PRATT - Lot 71

PRATT HUGO PRATT Les Scorpions du désert (T.2), Casterman 1991 Original illustration created in 1978. Also published in Périples imaginaires published by Casterman in 2005. Signed. India ink, colored inks, watercolor and felt pen on paper 50 × 35 cm (19.69 × 13.78 in.) Hugo Pratt, enlisted at an early age by his father in the Italian Fascist militia in Ethiopia, and discovering comics with the American army landing in Italy, has always been fascinated by uniforms, documenting regiments and battles in precise detail. An eye for detail? No doubt, but Pratt isn't trying to give a history lesson. He's simply aware that behind every soldier, living or dead, there's a story, an individual who isn't there by chance and who has lived through fire - in other words, a level of courage that few of us reach in a lifetime. That's why this illustration not only evokes Les Scorpions du désert or Corto Maltese, but is also an invitation to examine the history of this composite corps, the 7th Light Armoured Brigade, with its insignia of a long-legged jerboa (a desert rat). A corps that included a Jewish Sabra from Jaffa, a member of the Royal Air Force from Aden, an Egyptian auxiliary from Gaza and a Sudanese from Khartoum. This light tank division faced the Italian army when it invaded Egypt on September 13, 1940. It then played a decisive role in the Battle of Tobruk and took part in most of the battles in North Africa, including the two battles of El Alamein. Perhaps Pratt crossed paths with them, as the 7th was also part of the Italian campaign. Here we see a method: starting with an army corps, we distinguish individuals, characters who will make up the flesh of the next story.