Hugo Pratt

Hugo Pratt (actually: Ugo Eugenio Pratt ) ( born June 15, 1927 in Rimini, † August 20, 1995 in Lausanne ) was an Italian comic book writer. His character Corto Maltese is a milestone of literary comics.

Life

Pratt was born into a multinational family with roots in Veneto, England, France and Anatolia and Armenia. His great-uncle was William Henry Pratt, who was under the pseudonym Boris Karloff a successful film actor ( eg as Frankenstein's monster) of the early sound era. Hugo Pratt's father was an engineer.

1937 the family moved to what was then Abyssinia protectorate of Fascist Italy, today's Ethiopia. In 1941, when Haile Selassie came to power with the support of allied associations, the family who had joined a fascist Italian militia, was arrested and interned. The father died; by 1943, the rest of the family but could be evacuated with the help of the International Committee of the Red Cross before the approaching army of Britons to Italy. There, the 17 -year-old Hugo Pratt was arrested in 1944 on suspicion of being a South African spy. He was transferred to the German army and had provided at the water police patrolling. A friend who was a partisan and later cartoonist Giorgio Bellavitis, helped him to escape from the front to the invading 8th Army. There he first worked as an interpreter, then in the military administration, most recently under the stage name Ongaine as a singer and dancer for the U.S. troops support. According to another version, he worked for a fascist battalion as an interpreter and was imprisoned after the war for a time in Austria.

In 1945 he began studying art at the Venice Academy of Fine Arts in Venice. Here also Pratt's career began as a cartoonist, together with friends, other artists and writers ( including Alberto Ongaro and Dino Battaglia ), he founded the comic magazine Asso di Picche ( German: " Ace of Spades "). The title refers to the first major work of Pratt.

1949 saw the Argentine publisher Cesare Civita the talent of the artist, and Hugo Pratt moved to Buenos Aires, where he drew adventure series like Junglemen and Sergente Kirk. Already with Junglemen Pratt had the style found, which is typical considers for him today. His other works include: Ernie Pike, Ticonderoga and the 1913 playing in East Africa Ann y Dan. Author of this series was Héctor Germán Oesterheld. For the Argentine magazine Misterix he drew Captain Cormorant and Fort Wheeling.

In 1953, Pratt married the Argentine Pucky Wogerer, with whom he had two children; the marriage was divorced in 1957. Hugo Pratt led to this time, a restless adventurer life.

In 1959 he returned to Europe to draw in London for several daily newspapers and for the publisher Fleetway adventure and war comics.

In 1962 he removed from thence to Venice, where he lived with the colorist Annie Frognier. Pratt worked for the youth supplement of Corriere della Sera, where he (for example, Treasure Island, Odyssey) brought classic adventure stories of youth literature for scenarios of the chief editor in comic form.

1967 founded the patron Claudio Bertieri and the Italian publisher Florenzo Ivaldi magazine Sgt Kirk to offer Pratt an appropriate platform for his comics.

Here in 1967 Una ballata del Mare Salato was published ( A South Sea Ballad ), a melancholy adventure story in the tradition of Joseph Conrad, which is the starting point of European graphic novels. This story appeared for the first time Corto Maltese, a captain without a ship, which should be the main character of Pratt's further work. Starting in 1970 and over the following three years, Pratt designed for the magazine Pif the French publishing house Vaillant over 20 episodes about 20 pages with Corto Maltese. The other series and stories Pratts came more and more into the background, Corto Maltese was not only the comic, which is celebrated enthusiastically by critics, but also a commercial success: the late eighties sold Pratt per year, nearly half a million of his albums.

1983 in collaboration with Milo Manara two comic stories emerged that focus on the colonization of America: An Indian Summer (two albums) and El Gaucho.

From the second half of the 70s, Pratt also occasionally operated as a film actor. His best-known part should not just doing a small supporting role in Leos Carax ' Mauvais sang ( The night is young ) have been.

1984 Pratt moved by Grandvaux in Lausanne. He continued working on new stories to Corto Maltese, renewed and improved but also little by little - in the style of Hergé - older works. His recent works include the story of the last flight of Antoine de Saint- Exupéry: His last flight.

1995 died Hugo Pratt in Lausanne from cancer. In addition to countless other awards and accolades Pratt was appointed Chevalier des Arts et Lettres. The Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, the highest honor that can be awarded to an artist in France. As early as 1989 he had won the Grand Prix de la Ville d' Angoulême at the Festival International de la Bande Dessinée d' Angoulême.

2005 Pratt was admitted posthumously into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame.

A ceremony of another kind learned Hugo Pratt by Milo Manara. He is in the graphic novels The great adventure and day of wrath even for cartoon character. Among his initials H. P. and the designation "Master of the adventure ," he advises the (anti) hero Giuseppe Bergmann an adventure in its attempt.

Corto Maltese in Germany

In German have been published:

Brief summary of content in order:

• Adventures of a Youth ( Ullstein Verlag 1987, s / w)
• In the sign of Capricorn ( Carlsen Verlag 1981, s / w)
• And always a little further ( Carlsen Verlag 1982, s / w)
• The Celts ( Carlsen Verlag 1982, s / w)
• The Ethiopians ( Carlsen Verlag 1982, s / w)
• Corto Maltese in Siberia ( Carlsen Verlag 1984, s / w)
• Venetian legend ( Carlsen Verlag, 1985, s / w)
• The Golden House of Samarkand ( Carlsen Verlag 1987, s / w)
• Argentine Tango ( Carlsen Verlag, 1988, s / w)
• The Swiss ( Carlsen Verlag 1991, color)
• The kingdom of Mu ( Carlsen Verlag 1993, color)

The later color editions are usually extended to include additional, sometimes very extensive prefaces.

