What’s Going On In Prince Valiant? Is Aleta trying to shoo Valiant away? October – December 2023

Oh, surely not. She loves the hero of Mark Schultz and Thomas Yeates’s Prince Valiant and would get less screen time without him. But in the interlude between the two stories this plot recap covers, we do get word from Camelot and it’s going surprisingly well ever since Valiant got away from it. Maeve and Aleta make an awesome regency. The Eastern Saxons have been held to Londinium. Nathan is, well, Nathan. Ingrid is, well, Ingrid. The coffee crop failed but everything else is bountiful. So there’s no reason they should hurry home. Heck, if you get the offer why not take a trip to Hibernia or something? Australia maybe? Valiant hasn’t been to Australia yet, has he? Maybe try there?

So this should catch you up to the end of the year (2023, our time) in Prince Valiant. If, for you, it’s after about March 2024, you may find a more up-to-date ancient scroll here. Or any news about the comic strip, in case some breaks out. It hasn’t produced any drama to speak of that I’ve heard about in years but you never know, right? Back now to the time of King Arthur …

Prince Valiant.

8 October – 31 December 2023.

Prince Valiant and his son Arn, sent out to what’s now Wales to fix all the warfare with Saxon invaders, were trying out kidnapping. Baedwulf, leader of the small band of Saxons who’ve been making life hard for the Gwynedd folks, likes the spunk Valiant and Arn show here. And he and Caitrin, one of the Gwynedd locals who’s married a Saxon, lay out the sad facts. Camelot hasn’t got the manpower to spare to drive out the Saxons. There isn’t enough geld in all the Danes to get the Saxon mainland interested in sending reinforcements. They can keep bleeding each other to death or they can stop fighting and have fish fry together.

Eating without death sounds good. There’s some fiddly little details to work out and Valiant’s amazed to watch how much fun Arn has doing that. And then Galahad arrives, bearing news from Camelot. Turns out since he, Valiant, and Arn left things have been going great. He can head go out any way he likes, away from Camelot.

Mark Schultz and Thomas Yeates’s Prince Valiant for the 19th of November, 2023. This turn of events brings up something I didn’t realize I was missing in Prince Valiant, but the appearance of the ambiguous, ominous mystical world is doing a lot to make the story more real and vivid to me. I’m not saying I want the strip to entirely become one of magic and fairy stuff, but bit of that makes a great boost.

And there’s reason to head out. Baedwulf and Caitrin’s sister Bronwyn saw an omen over some boat construction. Baedwulf says a beautiful cat appeared on the boat, and then in the sky, Freo, goddess of love, appeared. Bronwyn says no, it was the demon Cath Palug, harbinger of despair. Caitryn interrogates Bronwyn, establishing that the cat departed to her left. So that’s great, because that means they’re blessed, not cursed. And Baedwulf declares it’s a sign he must go to Hibernia, to present his betrothed — Bronwyn — to his lord and see if this whole “food, rather than death” thing sounds good to them too.

So it’s a journey to the west for Valiant and Arn, and more, including a stowaway cat. There’s what Baedwulf insists are selkies in the water, but you’ll get a certain amount of that on any sea voyage. A change in the wind pushes them off course, though, and they come ashore in a deserted fishing village. Well, they’ve got whole hours before sunset and probably Valiant’s Singing Sword just does that vibrating now and then. You know how they are.

Next Week!

Which of five generations of characters is going to be Santa Claus this year? And why the heck are they doing it in Charlotte, North Carolina? I ask the tough questions about Jim Scancarelli’s Gasoline Alley next week and probably come out learning about some weird Lum and Abner clone I never heard of before next week.

What’s Going On In Prince Valiant? Why is King Arthur a monk? January – April 2023

For all I talk about the story strips, I didn’t pay serious, regular attention to them until a couple years ago. There’s a lot of backstory I didn’t know because I never saw it and Wikipedia doesn’t get decent updates. Part of why I do “What’s Going On In” articles is to fill that gap for other people.

When Prince Valiant returned from his journey out to Asia, the strip mentioned how Arn and Maeve were co-regents of Camelot. King Arthur’s absense now has an explanation that I know. He retired to a monastery, where he could shelter from the trauma of leadership in a place of rhythm and structure. But as we also see, he’s ready to step in when he must deal with mundane problems.

