BD – A new Corto Maltese that has everything to seduce

Since the death of Hugo Pratt in 1995, his most famous hero, the sailor Corto Maltese, has already experienced a rebirth. Since 2015, screenwriter Juan Diaz Canales and cartoonist Rubén Pellejero have taken up the adventures of the most charismatic character in comics. They did so while respecting both the era in which Pratt brought his hero to life as well as the graphics of the Italian master. It looks very much like Corto but, in our opinion, it’s not Corto.

The two authors have made him too traditional a hero, who lacks this detachment, this air of not touching it and this languor which make the sailor a character without equal in comics. And then there is this rhythm, peculiar to Pratt, that contemplative slowness, so difficult to reproduce.

Today, it is the designer Bastien Vivès and the screenwriter Martin Quenehen who offer their interpretation, probably limited to a single album, of the myth created by Pratt. By upsetting the rules. Corto Maltese plays in “Black Ocean” in 2001, the September 11 attacks playing a certain role in the story. He no longer has his navy officer’s cap but a baseball cap. And, above all, Vivès keeps its own graphics without thinking of imitating that of Pratt.

It does not therefore look like Corto but it is nevertheless pure Corto and above all an excellent Corto. Everything is there: the trips, the treasure hunt, a bit of action, a lot of detachment, a tone, a rhythm, dialogues, almost outright a perfume, some Pratt without being one. And above all, as Vivès has noticed, Corto is one of the sexiest male characters in comics. The designer manages, a fine feat, to show it attractive in each box.

Its stroke differs from that of Pratt, but has the same lightness, the same economy for maximum effect. Raspoutine, Vivès version, that’s something! And then there are the women, essential in the work of Pratt and in the life of Corto. Vivès loves to draw them, often naked, always luscious. There too he dares, which Pratt rarely ventured to do, during a beautiful scene at sea which suggests a wave of pleasure to come. And it does not clash at all. With this sublime dialogue at the moment of separation, Corto telling him: “Finally, find the golden head (the treasure they’re looking for, editor’s note) aren’t you interested? ”. And she replies: “It’s only your head that interests me Corto.” And it is always elsewhere ”. Corto has been there and once again will disappear, like a fading shadow, like a legend carried by the wind. Leaving the reader with that sense of nostalgia, as Pratt knew so well.