Hal Foster on romance and family in Prince Valiant

Mrs. FOSTER: ...Once or twice Sylvan Byck complained, because you showed Aleta pregnant, that was in the days you couldn't do those things in the comics, you know, no snakes.
SABA: But you did it anyway.
FOSTER: Yes.
Mrs. FOSTER: Well, he made her coat a little fuller, and that's something I don't know.
FOSTER: I showed her relaxing in the woods, laying on a downed tree.
SABA: I remember that.
FOSTER: The skunk comes along, and, of course, lets her have it, and she falls off the log. Shows that there's no doubt about it that she's pregnant.
Mrs. FOSTER: Well, first they said he should never get married.
FOSTER: Yep.
Mrs. FOSTER: Yes, no comic hero ever got married and survived. So he married Val off, and they shouldn't..
FOSTER: Shouldn't have children, no.
Mrs. FOSTER: Don't make him a family man, you know.
FOSTER: She shouldn't, his wife shouldn't be anything but, follow him around like-what is a hero that, he went through different stars and everything and the girl followed him.
SABA: Flash Gordon?
FOSTER: Flash Gordon, yes, always with a girl.
SABA: Just following around, just sort of hanging on.
FOSTER: Yes. Well I thought that was indecent. No fellow is going to go from planet to planet, and have his girl, especially a good-looking girl, tagging along without having some ideas.
SABA: I think you're right. Very chaste, aren't they?
FOSTER: So, of course, I had Prince Valiant marry the girl, so that she'd be decent, and being a decent girl, and married, she should have children. They told me that a married woman, there's no romance in a married woman and children, but-
SABA: What do they know?
FOSTER: Yes, I found out that people are not exactly what those in power in the comics think.

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SABA: ...I think that these people who say that there's no romance in a family are just so wrong, and you showed how wrong they could be, because you showed how much a man and wife can love each other, and still be married and have children. It make it so human,-and so nice.
Mrs. FOSTER: Everybody was so delighted when-didn't he throw her in a pond once?
SABA: I remember that one.
Mrs. FOSTER: Well, that was a way to treat a wife, you know, throw her in a pond. He says he's always tried to do that. If he had some violence or anything like that, then for the next story, he'd try to make it light and with humor in it and everything.
SABA: Well, it makes it such a delightful picture of life, instead of a one-sided, just blood and thunder all the time, it shows what life is really all about, which is so many different sides.
FOSTER: Yes, you have to write the story the way you would compose music. You know, high notes and low notes. You have violence one week, and the next story will be the children and home, probably the adventure of one of the children. Then you can get into blood and thunder again.
Mrs. FOSTER: But every so often you have to remember you got two girls in there, you got to weave them into a story. And then we had more comment about the twins and the things, and when she cut her hair, wore the helmet and would be the tomboy and all that sort of thing. People around here, people who had children said, "Oh, that's my daughter all over again, that's just like my daughter."