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Prince Valiant Montage Sources 3 and The Reasoning Behind It

Published: November 9, 2025 1 minute 11 comments

Aleta continues with part three of the tale of her and Prince Valiant and Justinian. We continue to discover the original sources of the panels used (part one here & part two here) as Mark Schultz and Thomas Yeates draft the 1982 Cullen Murphy and John Cullen Murphy story as the basis for a new tale.

Prince Valiant by Mark Schultz, Thomas Yeates, & John Cullen Murphy – November 9, 2025

Following Yeates’ new opening art we have a panel originally from April 4, 1982.

Prince Valiant by Cullen Murphy and John Cullen Murphy – April 4, 1982

As Aleta tells it Justinian plans to conquer The Misty Isles, panel four comes from April 25, 1982:

Prince Valiant by Cullen Murphy and John Cullen Murphy – April 25, 1982

The crystal “discovered” by Galan above plays a role in defeating Justinian’s plans for The Misty Isles.

Prince Valiant by Cullen Murphy and John Cullen Murphy – May 9, 1982

As Aleta reveals in panel five it was a long time for the truth to be revealed and Nathan’s return.

Prince Valiant by Cullen Murphy and John Cullen Murphy – January 16, 1983

Not related is the drama of the baby accepting a new mother.

Prince Valiant by Cullen Murphy and John Cullen Murphy – January 22, 1983

And so, as the opening caption says, Aleta ends her account of the past troubles caused by Justinian. Those Justinian chronicles, from Justinian’s introduction in September 1981 to Nathan’s return in January 1983, can be read, in color, in Fantagraphics collected Prince Valiant series, or, in black and white, by way of Comics Kingdom’s Vintage Prince Valiant.

Brought up to date next week will see Prince Valiant and Aleta continue their all-new current adventure.

Speculation, on our part, as to why the three part flashback happened — from illness to deadlines to other projects to vacation (story strip artists can’t just revert to reruns as gag-a-day cartoonists can) The Daily Cartoonist reached out to King Features and editor Amy Anderson graciously replied to our inquiries:

Thomas Yeates and Mark Schultz worked together on choosing Foster and Murphy panels to illustrate the backstory that’s relevant to a current storyline. Does this help them get ahead on their deadlines? Yes, but it was done with thoughtfulness and, of course, credit.

This is just a temporary reuse of artwork, which happened to conveniently fit into the story they are telling.

Amy also let us know that it was Thomas Yeates who patched the various Murphy panels into a current page.

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Comments 11

  1. And this may or may not be in the style of Jeff Keane using recycled Bil Keane Family Circus art with occassional tweaks such as Thel’s hairdo pre 1997.

    1. It is in no way similar.

    2. I have to agree with Darryl: Even if the authors assert a justification, it still remains that they are recycling another artist’s work.

      1. A one-off (or three-off if you prefer) is a long way from a decades long pattern of recycling.
        And it is not the first time that flashbacks and reused art has been featured in the nearly 89 years of Prince Valiant chronicles. Most famously for Prince Valiant #2000 https://mydelineatedlife.blogspot.com/2011/11/page-2000.html by which time J. C. Murphy was the artist (over Foster layouts).

  2. It reminds me of when every TV series eventually had an episode where the characters were “remembering” things from previous story lines.

  3. This information is really helpful. I wondered why the artwork depicting Aleta’s flashback in today’s panels looks “off.”

    Many thanks for the background.

  4. I wish papers would drop Frank & Ernest. They are all reprints from the 1970-‘s and 80’s now. Shoe is now almost totally Jeff McNally’s strips from the 70’s. I just saw the other day an early John Hart. B.C. I don’t mind Family Circus reprints, but Jeff Keane is for all sakes and purposes retired. Is Ziggy at all new anymore? They all look like Tom Wilson, not TW jr. What other strips are exclusively reprints now? If the writer/artist is deceased or discounted the strip like For Better or Worse, Momma, or Crock, so be it.

    1. I’m seeing no evidence of F&E, Ziggy, Shoe, or B.C. being reruns, at least in writing. Maybe in art. All others I think are full reruns.

      1. Don’t forget Nancy is in 1950’s Ernie Bushmiller reruns for daily and Olivia Jaimes reruns for Sunday until Caroline Cash takes over at the start of 2026.

  5. And thank god for Don Sedke’s great new Flash Gordon. Jim Keefe’s was great, but by now stale sunday Flash’s were way beyond their shelf life. I wish someone with Sedke’s talent would revive Tarzan. One can only dream.

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