This should catch you up to late April 2023 in Mark Schultz and Thomas Yeates’s Prince Valiant. If you’re reading this , after about July 2023 there should be a more up-to-date plot recap for you here. Thanks for reading.

Prince Valiant.

29 January – 23 April 2023.

With Dialyodd the Witch Hunter dead, slain by a fortuitous hail of stones from the sky, Prince Valiant looks to the aftermath. The math he wants after: what secret pact did Camelot have with the fanatic Dialyodd that he could go around burning accused witches? He’s in a good position to demand this of the regents of Camelot, as they’re his son Arn and daughter-in-law Maeve.

Arn’s reasoning is dreadful in its practicality. Saxons are attacking the west coast with greater intensity. Dialyodd defended Camelot in exchange for religious liberty that Arn didn’t know included burning women and children. Or claims not to have known, anyway. Arn throws his father out. And then throws himself out. He vacates his co-regency, recommending Queen Aleta take his place while he’s not there. Valiant knows where he’s gone.

Mark Schultz and Thomas Yeates’s Prince Valiant for the 12th of March, 2023. I am enjoying this story a good bit. It’s doing well at filling in backstory to the witch-hunter story that explains why Dialyodd would have been in the position he was. And to explore how someone can rationalize their way into a bad situation because there aren’t available ways to do better.

It’s to the monastery where King Arthur retired. Arthur understands Arn’s doubts about his own judgement. He offers that a ruler needs to know something of the conditions on the ground, and Arn might do well to get back to adventuring. Before Arn can consider the advice, Valiant arrives. Arthur won’t put up with their bickering and tells them what they need. It’s a father-son bonding trip, out to the west coast to see how Dialyodd got to where he could protect Camelot and kill women.

They journey west. Their first night camping in what we call Wales they encounter a pack of 1d4 wolves, scared off by fire. Further along they find what seems to be a shepherd’s home in good order, except for having no sheep, or anything but 1d6 drunk Saxon warriors inside. Arn and Valiant have no trouble capturing the Saxons. The prisoners spin a story that they’ve done no harm to anyone. They’d come that far inland searching for food, as the coast is starving, torn by war between mad lords.

And that’s what we know of the situation out west. Next week: to the sea.

Next Week!

For Prince Valiant that’s to the sea, anyway. For us, it’s to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania? Enjoy a classic Bob Newhart routine with Jim Scancarelli’s Gasoline Alley next week, if all goes well.

What’s Going On In Prince Valiant? Why are you angry at Prince Valiant of all things? October 2022 – January 2023

The last couple months of Mark Schultz and Thomas Yeates’s Prince Valiant have been about freeing people from a witch-hunter. The catch is that in the Prince Valiant world there are witches. And people have good reason to be afraid of them. A couple months ago we saw Morgan Le Fay bring a flood to London, killing dozens, for her (and Valiant and others with them) to escape. This story we saw witches call down asteroids from the skies to kill their would-be tormentor.

So this is what has me angry. It’s the same thing I can’t swallow about the movie Hocus Pocus or certain episodes of Sabrina the Teenaged Witch. I grant the dramatic irony of witch hunters in a world where witches really exist, especially if (as far as we can tell) they go after the completely innocent. But the moral outrage of witch-hunting is people letting their own fears and imagination and prejudices into actual persecution. Make witches real and present and actively working against the witch-hunter, and you have a hard time not trivializing this injustice. I know, it’s just a story. But we have enough trouble with would-be witch-hunters without so many stories building on the idea that sometimes they’re in the right.

All this should catch you up to late January 2023 in Prince Valiant, though. If you’re reading this after about April 2023 I likely have a more up-to-date plot recap here. And there’s still a nice solid story rolling through here, interesting despite my objections.

Prince Valiant.

23 October 2022 – 22 January 2023.

Dialyodd the witch-hunter was about to set fire to Afton, one of a couple women very good at their farm work, just because Aleta, Queen of the Witches, declared her to be under her protection. Yeubar, alongside Prince Valiant’s son Nathan, swarmed the scene with bees. It’s a great opportunity to free Afton in the chaos of the moment that doesn’t work. Dialyodd spots a great chance to burn three devils now. He assures a cautious mob member that Camelot will have nothing to say about burning Nathan.