Works

Detailed bibliography

• UNA BALLATA DEL MARE SALATO 1967-1969 South Sea Ballad ( vf ) ( pp. 1-23, 26-119 ) - zag stitching 4-20, Coral -Verlag 1974
• The end of the Macau ( sw ) (p. 118-165 ) - Comic Forum 6-11, Alber 1980/81
• The South Sea Ballad (sw) - Corto Maltese 5, Carlsen Verlag 1983
• The South Sea Ballad ( vf ) - Corto Maltese 2, Carlsen Verlag 1989
• The South Sea Ballad ( vf ) - Corto Maltese, the classic comic strip 11, FAZ 2005

• In the sign of Capricorn (sw) - Corto Maltese 1, Carlsen Verlag 1981
• In the sign of Capricorn ( vf ) - Corto Maltese 3, Carlsen Verlag 1990
• Under the Pirate Flag ( vf ) - Cult editions 2005
• LE SECRET DE TRISTAN BANTAM The secret of Tristan Bantam

• Encounter in Bahia

• The settlement

• The Lost Treasure

• The trace of the skull

• What to know only the seagulls

• And always a little further (sw) - Corto Maltese 2, Carlsen Verlag 1982
• And always a little further ( vf ) - Corto Maltese 4, Carlsen Verlag 1990
• Leeward Islands ( vf ) - Cult editions 2003
• The Mysterious Lagoon ( vf ) - Cult editions 2004
• Tetes DE MUSHROOMS mushroom caps

• The dance around the banana

• A spell for the president

• The lagoon of beautiful dreams

• Fables and grandfathers

• The Celts (sw) - Corto Maltese 4, Carlsen Verlag 1982
• The Celts ( vf ) - Cult editions 2003

• Under the banner of the money

• Concert in O Minor for Harp and nitroglycerin

• A winter morning dream

• Cotes de Nuits and roses from Picardy

• Burlesque between Zuydcoote and Bray -Dunes

• The Ethiopians (sw) - Corto Maltese 3, Carlsen Verlag 1982
• The Ethiopians ( vf ) - Cult editions 2006
• AU NOM D' ALLAH LE miséricordieux In the name of Allah the Merciful

• The coup de grace

• How Romeo and Juliet

• Corto Maltese in Siberia (sw) - Corto Maltese 6, Carlsen Verlag 1984
• Corto Maltese in Siberia ( vf ) - Cult editions 2001

• Venetian legend ( vf ) - Corto Maltese 8, Carlsen Verlag 1997
• Venetian legend ( vf ) - Cult editions 2010

• The Golden House of Samarkand (sw) - Corto Maltese 8, Carlsen Verlag 1987
• The Golden House of Samarkand ( vf ) ( 60 pages of text ) - Corto Maltese 9, Carlsen Verlag 1993

• Corto Malteses Youth ( sw) - Bluebox 1: Adventure, Ullsteinhaus - Verlag 1987
• Adventures of a Youth ( vf ) - Corto Maltese 1, Carlsen Verlag 1988

• Argentine Tango (sw) - Corto Maltese 9, Carlsen Verlag 1988
• Argentine Tango ( vf ) - Cult editions 2006

• The Swiss ( vf ) - Corto Maltese 11, Carlsen Verlag 1991

• The kingdom of Mu ( vf ) - Corto Maltese 12, Carlsen Verlag 1993

• In cult editions there has been the ( newly colored, and translated to a foreword extended ) edition of Corto Maltese in Siberia (Feb. 2001)
• Leeward Islands (Feb. 2003)
• Under the Pirate Flag ( Jan. 2005)
• Argentine Tango (December 2006)
• The kingdom of Mu (December 2008)
• Venetian legend ( May 2010)

• In the sign of Capricorn ( Carlsen Verlag)

• And always a bit further ... ( Carlsen Verlag)

• The Celts ( Carlsen Verlag)

• As part of the 20-volume series " Classics of the comic strip " by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ( FAZ) is " The South Sea Ballad " in DIN A5 format published as Volume 11, which is why the panels were remounted. There also is a new color scheme and translation.

More publications in Germany

• Ann Dan (ANN Y DAN 1959) 2 vols - 1982 Comic Forum ( series Comicothek )
• Complete edition - 1989 Comic - Verlagsges.mbH ( series Comicothek )
• Complete edition - 1996 Comic - Verlagsges.mbH ( series Comicothek )

• 3 vols - 1986 Comic - Verlagsges.mbH ( series Comicothek )
• Complete edition - 1994 series Comicothek

• 2 vols - 1986 Carlsen Verlag
• Works edition ( Volume 2 of Milo Manara - work edition ) - 2010 Panini Publishing

• 4 vols - 1986-1994 comic Verlagsges.mbH ( series Comicothek )
• Edition of vols 1-3 in one volume - 1994 series Comicothek

• 2000 - Cult editions