Some seafarin’ comics news picked up by Cap’n Kenny as he sails the Sequential Arts Sea: Hugo Pratt’s Corto Maltese Stories are happily coming back into English soon but perhaps much more surprisingly they are coming back in French with ALL NEW stories. We found this story at Le Figaro (in French here or in poorly translated English via Google here) where it heads the stories for the day in their culture section (which gives you an idea of how seriously the French take their comics).
Now this will come as a shock for those who have always considered the character synonymous with and, to a large extent, an avatar for his creator. It’s well known that many of Pratt’s personal passions shaped the tales of his well travelled adventurer and for many it will be inconceivable that someone else might pick up the reins. However, 12 years after Pratt’s death it has been announced that a new writer/artist team have embarked on the production of new tales with the first book due in around 18 months to 2 years. It seems those that control Pratt’s estate state that he always meant for the adventures to continue beyond those published. Now those who have the power to do so have granted the right for new adventures to French publisher Casterman. Apparently the new tales will fit into a gap in the chronology of the adventures already written and drawn by Pratt, roughly covering the period 1905 to 1913 and will therefore be stories of Corto’s teenage years and young adulthood (not entirely unlike Charlie Higson’s officially sanctioned ‘young James Bond’ books).
( from Le Figaro, “© 2007 Cong SA, Lausanne. Tous droits réservés. Cortomaltese.com.”)
There are many around the world who love the Corto Maltese series, but like myself, may find the character less intriguing without the combination he made with his creator – can there really be true Corto stories without Pratt? We hope for the best but can imagine the Ballad of the Salt Sea may just have changed its tune with this announcement.
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February 1st, 2007 at 10:56 am
[...] Another story passed on to me by Kenny today – the Independent has a fine feature on Hergé by Paul Gravett (although it looks like it was published earlier), exploring the Belgian creator of Tintin’s life and influences (including the heavy Catholic church influence and the allegations of possible collaboration during the Nazi occupation years) – the recent BBC documentary covered some of the same ground, which doesn’t make this any less interesting since Paul knows his stuff (and if you didn’t get to see the documentary then this is a good substitute). As Kenny remarked though, there is another story here, post Hergé, when his widow married Nick Rodwell who has inherited control over the Tintin estate, not always with happy consequences as described in this older article in the Telegraph. Rodwell is currently battling with Casterman over the rights to Tintin, which, as this post in the Actua BD blog (in French) remarks takes in international rights (and wonders if Casterman could lose them) and some unconfirmed hints at a movie with Spielberg. We’re wondering once the legal dust settles if we are, as with the recent Corto Maltese announcement, likely to see a new series of ‘officially licensed’ Tintin adventures being announced? [...]