Audrey, Afton’s partner, does escape the chaos and get back to Camelot. She’s able to summon one cavalry: Valiant and Galahad gallop off to the scene. She also gets another, though. Aleta, Queen of the Witches, tells Maeve and Audrey they have work to do too. While Dialyodd gathers a nice big party together at a megalithic temple (I suppose Stonehenge, though for all I know it could be another ancient stone circle), Aleta gathers ingredients and allies. With Sebel, who I totally know who that is, and Morgan Le Fay they cast a spell calling for the sky to come to Earth, and let like find like.

Mark Schultz and Thomas Yeates’s Prince Valiant for the 25th of December, 2022. I quite liked this twist, by the way, as something which seems to come from nowhere but which also makes sense. And something which should make Valiant’s life more complicated from here; there’s something exciting about a plan that should settle one problem going completely awry. What I don’t know is if Galahad knew about this before getting on-scene, or how much he did know.

Valiant and Galahand charge into the demon-burning. Valiant’s taken aback when Dialyodd complains of Camelot breaking its pact with him. Dialyodd claims Camelot agreed to not interfere with his crusade in exchange for protecting the western shores from Saxon invasion. Galahad says if that’s true they should keep the children but leave. Valiant is too angry to care, and attacks Dialyodd. He doesn’t kill the witch-hunter, though. The Orionid meteor shower does it first, sending a meteor through Dialyodd’s heart. It’s a heck of an accomplishment, given that the Orionid meteor shower wasn’t discovered until 1839. (It’s one of a couple meteor showers created by Halley’s Comet, by the way.) If the text is right that these are the Orionids, the story is happening in October, by the way.

It’s convenient to our heroes to have the witch-hunter out of the way. But having the stars fall from the sky to shoot him through the heart seems unlikely to convince people that Dialyodd was wrong. And Morgan Le Fay sneaks out to Stonehenge, finds the stone that killed Dialyodd, and brings it back to her castle. So that might be leading somewhere.

But where that does lead is to this week’s comics. You know now what’s been doing on the last several months, in slightly less time than it would take to read yourself. When I get back to the strip around April we’ll be able to say whether this thread continues, or whether we’re on a new adventure.

Next Week!

Speaking of new adventures, how did that story of the small-time mobster trying to be an actor in a comic-strip-based-musical turn out? And how did it turn into a counterfeit Leonardo da Vinci painting? And did we really get there by way of a furry convention? We’ll get to Mike Curtis, Shelley Pleger, and Shane Fisher’s Dick Tracy next week, all going well. See you then.

What’s Going On In Prince Valiant? Where is King Arthur that Arn and Maeve are regents? May – August 2022

I haven’t caught it, sorry. Arn — Valiant’s son — and Maeve are the regents of Camelot, I learned in June. Valiant reports to them when he gets back from the sojourn that saw him escort Morgan Le Fay to safety. But how they got set up there goes back to before I was reading the strip with an eye toward remembering plots. If someone knows, please leave a comment. I appreciate the help.

So this should get you up to speed in Mark Schultz and Thomas Yeates’s Prince Valiant for the start of August 2022. If you’re reading this after about October 2022, there’s likely a more current essay at this link. Now back to the days of King Arthur, wherever he is.

Prince Valiant.

22 May – 7 August 2022.

Morgan Le Fay, at the head of soldiers she had saved from Londinium, left our story last I checked in. She figured to learn whether she was back in good with the occult forces who had turned on her. And that seemed to end her role in the strip for a while.

Valiant returned, the 5th of June, to Camelot. Valiant and Arn fight over the recent debacle. Arn’s furious that Valiant let Morgan Le Fay go. Valiant’s furious that Camelot forgot a garrison of troops in Londinium. It doesn’t promise to be resolvable. But Aleta tells Valiant of a strange dream. One in which he summoned her, and she battled Morgan Le Fay. We saw this battle in a hallucinatory landscape back on 2021.

Some more old characters appear. Ambelu, sent by Queen Makeda of the Ab’saban people to be ambassador to Camelot, has a retinue now. They’ve brought some comforts of home, like a hot, bitter, stimulating beverage named quawah. And Ambelu’s youngest daughter, Yewubar, bonds with Valiant’s youngest, Nathan. They’re fascinated by old scrolls and nature and all. Yewubar shows a trick of getting a flock of bees to jacket her. It’s harmless but unsettling, and so naturally their parents get all upset.

