Corto Maltese: Under the Sign of Capricorn

Description

"An Italian comics masterpiece is coming to America in a big way this year: Under the Sign of Capricorn ..." - Publishers Weekly This book, the first of twelve volumes, launches the definitive English-language edition of Hugo Pratt's masterpiece, presented in the original oversized B&W format and with new translations made from Pratt's original Italian scripts. Frank Miller calls Pratt "one of the true masters of comic art." Long before the term "graphic novel" entered the popular lexicon - ten years before Will Eisner's A Contract with God - Hugo Pratt pioneered the long-form "drawn literature" story. Corto Maltese set the standard for all adult adventure comics in Europe. By the mid-1970s, Corto was the continent's most popular series and Hugo Pratt the world's leading graphic novelist. Hugo Pratt's peripatetic sailor was featured in a series of twenty-nine stories. The adventures of this modern Ulysses are set during the first thirty years of the 20th Century in such exotic locales as Pratt's native Venice, the steppes of Manchuria, the Caribbean islands, the Danakil deserts, the desertcart forests, and the waves of the Pacific. EuroComics is working closely with Patrizia Zanotti, Pratt's long-time collaborator, to present the complete Corto Maltese in a series of twelve quality trade paperbacks in Pratt's original oversized B&W format. Corto Maltese: Under the Sign of Capricorn collects the first six inter-connected short stories Pratt created in France in the early 1970s: "The Secret of Tristan Bantam," "Rendez-vous in Bahia," "Sureshot Samba," "The Brazilian Eagle," "So Much for Gentlemen of Fortune," and "The Seagull's Fault." “Corto Maltese: Under the Sign of Capricorn brings one of the most exciting and original adventure narratives in the world of graphic novels to American shores with the beauty and intelligence of the author intact....The perfect introduction to the character. Corto Maltese is as timeless as Batman or The Man With No Name in the Sergio Leones film series that made Clint Eastwood a star.”-Mark Squirek, The New York Journal of Books “An absolute treasure, containing outstanding work by an acknowledged master creator, one who has long been out of reach of comic book fans... I recommend this to any true fan of comic book storytelling. It's that good.” - Project-Nerd “A stunning package that gives Pratt's creation the respect it deserves...IDW's collection brings Pratt's iconic work to the U.S. without losing any of its heart and soul, and readers should quickly seize this opportunity to experience one of the medium's great works.” -A.V. Club “The hype was right. Those of us who thought we had a great graphic novel collections and yet who didn't have this one, well, we have most definitely been missing out on something.” “A home run shot that is going to just keep going all the way out of the stadium and into orbit.” - The Scoop Review: A satisfying read for new readers and fans of Hugo Pratt - "Corto Maltese was relaxing on the quiet veranda of the Java Inn in Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana. Even in repose, it was obvious that he was a `man of destiny.'" This brief introduction, from the very first frame, illustrates the rest of the book perfectly. Hugo Pratt begins by placing the reader someplace familiar, a "quiet veranda," but that familiarity is diminished with each successive elaboration: the veranda is in the Java Inn, the Java Inn is in Paramaribo, and Paramaribo is in Dutch Guiana. That Corto Maltese, a non-native, feels comfortable enough to lounge in this place with his feet up surely speaks to his worldliness. The reader is inclined to believe the pronouncement that what they see is indeed a "man of destiny." The introduction, which continues in the second and third panels, can be read as a typical prelude to adventure, but it is almost elegant in its effectiveness. From the first panel alone, the reader will anticipate stories set in (relatively) distant places, with Corto Maltese as their guide; the easygoing manner with which he conducts himself will certainly make these places seem less distant--more accessible. Though not immediately evident in the first few panels, the word "destiny" carries with it a supernatural connotation that may further influence what the reader may expect. It's the beginning of what will be a satisfying 130 page read for new readers and fans of Hugo Pratt. Under the Sign of the Capricorn collects the following stories: "The Secret of Tristan Bantam," "Rendez-vous in Bahia," "Sureshot Samba," "The Brazilian Eagle," "So Much for Gentleman of Fortune" and "The Seagull's Fault." These stories were originally serialized in the French magazine Pif Gadget in 1970, one year after the first Corto Maltese story, Ballad of the Salt Sea, concluded in Italy. They were last published in the United States in the late 80s by NBM, in books that are out of print and very costly online. This reprint is presided over by Dean Mullaney of IDW publishing. The most immediately striking quality of this reprint is its size: the dimensions of the page are between A3 and A4 size, which makes the book heavy in the reader's hands. Mullaney uses this space to convey high quality reproductions of Hugo Pratt's original black and white art, with none of the cropping or panel rearrangement present in some overseas editions. There are single page divisions for chapters, using art from the story under the chapter titles. The front cover has an image of Corto surrounded by a dark halo and two stamps: one with the title of the book inscribed in a compass, and a EuroComics logo. If not for the size of the book, the design would not seem particularly engaging. The back is filled with praise from Pratt's contemporaries Milo Manara and Umberto Eco, and some major figures in western comics. The inside covers consist of a blurb in the front, and some background on Pratt in the back; they're also flaps that open to reveal maps of the locations featured in the book. It's fine--it works. The dialogue and narration of the book is not hand-lettered, instead using a font derived from the cartoonist Frank Engli's lettering. The use of this particular font is likely a deliberate choice on Mullaney's part as a nod to the origins of Corto Maltese: from the early 40s on, Engli was the letterer for Terry and the Pirates, an adventure strip that influenced Pratt tremendously. This connection aside, the lettering is well done. There are several