The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

Yet again the rumours abound that Hugo Pratt’s Corto Maltese, if not his entire body of work, is to be published in English; and that this time the Casterman books will be properly translated.  I say ‘yet again’ because the rumours reappear on a regular basis, and I say they will be ‘properly translated’ this time, because it is generally accepted that NBM’s attempt at translating the work was not their finest hour – although to be fair they did at least show excellent taste in attempting the job in the first place.

Hugo Pratt was a magician.  He took some blank sheets of paper and wrote some words on the sheets, and squared some boxes on those sheets and drew some drawings in those boxes on those sheets, and then that paper became something else, and it gained the power to transport everyone who read it to another place, in another age.

(An example of the Corto Maltese Tarot pack)

With one of these books in your hands; Fable De Venice, La Ballade De La Mer Saleé, Mǖ, Tango, Le Celtiques, you were no longer alone in your bedroom; you were in Ireland, or in the sultry Caribbean, or walking along the seabed, and you were someone else, you were the adventurer, Captain Corto Maltese.

Not all writers and artists are magicians.  They can’t all weave those spells; that’s why some books don’t transport you, but merely borrow your time – for a short while.  But Hugo Pratt was, and his magic didn’t stop there, with just the creation of the character, because as many of you know, after you have read any one of the adventures of Pratt’s greatest creation, you simply have to have more – that is magic.

There is another explanation of course, it is that Hugo Pratt’s Corto Maltese books, complete with maps, and sketches of uniforms, and technical notes, and drawings, and historical details, and luscious watercolour sketches, and, of course, the rip-roaring adventures themselves, are just so rewarding that other ‘graphic novels’ seem pale and colourless in comparison.

The adventures of Corto Maltese are, after all, surely the adventures Tintin dreamed of having, if he hadn’t been a boy scout; and if he had instead, been a cigar-chomping, whisky-drinking, pirate-like adventurer, not a junior-reporter – and if he had preferred the company of a string of beautiful women, to Captain Haddock, and Snowy.

Born in Rimini, in Italy, in 1927, Hugo Pratt spent his childhood in Venice, before, at the age of 10, moving to Abyssinia, with his mother, to join his father, a member of Mussolini’s army. By 1941 British troops had captured the place, and Hugo’s father was taken into captivity where he later died.  Before being sent back to Italy by the Red Cross, Hugo and his mother were also interned, and it was during his internment that young Hugo got a hold of, and eagerly read, the comics that were to be such a tremendous influence on him, from the camp guards.

After the war was over, Hugo moved back to Venice and in time joined the Venice Group, along with several other Italian cartoonists, including Alberto Ongaro and Mario Faustinelli.

In the late 1940s, Hugo moved to Buenos Aires to work for Editorial Abril, alongside, amongst others, Argentinean comic artists José Luis Salinas, and Solano López. Teaming up with writer Héctor Germán Oesterheld, on Editorial Frontera, Pratt, who was already working on Ongaro’s Junglemen, started work on Ernie Pike, Ticonderoga, and his the most famous character of that period, Sgt. Kirk.  Combining his love of comics, with his love of travel, Hugo also taught drawing in the Escuela Panamericana de Arte, and travelled extensively in South America, including trips along the Amazon.  It was during this period that Hugo wrote and drew his first solo comic book character, Ann of the Jungle, which was followed by Capitan Cormorant and Wheeling.

In 1959 Hugo moved to London where he drew more stories for the war comics he had been sending work to from Argentina, for Fleetway Publications; War Picture Library, War at Sea Picture Library, Battle Picture Library and others.  In 1960, before returning to Argentina, Hugo went to Ireland to conduct some research that would later prove useful in Les Celtiques, a Corto Maltese adventure.  In 1962, he left Argentina and moved back to Italy, where he worked for the magazine Il Corriere dei Piccoli, adapting classic stories, including Stevenson’s Treasure Island, to comic book format.

Five years later, in 1967, after further extensive travel, Hugo Pratt and Florenzo Ivaldi, got together and created the comics magazine Sgt. Kirk, which launched the comics career of Corto Maltese, with the story Una ballata del Mare Salato (The Ballad of the Salty Sea).   The character was an enormous hit, and in 1969, starred in his own adventures.

One reason for suggesting there may be a little alchemy at work is because for all the impeccable research involved in Corto’s adventures, and despite the fact that Hugo Pratt’s credentials as a traveller and adventurer were second only to  those of his creation, lending the tales more credibility than otherwise, the stories are still actually very formulaic, in that they are, like fellow European  bande dessinée , Tintin, Blake and Mortimer, Jeanette Pointu and Largo Winch, essentially picaresque.  In some cases, the travellers in these tales even visit the same countries as one another, but what really sets Hugo Pratt’s work apart, is the psychology of the protagonist.  Captain Cortese is no cub-reporter, no private eye, no junior photographer, stumbling into an adventure and trying to escape back to the safety of home, he is deliberately sailing into the eye of the storm in search of adventure.  A fighter, a lover, a student of the Occult and the Kabala, Corto Maltese is a man of destiny.  Against a backdrop of real colonial disputes, the characters of Pratt’s stories, a mixture of historical fact and fiction, sail from one breathless, brilliantly researched adventure to another.

Hugo Pratt’s attention to detail played a huge part in the success of the stories, and it shouldn’t be overlooked that between them Hugo Pratt and Casterman published exactly the sort of graphic novels comic book fans want to read.  Not only is much of the research included in the form of sketches and wonderfully evocative watercolours, but the books also often contain maps, technical details and even some historical background details.

In 1970 Hugo moved to France where Corto Maltese became the main character in the magazine Pif Gadget, and from the mid 70s until he left France for Switzerland in 1984, Corto Maltese reigned over the seven seas, in his own Band Dessines, with his adventures translated into many languages.  In a testament to the character’s success, in 1983, several magazines in France and Italy were entirely devoted to the adventures of Captain Maltese.

From 1984, until he died in 1995, Hugo Pratt lived in Switzerland in a house overlooking Lake Geneva; where his vast library of some 30,000 books, including his beloved tales by Conrad and London and Melville, could be easily housed.  Corto Maltese brought his creator some well deserved fame and wealth, and in exchange Hugo Pratt brought joy, inspiration, adventure, and a little magic, to many.

(All Hugo Pratt illustrations, copyright, ©, 2008, Hugo Pratt, the estate of Hugo Pratt, Casterman, or their respective copyright holders)

Internationally published cartoonist Rod has a regularly updated blog which you can check out, and for more information and a glimpse at some of his many works visit Rodtoons and enjoy browsing the gallery.

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