The erosion of major newspapers across the land is not only a dangerous erosion of knowledge for informed citizens, but it's also chipping away at a unique 20th-century art form—the illustrated comic story. We're not talking about gag strips, those joke-a-day panels. No. What's fading before our eyes is the gorgeously illustrated, continuing adventures that takes place in the realm of imagination.

Tarzan. Buck Rogers. Steve Canyon. Prince Valiant. Smilin' Jack. Tales like these and more created a modern pop mythology, one that permeated the public subconscious and informed all levels of modern culture.

Particularly Prince Valiant. The continuing story of the rough 'n' tumble fifth-century nobleman, his bride Aleta—Queen of the Misty Isles!—adventurous children and extended family that includes the knights of the Round Table, why, the weekly installments were like jolts of pure visual and storytelling magic.

Val was created by traditional artist Hal Foster in 1936 as a Sunday feature for the Hearst newspaper chain. Hearst himself, a fan of Foster's work on “;Tarzan,”; wooed Foster with the unprecedented offer of strip ownership, an amazingly creative—and lucrative—deal for the artist.

Prince Valiant became the “;greatest contribution to English literature in the past hundred years,”; according to no less than Edward, Duke of Windsor. The strip won numerous awards and was spun off into motion pictures, but more importantly, it also inspired generations of writers and artists, becoming a bridge from the “;golden age”; of illustrating at the turn of the century to the go-go narratives of modern graphic storytelling.

Foster drew nearly 1,800 full-page sagas until his retirement from drawing in 1971, a move forced by arthritis. Thereafter, the strip was reduced in size and drawn by John Cullen Murphy from Foster scripts until 1980. Until 2004, when Murphy retired, the scripts were created by Murphy's son and daughter.

Murphy's handpicked successor is Gary Gianni, with Mark Schultz providing the scripts. Their work together has been collected in ”;Prince Valiant: Far from Camelot”; by Andrews McMeel Universal, the syndicate's in-house publisher (192 pages, $19.99).

Murphy could not have chosen better. Schultz is himself quite a fine artist, with an old-fashioned flowing brush and pen technique, but on “;Valiant,”; he contributes story and words, keeping it economical, fun and brisk. Although Gianni's drawing style is sketchier than Schultz's, it's determinedly early 20th-century, like the like great book illustrations of J. Allen St. John, and an inking style reminiscent of Bernie Wrightson and Michael Wm. Kaluta, two more artists who grew up poring over Sunday pages. The superb coloring is by Scott Roberts, which comes across with great fidelity is this well-printed book.

The adventure arc concerns a kind of walkabout by Valiant and artistic son Nathan, who manage to encounter sea serpents, rebellious Picts, Viking reivers, a lost and cursed gold treasure, a tribe of African nobles and a lost city. A day in the life of Prince Valiant, pretty much, and told with charm and dash.

The strip still runs in more than 300 newspapers, a testament to its epic ability to hold an audience. If more newspapers go under, however, a point of diminishing returns will set in, and we will all be the poorer, as if a light were snuffed out in the grand saga of our collective imaginations.