Comic strips

Prince Valiant the 20th century action hero

Skip to comments

Alan Gardner October 18, 2011 1 minute 0 comments

Alan Scherstuhl looks at 10 reasons why Prince Valiant should be better known as one of the best action heroes.

He’s part Errol Flynn, part gritty badass, part Joseph Campbell myth on the make, part nostalgic vessel for our grandparents’ yearning for some more civilized age, part Mel Gibson-style torture survivor, even part MMORPG knight slowly accumulating levels and power and inventory. (Seriously, like any video game character, Val can’t journey anyplace without fighting trash mobs of bandits, pirates, or slavers.)