Companions in Adventure

I've been a fan of Hal Foster since I was eight years old. Before even being aware of comic books, I was in love with the Sunday comics with their huge broadsheet layouts. And Prince Valiant always drew me in, even when I had no idea what the story was about.

So flash forward to when I was a young man, having served in the army, but now unemployed, looking for a job. Money was incredibly scarce for a few months. Window shopping at a quaint bookstore, my eyes land on, not one, but two volumes of Prince Valiant art, newly published by Nostalgia Press. The covers were incredibly appealing and each cost $12.95. Thirteen dollars plus tax, and I happened to have fifteen dollars on me. Problem was, that 15 was supposed to keep me in food for a week until my unemployment check came in. Well, you can guess what choice I made. That was the easy choice. The hard choice was deciding on volume one or two, since I could only get a single volume. Well the choice wasn't so hard. Judging a book by its cover, I went for volume 2, Companions in Adventure, the cover art and even the name drawing me in, just as I was drawn in as an 8 year old.

The cover got torn when my (soon to be ex) roommate 'borrowed' it.

When I went back a couple of weeks later, having landed a job, to buy volume one, it was gone. I had to wait some ten years until I found it at a used book store.

With all the other great Valiant books that I now have with better production values, I hold onto these now out of pure nostalgia, and those covers, those incredible covers that never fail to draw me in.