Knight Comics

[Reptisaurus!]

So I got a little bit o' money and bought the BLACK KNIGHT/YELLOW CLAW archives, because I really liked all the Black Knight stories I read, and I needed some more Joe Maneely in my life.

And, man, the "Knight with a secret identity" genre is one of my favorites in comics.

So I got some questions:

A) Any chance of reprints of Norvick's SILENT KNIGHT stuff? Those were always my favorite of the early Brave and the Bold stories, even 'head of Kubert's Viking Prince.

B) Are EC Comics VALOR stories any good? I'm... .wary of the new trend stories. I admire the experimentalism of 'em all, but for every Master Race there's a Psychoanalysis.

(Again: Great idea for a comic. Completely original. Absolute Godawful execution.)

C) The Crusader stories in Black Knight have got me a little lost. He was Islamic, right? Why don't they just say "Islamic?"

[Rob Allen]

In the 1950s, Americans would not have been familiar with the word "Islamic". Even "Islam" wasn't common, nor was "Muslim", which was spelled "Moslem" when it appeared at all. The religion was referred to then as "Mohammedanism" and the adherents "Mohammedans".

I don't actually recall the Crusader stories, though. What do they say instead of "Islamic"?

[Reptisaurus!]

Saracen.

As in


By the prohpet's beard, in your hand [your sword] has been a thing of power El Alemain, noblest of Saracens.


Which is a term I'd never heard before.

The strip is... well, deeply problematic to modern readers. (At least me.)

The idea is that the Crusader thinks he's Islamic (though he hangs out with Mongols) 'till his true (English, obviously) identity is revealed. Then he goes and joins the British in the Crusades.

[MWGallaher]

B) Are EC Comics VALOR stories any good? I'm... .wary of the new trend stories. I admire the experimentalism of 'em all, but for every Master Race there's a Psychoanalysis.

Yes, they are. They are, in my opinion, far superior to the rest of the New Trend EC comics, and I've read them all. Valor felt the most like the old EC, and had a bigger range than the other New Trend titles.

[Rob Allen]

Saracen.

Which is a term I'd never heard before.

It's exactly the word I would expect to see in a story set in medieval Europe. That's what they called Muslims then. Wikipedia says, "... by the time of the Crusades, beginning in 1095, a "Saracen" had become synonymous with a "Muslim" in European chronicles."

[Reptisaurus!]

It's exactly the word I would expect to see in a story set in medieval Europe. That's what they called Muslims then. Wikipedia says, "... by the time of the Crusades, beginning in 1095, a "Saracen" had become synonymous with a "Muslim" in European chronicles."

Huh. I'd never heard the term before.