Hugo Pratt

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hugo Pratt (1989)

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

Life

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

In 1937 the family moved to what was then the Abyssinia protectorate of fascist Italy , which is now Ethiopia . When Haile Selassie came to power in 1941 with the support of Allied associations, the family, who had joined a fascist Italian militia , were arrested and interned . The father died; around 1943, however, the rest of the family could be evacuated to Italy with the help of the International Committee of the Red Cross before the approaching British army. 17-year-old Hugo Pratt was arrested there in 1944 on suspicion of being a South African spy . He was transferred to the German armed forces and had to do patrol with the water police . A friend, the partisan and later comic artist Giorgio Bellavitis , helped him escape across 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 US troop support . According to another version, he had worked as an interpreter for a fascist battalion and was interned in Austria for a while after the end of the war .

In 1945 he started in Venice an art studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice. It was here that Pratt's career as a comic artist began, together with friends, other illustrators and authors (including Alberto Ongaro and Dino Battaglia ) he founded the comic magazine Asso di Picche (German: "Pik As"). The title denotes Pratt's first major work.

In 1949, the Argentine publisher Cesare Civita recognized the artist's talent, and Hugo Pratt moved to Buenos Aires , where he drew adventure series such as Junglemen and Sergente Kirk . With Junglemen, Pratt had already found the style that is now considered typical of him. Other works include: Ernie Pike , Ticonderoga and Ann y Dan, who played in East Africa in 1913 . The author of this series was Héctor Germán Oesterheld . He drew Capitain Cormorant and Fort Wheeling for the Argentine magazine Misterix .

In 1953 Pratt married Gucky Wogerer from Argentina , with whom he had two children; the marriage was divorced again in 1957. At that time, Hugo Pratt led an unsteady adventure life.

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

In 1962 he moved from there to Venice , where he lived with the colorist Anne Frognier . Pratt worked for the youth supplement of Corriere della Sera , where he brought classic adventure stories from youth literature (for example Treasure Island , Odyssey ) into comic form based on the editor-in-chief's scenarios.

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

It was here that Una Ballata del Mare Salato (A South Seas Ballad) was published in 1967 , a melancholy adventure story in the tradition of Joseph Conrad , which is considered the starting point for European graphic novels . In this story, Corto Maltese appeared for the first time , a captain without a ship who would become the main character in Pratt's subsequent work. From 1970 and in the following three years, Pratt designed over 20 approximately 20-page episodes with Corto Maltese for the magazine Pif of the French publisher Vaillant. Pratt's other series and stories faded more and more into the background, Corto Maltese not only became the comic, which is enthusiastically acclaimed by the critics, but also a sales success: at the end of the 1980s, Pratt sold almost half a million of his albums a year.

In 1983, in collaboration with Milo Manara, two comic stories were created that deal with the colonization of America: An Indian Summer (two albums) and El Gaucho .

From the second half of the 1970s, Pratt also occasionally worked as a film actor. His most famous part was probably a not exactly minor supporting role in Leos Carax's Mauvais sang ( The Night is Young ).

Corto Maltese statue in Grandvaux

In 1984 Pratt moved to Grandvaux near Lausanne . He continued to work on new stories about Corto Maltese, but also renewed and improved bit by bit - in the style of Hergé - older works. One of his last works is the story of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's last flight : his last flight .

In 1995 Hugo Pratt died of cancer in Lausanne.

Awards and honors

In addition to countless other prizes and awards, Pratt was named Chevalier des Arts et Lettres . The Ordre des Arts et des Lettres is the highest distinction that can be bestowed on an artist in France. In 1989 he had already won the Grand Prix de la Ville d'Angoulême at the Festival International de la Bande Dessinée d'Angoulême .

In 2005, Pratt was posthumously inducted into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame.

Hugo Pratt received a different kind of honor from Milo Manara . He becomes a comic figure himself in his comic novels The Great Adventure and Day of Anger . Under his initials HP and the designation "Master of Adventure" he advises the (anti) hero Giuseppe Bergmann when he tries to experience an adventure.

Works

Corto Maltese

  • South Sea Ballade ( Carlsen Verlag 1983, b / w)
  • In the sign of the Capricorn (Carlsen Verlag 1981, b / w)
  • And always a little further (Carlsen Verlag 1982, b / w)
  • The Celts (Carlsen Verlag 1982, b / w)
  • The Ethiopians (Carlsen Verlag 1982, b / w)
  • Corto Maltese in Siberia (Carlsen Verlag 1984, b / w)
  • Venetian legend (Carlsen Verlag 1985, b / w)
  • The golden house of Samarkand (Carlsen Verlag 1987, b / w)
  • Adventure of a youth ( Ullstein Verlag 1987, b / w)
  • Argentine Tango (Carlsen Verlag 1988, b / w)
  • The Swiss (Carlsen Verlag 1991, color)
  • Das Reich Mu (Carlsen Verlag 1993, color)

The later color editions are mostly extended by additional, sometimes very extensive forewords.

