PRATT - Lot 70

PRATT HUGO PRATT CORTO MALTESE Les Celtiques (T.6), Casterman 1980 Original plate no. 18 from the story Concert en O mineur for harp and nitroglycerine, prepublished in Pif Gadget no. 151 January 10, 1972. The text is pasted into the phylacteries. A few traces of adhesive at the joint of the two and at the bottom. Indian ink and white gouache on paper 36 × 46.8 cm (14.17 × 18.43 in.) One day in October 2024, when Frank Miller was in Paris, he was asked who his favorite cartoonist was, and his answer was without hesitation: Hugo Pratt! The American master of black and white, who revolutionized the Batman universe, had recognized in him not only the great storyteller and precursor of the "graphic novel", but also the outstanding graphic artist that the Venetian cartoonist was. A retrospective exhibition is currently on show at the Centre Pompidou. If Corto Maltese has universal appeal, it's because he's at the heart of all the world's conflicts: in Russia, China, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Ethiopia, Brazil, on the Bay of Somme... and in Ireland, where Corto comes to seek, in his own words, "the Leprechaun's pot of gold", i.e. the legend. But alas, down here is master. And the friend he came to find, Pat Sullivan, whom he thought was a hero, is in reality a traitor sold out to the English, contrary to the nationalist fable. His own brother confesses this to Corto Maltese in this sublime plate, punctuated by patches of shadow and dead leaves, making it the central scene in the resolution of this story. Masterpiece!