Mark Schultz and Thomas Yeates’s Prince Valiant for the 7th of August, 2022. I’m sure everything is exactly what this looks like and we’re not going to find there’s some really good reason that good characters are coming at Morgan Le Fay’s direction.

That won’t stop the two from sneaking out together and one night under the full moon they’re out in the woods. They see Aleta and Maeve walking into a circle of ancient stones. Welcoming them there is Morgan Le Fay.

And that’s the neat cliffhanger we’re on, as my plot recap window closes. We’ll have to see where this is going.

Next Week!

We finally get to learn something about the secret Lunarian colony somewhere in Antarctica! Or pretending to be in Antarctica to fool super-detective Dick Tracy! It’s Joe Staton, Shelley Pleger, and Shane Fisher’s Dick Tracy taking a trip into science fiction, in a week, if all goes well.

60s Popeye: The Black Knight (not the one where he fights a pinball game)

We’re back to Jack Kinney studios for a time-travel adventure. This 1960 cartoon has a story credited to Ed Nofziger, with animation direction by Ken Hultgren. As always director and producer credits go to Jack Kinney. Let’s send Popeye to see The Black Knight.

“The Leprechaun”, last week, was all story and no humor. This week, we’re at a different studio, and at near the converse. This almost plays like an improv sketch built around the theme of Popeye in Pop Culture Medieval England. Once more Professor O G Wotasnozzle uses his time machine to possibly abduct an unsuspecting Popeye, sending him to King Arthur — in the time of Prince Valiant — for reasons of what the heck.

The Wotasnozzle frames are always a bit weird since I don’t know why they’re needed. These cartoons never seem like they’d make less sense if we started with Popeye in Medieval times, or the future, or caveman days, or whatnot. We never get scenes of Popeye trying to work out where or when he is. That’s confusing since the standard frame has Popeye knocked unconscious and dropped somewhere else in time. But in this case we don’t see that whole frame; the cartoon assumes the audience has seen enough of this to get the setup. I suppose they have. Kids have so much easier a time understanding stories.

I understand King Wimpy’s disdain here. I’m also annoyed when someone drops work on my table in the middle of a meal.

Once we’re there, the story pretty near stops. We get the main cast (mostly) recast as Arthurian-ish characters. Wimpy as King Arthur, Olive Oyl as Olive Guinevere, Brutus as the Black Knight are about all you can do. The Sea Hag as Merlin makes the best sense at giving the role to someone magical. Naming her Ethyl Merlin is a nice gag. Anything the Sea Hag does is coded as villainous. It seems to me we don’t often see Merlin portrayed as a villain, at least not in Camelot-set stories. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court excepted. I’m not sure she quite reaches the point of villainy, though. Before she enters everyone’s afraid Popeye is a spy or something — they’re afraid of his pipe as some kind of sorcery. Even a good Merlin might reasonably want this intruder locked up until they were sure what his deal was.

This all turns into a jousting contest between Popeye and the Black Knight, using what stunts need the least possible new animation. There’s charm here. A lot of it is silly dialogue, elevated by the decision to speak with Fake Old-Time Word Endingseth. Or jokes about the knight-fall or how the squashed Brutus is “what a short knight”. The running joke about Wimpy wanting more medieval hamburgers has some nice pacing and delivery, given how many end up bonking him on the head. I don’t get the joke early on about Wimpy wishing they’d invent hamburger buns and Olive Oyl saying “Oh, nay, t’would be ill. Bread!” I mean, I get that it’s funny because it has the sound of a pun, but the pun doesn’t make sense. They’re trying out a lot of jokes, they can’t all work. I appreciate the attempt.

What’s Going On In Prince Valiant? What is a ‘Virgate’ and why would someone want it? November 2019 – February 2020

A ‘virgate’ is an Old English measure of land area. It’s about what a team of two oxen could plough in a year. Somewhere around thirty acres, give or take. (They didn’t have modern ideas of uniformity, especially about things like farmland, where some land might be there but unusable.) So if that’s all you wondered about Mark Schultz and Thomas Yeates’s Prince Valiant, thanks, and bye. Meanwhile if you’re looking to follow the plot, this will get you caught up to mid-February 2020. If you’re reading this after about May 2020, there’s probably a more up-to-date plot recap at this link. Also any news about the comic strip that seems worth the mention. And, as ever, I look at other comic strips on my mathematics blog.

