Via: Forbiddenplanet.uk
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.
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