Further publications in Germany

  • Ticonderoga (TICONDEROGA 1957–59), scenario by Héctor Oesterheld, drawn by Hugo Pratt
  • Ann + Dan (ANN Y DAN 1959)
    • 2 vols. - 1982 Comic Forum (Comicothek series)
    • Complete edition - 1989 Comic-Verlagsges.mbH (Comicothek series)
    • Complete edition - 1996 Comic-Verlagsges.mbH (Comicothek series)
  • Fort Wheeling (WHEELING 1962-64)
    • 3 Bde. - 1986 Comic-Verlagsges.mbH (Comicothek series)
    • Complete edition - 1994 Comicothek series
  • Fanfulla (FANFULLA 1965–68), scenario by Mino Milani, drawn by Hugo Pratt
  • Desert scorpions (GLI SCORPIONI DEL DESERTO 1969–1983)
    • 4 Bde. - 1986–1994 Comic-Verlagsges.mbH (Comicothek series)
    • Edition of volumes 1–3 in one volume - 1994 Comicothek series
  • The Man of the Caribbean / Svend (L'UOMO DEI CARAIBI 1976)
  • La Macumba del Gringo (L'UOMO DEL SERTÃO 1977)
  • West of Eden (L'UOMO DELLA SOMALIA 1979)
  • The Man from Canada / Jesuit Joe (L'UOMO DEL GRANDE NORD 1980)
    • 1993 - Series: Ein Mann ein Abenteuer No. 5, SC, Feest Comics / Ehapa-Verlag, also as a hardcover version in lim. u. sign. Edition
    • 2018 - in: A man, an adventure 1 (color, b / w), Verlag Schreiber & Leser (expanded to include part 2 and film storyboard), ISBN 978-3946337669 , ISBN 978-3946337676
  • Sand, nothing but sand (DU SABLE, RIEN QUE DU SABLE 1983)
    • 1990 - Comic-Verlagsges.mbH (Comicothek series)
  • An Indian Summer (TUTTO RICOMINCIO CON UN ESTATE INDIANA 1986) Artist: Milo Manara
    • 2 vols. - 1986 Carlsen Verlag
    • Complete edition - 1992 Carlsen Verlag
    • Work edition (Volume 2 of the Milo Manara - work edition) - 2010 Panini Verlag
  • Cato Zulu (CATO ZULÙ 1988)
  • El Gaucho (EL GAUCHO 1993) Artist: Milo Manara
    • 1995 - Carlsen Verlag (soft cover)
    • 1995 - Verlag Schreiber & Reader (hardcover in limited and signed edition)
    • Work edition (Volume 5 of the Milo Manara - work edition) - 2010 Panini Verlag
  • Saint Exupery: His Last Flight (SAINT EXUPERY 1994)
  • In a distant sky (DANS UN CIEL LOINTAIN 1994)
  • Morgan (MORGAN 1995)
    • 2000 - Cult Editions (96 pages, 34.80 DM)

Rights management and licenses

1983 Hugo Pratt founded the company Cong SA (a fantasy abbreviation of C omics O rganization N ews G old), which he transferred in 1987 the ownership and use rights of his works. Since then, Cong SA, under the direction of Pratt's former partner and colorist Patrizia Zanotti, has been monitoring copyright compliance and licensing the rights to the Corto Maltese and Hugo Pratt brands for new editions, merchandise, exhibitions and all other forms of publications.

The French-language publication rights have been with the Casterman publishing house since 1973 . German-language editions are usually based on their templates.

Exhibitions

  • Le voyage imaginaire de Hugo Pratt - Paris , Pinacothèque de Paris, March 17 - August 21, 2011
  • Hugo Pratt - I luoghi dell'avventura - Lugano , Museo d'Arte, July 8 - October 2, 2011
  • Hugo Pratt - Rencontres et passages - Brussels , Hergé Museum , October 2, 2015 - January 6, 2016
  • Hugo Pratt e Corto Maltese. 50 anni di viaggi nel mito - Bologna , Museo della Storia di Bologna, November 4, 2016 - March 19, 2017
  • Hugo Pratt - Lignes D'Horizons - Lyon , Musée des Confluences , 7 April 2018 - 24 March 2019
  • Corto Maltese. Un viaggio straordinario - Naples , National Archaeological Museum , April 25 - September 9, 2019
  • Hugo Pratt, les chemins du rêve - La Hulpe , Fondation Folon, 25 May - 5 January 2020
  • Hugo Pratt - Beyond Corto Maltese - Odense , Brandts Museum, September 27, 2019 - August 2, 2020

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hugo Pratt in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  2. ↑ Wolfgang J. Fuchs: Batman, Beatles, Barbarella. The cosmos in the speech bubble . Edition 8½ [eight and a half], Ebersberg 1985, ISBN 3-923979-09-6 , p. 54 .
  3. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from March 27, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.cong-pratt.com
  4. ↑ https://www.comicon.it/corto-maltese-un-viaggio-straordinario/
  5. ↑ https://fondationfolon.be/events/hugo-pratt-les-chemins-du-reve/
  6. ↑ https://brandts.dk/en/udstilling/hugo-pratt/

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Pratt, Hugo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pratt, Ugo Eugenio (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian comic book writer
DATE OF BIRTH June 15, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Rimini , Italy
DATE OF DEATH August 20, 1995
Place of death Lausanne , Switzerland