Matt Seneca writes passionately about the latest volume of the reprinted Prince Valiant (1943-44). Damn right he is I say!

Of course, critical judgments of a comic stop mattering once you read it. A few pages into the fourth of Fantagraphics’ beautifully reprinted new editions of Hal Foster’s masterpiece and it’s difficult indeed to remember that this isn’t the greatest comic ever.

Prince Valiant does not tend to shape up to contemporary laboratory theories about what 'comics' is supposed to be, which is a shame. Here's part of a favourite sequence of mine. These three panels are actually taken each from a separate Sunday page over three weeks in early 1956, not from the book Matt is reviewing but from a 1979 Pacific Comics Club reprinting. Those guys paid no attention to the original colouring, but never mind that for now. Vikings are ransacking the fort, where Aleta is. Val and his party are returning from somewhere and they hasten to the rescue. The impatient Val decides to go down the mountain more or less vertically.