posted May 13, 2003 01:59 PM               

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Originally posted by James Friel:
Well, 40 volumes of his Prince Valiant, collecting his whole 36 year run on the strip, have been published by Fantagraphics. Not all are in print at any given moment, but it shouldn't be too hard to find most or all of them between a good comic shop and eBay.
I think he was the finest illustrator ever to do comics. You've got a real treat ahead of you.

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I have been thinking of trying these for a while, but have been put off by the high price tag. For those of you who have read them, do any of the volumes stand out? Any with heavy sorcery or wizardry would be very cool.

posted May 14, 2003 12:11 AM            

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Originally posted by vze2:
I am way, way, behind, so I can't recommend any volumes from first-hand experience. However, Fantagraphics started with volumes 34-40. Presumably, they started with the best material.

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Fantagraphhics started with Volume 26 actually. By and large the earlier volumes (i..e., low numbers not 26 etc.) have more fantasy. Foster steered away from that after a while.

posted May 14, 2003 12:25 AM               

As far as the sorcery goes, it's all smoke and mirrors. Valiant learns "magic" from Merlin and it's David Copperfield not HP Lovecraft.

11 is my all time favorite volume. It has the most touching and adult romantic scenes I've ever scene in comics.

The art starts to come into it's own around v.7. It's perfect around 17-30. The earlier volumes are more interesting w/the romance between Val and Aleta, the voyage to America, and their growing family.

posted May 14, 2003 01:15 PM               

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Originally posted by James Friel:
And while we're on the subject of swipes, has anyone else wondered about all the swipes--excuse me, "homages"--in Generations 3?
When the hell did Byrne stop being an avatar of Kirby and start channeling Gil Kane?

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You know, I thought I was alone in seeing that. So much of the anatomy just screams Kane, which is quite unusual for Byrne.

posted May 14, 2003 07:06 PM            

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Originally posted by Lee Semmens:
How did artists get away with swiping from others?
After all, it really is a form of cheating, the artistic equivalent of plagiarism.

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There are some cultures even today that don't understand the concept of intellectual property. Students from these cultures have a hard time understanding why it is wrong to plagiarize.

I pretty much agree with what James said, but I'd like to emphasize that in my opinion, the majority of Americans in the Golden Age probably did not feel the same way about intellectual property that we do today. For one thing, the percentage of Americans attending some form of college today is probably greater than the percentage of Americans graduating from high school during the early forties.