points where Mullaney opts to bold certain words that are unbolded in the original text, but the stylistic choice is not obtrusive. The book's translation is a joint effort by Mullaney and Simone Castaldi, associate professor of Hofstra University. Pratt's words are filtered through Castaldi first, with further editing by Mullaney. It's unclear where the work of the former ends and the latter begins, as several sections of text chosen at random seem to match the Italian script extremely well. This translation, then, is closer to a literal translation, with very little latitude given to extra interpretation of the Italian script. While the translation is superb for purists, there are moments of stiffness that seem to aggregate in long scenes and monologues. Most of the choices made by Mullaney in delivering Under the Sign of the Capricorn achieve its end of delivering Pratt's stories in an undiluted form--it's a fine reprint in this sense. Its merits alone are enough for Pratt fans to justify their purchase-- --for new readers, the artist's storytelling makes the case for the book. While Pratt's art in Ballad of the Salt Sea seemed to come into its own through the course of the story, his talents are consistent through the six stories of this book. Pratt's draftsmanship emphasizes white space, with the majority of panels lacking a clear background. The characters and their expressions are the most important: the reader will note those frames where Pratt obscures some of a character's features in shadow, or the multitude of panels where Corto Maltese seems to be looking directly into the eyes of the reader. When backgrounds are drawn, they're either simple leaves and brush, or very detailed establishing frames. The entire range of Pratt's abilities in 1970 are on display in a fantastic scene a little ways into the book. This four page sequence is downright mesmerizing; it's an almost-precursor for the more unrestrained storytelling present in later Corto Maltese stories. There's nothing like it in the other stories here. In terms of the stories themselves: the first story in Under the Sign of the Capricorn takes place in 1916, a year after the end of Ballad of the Salt Sea. Corto's past adventure is referenced by some of the people he meets here, but it's not necessary to read Ballad of the Salt Sea before reading this book--consider that in the case of France, where these stories were originally published, a translation of Ballad of the Salt Sea was not made available until 1973, several years after the publication of these stories. The stories read well for a reader without any prior background. The first story revolves around a boy with an enigmatic pedigree searching for a missing person. He endears himself to the drifter Corto Maltese, who agrees to travel with him. The principal characters set off and become embroiled in several adventures, including a guerilla uprising, the Great War, and an encounter with evangelists. The stories are episodic, save for an overarching plot that runs through several stories. They tend to end with Corto and company reflecting on what has just passed as they sail on to their next destination. In each story, there's a revolving door of secondary characters that are introduced and shunted out within pages, often unceremoniously. Though sometimes outcast because of the color of his skin, or his pierced ear, Corto is usually able to find some common ground with the colonials, natives, and other outcasts he encounters. He's corralled into helping others based on their extraordinary circumstances, or the promise of riches. His raffish charm arises from the intersection of his superficial indifference, and the moral code he tries his damnedest to conceal. "I don't have any enemies!" he remarks in one of the stories. "I mind my own business and that's it..." The episodic nature of these stories means that there's little major development for the principal characters: much of the pleasure of reading comes from weighing each story and the events within individually. The closing scene of each chapter helps achieve this end: the characters reflect on their adventure with a mixture of humor and insights into human nature, the limits of reality, and the fate of colonialism. These scenes usually end with an image of Corto's boat sailing off into the horizon, which has a strange power to satisfy on its own. There's an overarching plot that's mostly wrapped up long before book's end. There's also an inkling of a much greater mystery introduced early on, but it isn't explored much here--and won't be dealt with in full until the end of the Corto Maltese cycle. The stories work well enough individually that neither of these is a terrible problem for the reader by the time they finish reading. Under the Sign of Capricorn has some terrific Corto Maltese stories that are conveyed to the English-speaking reader extremely well thanks to the choices made by Dean Mullaney and his team in reprinting them. As always, Hugo Pratt balances good writing with excellent draftsmanship to achieve a set of adventure stories that tend to rise above the trappings of the genre with their mature themes and commentary. Fans of Pratt and new readers will find much to appreciate here. Review: High quality printing and translation! - An ocean, a continent, and many, many years now separate me from my first encounter with Corto Maltese, back when I picked up several albums with a Danish translation of some of the stories in my native Norway. One of those albums still remain with me, and I have re-read it with great pleasure in the last year. Now, as I read the IDW translation and publication of some of the same stories, I realize for the first time that the Danish publication in some ways was below the standard it should have been. It is credit to the original art and story telling that the books still made an unerasable impression. But with this version from IDW, it's like having that same first experience over again. This is a beautiful work of art, and the publisher have done everything right: the paper weight of the pages is great, and the print is pristine (putting in contrast what I now see is the photocopy quality of my youth's Danish version). Without knowing the original Italian text I can't speak hundred percent for the translation but I can say that the English story reads splendidly (and better than the Danish version). I now have the two first albums in this series from IDW and can't wait for the rest of them. Please release them faster!