Blood and Tears — Hal Foster

The greatest adventure epic since Beowulf continues in this full-color series. Hal Foster's Prince Valiant, about a noble knight in the days of King Arthur, began in newspapers in 1937 and continues to this day. It was Foster (1892-1982) who introduced illustrative techniquesand the sensibilities and standards of such greats as Howard Pyleto the comics page. Realistic depictions and sophisticated compositions had been curiously absent before him. Fantagraphics' deluxe, full-color library editions of Prince Valiant each feature close to a year's worth of full-page Sunday strips, with this volume collecting strips from 1973-1974, written and roughed-out by Foster and finished by Foster's prodigious assistant, John Cullen Murphy, who took over much of the strip in 1971 and continues with it today.