ashleylm's review
4.0
I'm sure I like these now, more than I would have liked these then, had I been around. I find Val's alarming Louise Brooks hairstyle disconcerting, and most of his gentlemen and lady friends look like they've come straight out of the 1910s—pop any of them into Ozma of Oz, illustrated in 1907, and they wouldn't look amiss.
And yet these comics were written and drawn in the late 1930s, so these looks were highly unfashionable (and of course, not remotely how people dressed in the fifth century).
Anyway, setting that aside, this are extraordinarily well-depicted—he's a better artist than he is writer, IMO—and the reproductions are faultless (so much so that in the third volume, when the publishers had some difficulty obtaining perfection, they apologized in the preface. I can't see any problems with the pages they're embarrassed about!)
The writing can get a little repetitive (and the author knows it, e.g. "and so, for the third time, Val escaped by wearing the uniform of his pursuer" (or words to that effect)). Val's a bit too violent for my taste (I'm a modern man, so solving your problems by killing everyone strikes me as reductive, although perhaps occasionally necessary in 5th century Europe).
But it's all worth it for the most glorious images. To think he was cranking out several of those each week, when one such illustration would occupy several days for me, and turn out not nearly as nicely!
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s.)
And yet these comics were written and drawn in the late 1930s, so these looks were highly unfashionable (and of course, not remotely how people dressed in the fifth century).
Anyway, setting that aside, this are extraordinarily well-depicted—he's a better artist than he is writer, IMO—and the reproductions are faultless (so much so that in the third volume, when the publishers had some difficulty obtaining perfection, they apologized in the preface. I can't see any problems with the pages they're embarrassed about!)
The writing can get a little repetitive (and the author knows it, e.g. "and so, for the third time, Val escaped by wearing the uniform of his pursuer" (or words to that effect)). Val's a bit too violent for my taste (I'm a modern man, so solving your problems by killing everyone strikes me as reductive, although perhaps occasionally necessary in 5th century Europe).
But it's all worth it for the most glorious images. To think he was cranking out several of those each week, when one such illustration would occupy several days for me, and turn out not nearly as nicely!
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s.)
doowopapocalypse's review
5.0
For some reason, Foster's work is remembered mostly for an unattractive haircut, but both his story-telling and art is top notch. I vaguely remember being put off by re-prints of Prince Valiant in the comic section of the Sunday paper, but here in this beautiful over-sized, everything is full-bore pulp. Foster deserves mention in the same breath as Kirby, Howard, and Dumas.
tiggum's review
4.0
The section where Valiant is fighting the Huns drags on a bit but things really pick up when he gets to Rome.
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