The Sunday Funnies - Prince Valiant 1959-1960!

The eleventh volume of Prince Valiant Sunday strips from Fantagraphics gets the vintage series into the 1960's, a heady journey from the depths of the 30's. The strip having completed its first story has been telling of the aftermath really of the joining of Prince Valiant of Camelot and Queen Aleta of the Misty Isles, and this tome is no different. 

The focus is definitely on Valiant though as we pick up the tale of him posing as a minstrel to help free his longtime friend and former mentor Sir Gawain from a somewhat hapless minor King holding him for ransom. This is done and the pair intentionally take a more hazardous route back to Camelot and during this they help bring together a young couple of lovers who have more stars in their eyes than sense in their heads, and they help defeat a dangerous bully knight or two along the way. Once back in Camelot Valiant is quickly dispatched again to discover why some outlaws have taken Camelot's tax money and he finds no outlaws but merely put upon men and corrupt nobles. When he returns he and Aleta have a falling out which results in Valiant giving her a spanking. 

He leaves again on a second mission to discover information on the Holy Grail. This takes him into some far regions where he encounters an ogre who is not an ogre, and holy men attempting to build a cathedral at the site of the first Christian chapel in all Briton. He is forced to battle an evil noble named Timmera the Terrible who proves without his warriors to be not so terrible after all. He ultimately learns from Saint Patrick that the Holy Grail is a symbol and that the knights who go in search of inspire those who seek the faith. Upon returning to report his findings, Val and Aleta still are cold to one another and this makes Valiant a most ferocious warrior until he is seriously wounded and the couple make up at last. 

It is just in time for Aleta and her family to return to her kingdom of Misty Isles to attend to matters there. Arn returns from his foster home and the whole family head South assisted by Boltar the Viking chief. When they arrive in Aleta's kingdom they find it under threat but using cunning to forestall that threat and strengthen the land overall. 

There is a soft change in the storytelling it seems in these strips with the relationshp between Val and Aleta becoming somewhat more realistic (if that's possible) and less ideal. The family feels more real in many ways. It will be interesting to see what the 1960's bring. 

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