PRINCE VALIANT - VOL. 3 - 1941-1942

With this volume, Foster reaches (by common critical consensus) the peak of his drawing and storytelling prowess—a peak at which he will remains for most of the run of this glorious strip.

Almost the entirety of 1941’s strips feature a single ten-month epic entitled “Fights for the Singing Sword,” a globetrotting adventure fueled by Valiant’s obsessive search for his bride-to-be Aleta throughout Northern Africa, with stops in Jerusalem, the Arabic deserts, and, inevitably, a harem which Val must infiltrate. Then finally, in “The Misty Isles” Valiant meets Aleta face to face but upon learning that she has had his crew killed (deservedly so, actually, but still), he flees in anger, vowing never to see her again.