Prince Valiant.

24 November 2019 – 16 February 2020

Prince Valiant and company were heading home, last time, after adventures in Egypt. Here “Home” means the Misty Isles. Queen Bukota is furious with Ambelu, the last of her surviving advisors. Ambelu and his fellow nobles had tried to keep the young Ab’saba queen under control through Fewesi the Healer. That worked out great when Fewesi killed them, kidnapped the Queen, and fled to Egypt where his own people laughed him off as a dangerous incompetent loser. Her vengeance is fairly mild: she’s reassigning Ambelu to be her ambassador to Camelot. Bukota, the current ambassador, will take a post canoodling with her. Their first wedding — they plan to hold another back home — is a merry affair.

Mark Schultz and Thomas Yeates’s Prince Valiant for the 22nd of December, 2019. So recently I read a book that contained a lot of discussion of Prince Valiant, including summaries of every story done from the origin to the book’s publication around 2005. Among the surprises is that, after some initial work, Hal Foster settled on a specific time and, when it could refer to historic events, made them reasonably consistent with character ages and such. The coherence of this has varied over the years, but still, that’s some amazing work considering how few people would ever notice. Also, there was at least one story that Foster wanted to start aboard ship, but he didn’t want to set about getting everyone on board. So he had the story start with an explanation that the “ancient scrolls” from which the text of the strip is based had some gaps and here’s what comes after one of those gaps. I genuinely love that sort of meta-writing.

And then it’s time to go to Camelot, for the first time since I’ve been doing these What’s Going On In features. Valiant’s been focusing so on tromping around Asia, the Misty Isles, and North Africa so much I didn’t realize he even went to Camelot anymore. The strip says (on the 22nd of December) that Valiant’s spent two years in the Misty Isles, which I assume is character time.

And so, with 2020 dawning, Prince Valiant returns to Britain and his first adopted home. They run across a funeral procession for the local baron, and about how some witches summoned a demon to kill the baron. Valiant would rather leave this all alone. But Aleta asks questions. Gareth, the new baron and one of the mourners, explains the case: the Baron criticized these women, and then he died of demonic possession. In fairness, bats do swarm one of the women. Plus there’s a pox going around. Valiant would really like to just let this be. But then Sir Gawain, a day’s ride out of Camelot, arrives.

Valiant’s suspicious about this well-timed visit. Sir Gawain explains there was a request to the court to deal with a dispute about a parcel of land. And now here’s these women accused of witchcraft and sorcery. The woman with the bats argues that “the ignorant peasants” would destroy their bats’ home.

Mark Schultz and Thomas Yeates’s Prince Valiant for the 26th of January, 2020. Val fears that something is missing to make this puzzle sensible. “Would you by chance know of any meddling kids and their talking dog,” he inquires, “and perhaps whether there is an abandoned amusement park or perhaps candy manufactory hereabouts?”

To facts, though. Gawain confirms the grant of two virgates made to Afton, one of the locals. Nathan, who’s part of Valiant’s retinue, notices a clue in the house, though: a bat’s skeleton and a sketch of a bat. Afton petitions Gawain for protection from Lord Imbert, who’s the one who had just died. But part of Afton’s grant is a cave with a spring that allegedly restores youth. It doesn’t, but Imbert thought it does, and wanted the land for himself. Gawain consider that now that Imbert is conveniently dead, and there’s a rumor of Afton or the women summoning a demon to do it … that could be awkward.

Gawain, Valiant, and all go looking for lodging. And that’s where the story has gotten. Where is it going? We’ll have to see over the next few months.

Next Week!

Action! Adventure! Super-detection! People dressed as robots! It’s Joe Staton, Mike Curtis, Shelley Pleger, and Shane Fisher’s Dick Tracy, unless something demands more attention first.

Hey, did you know that in his travels Prince Valiant has been to North America at least twice? Like, all the way to Manhattan and stuff. Also he’s made it to South America. I don’t know that he’s ever set foot in Australia but that’s some amazing travels. I mean, we moderns forget that while people back in the day — much like today — were happy to stay where they were, some folks really got moving. (He lived in a time that made this considerably easier than Prince Valiant “did”, but do look up James Holman sometime.)