roman Empire, Foster incorporated anachronistic elements: Viking Longships, knights, Muslims, alchemists and technological advances not made before the Renaissance. The fortifications, dresses, armor [sic] and armament resemble the High Middle Ages rather than the fifth century'. Complete sets of this Australian edition are scarce.