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| Hugo Pratt | |
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_by_Erling_Mandelmann_-_2.jpg) Pratt in 1989 | |
| Born | Ugo Eugenio Prat (1927-06-15)15 June 1927 Rimini, Kingdom of Italy |
| Died | 20 August 1995(1995-08-20) (aged 68) Pully, Switzerland |
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| Awards | Full list |
Ugo Eugenio Prat (15 June 1927 – 20 August 1995), better known asHugo Pratt, was an Italiancomic book creator who was known for combining strong storytelling with extensive historical research on works such asCorto Maltese. He was inducted into theWill Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2005, and was awarded the 15th anniversary specialGrand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême at the Angoulême Festival. In 1946 Hugo Pratt became part of the so-called Group of Venice withFernando Carcupino,Dino Battaglia andDamiano Damiani.
Born inRimini, Italy, to Rolando Prat and Evelina (Genero) Prat, Ugo Eugenio Prat spent much of his childhood inVenice in a very cosmopolitan family environment. His paternal grandfather Joseph wasCatholic ofEnglish andProvençal origins, his maternal grandfather was of hiddenJewish descent and his grandmother was of Turkish origin.[1] In 1937, Pratt moved with his mother to Abyssinia (Ethiopia), joining his father who had moved there following theinvasion of that country byBenito Mussolini'sItaly. Pratt's father, a non-commissioned officer of theMVSN, was captured in 1941 by British troops and, in late 1942, died from disease as a prisoner of war. The same year, Hugo Pratt and his mother were interned in a prison camp atDirédaoua, where he would buy comics from guards, and later was sent back to Italy by the Red Cross.[citation needed]
After the war, Pratt moved to Venice where he organized entertainment for the Allied troops. Later Pratt joined the Venice Group with other Italian cartoonists, includingAlberto Ongaro, Gian Carlo Guarda[2][3][4] andMario Faustinelli. Their magazineAsso di Picche, launched in 1945 asAlbo Uragano, concentrated onadventure comics. The magazine scored some success and published works by young talents, includingDino Battaglia. His eponymous characterAsso di Picche (Ace of Spades) was a success, mainly inArgentina, where Pratt was invited in 1949.[citation needed]
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In the late 1940s he moved toBuenos Aires, where he worked for Argentine publisher Editorial Abril and met Argentine comics artists such asAlberto Breccia andSolano López. The passage toEditorial Frontera saw the publication of some of his most important early series. These includedSergeant Kirk andErnie Pike, written byHéctor Germán Oesterheld.
Pratt taught drawing in the Escuela Panamericana de Arte directed by Enrique Lipszyc. He often travelled toSouth American destinations such as theAmazon andMato Grosso. During that period he produced his first comic book as a complete author, both writing and illustratingAnna nella giungla (Ann of the Jungle), which was followed by the similarCapitan Cormorant andWheeling. The latter was completed after his return to Italy.
From the summer of 1959 to the summer of 1960, Pratt lived in London where he drew a series of war comics forFleetway Publications, with British scriptwriters. He then returned to Argentina, despite the harsh economic times there. From there, he moved again to Italy in 1962 where he started a collaboration with the children's comic book magazineCorriere dei Piccoli, for which he adapted several classics of adventure literature, includingTreasure Island andKidnapped byRobert Louis Stevenson.
In 1967, Pratt met Florenzo Ivaldi; the two created a comics magazine named after his character,Sergeant Kirk, the hero first written byHéctor Oesterheld. Pratt's most famous story,Una ballata del mare salato (A Ballad of the Salty Sea), is published in the first issue and introduced his best-known character,Corto Maltese.
Corto's series continued three years later in the French magazinePif Gadget. Due to his rather mixed family ancestry, Pratt had learned snippets of things such askabbalism and much history. Many of his stories are placed in real historical eras and deal with real events: the 1755 war between French and British colonists inTiconderoga, colonial wars in Africa and bothworld wars, for example. Pratt did exhaustive research for factual and visual details, and some characters are real historical figures or loosely based on them, such as Corto's main friend/enemy, Rasputin. Many of the minor characters cross over into other stories in a way that places all of Pratt’s stories into the same continuum.
Pratt's main series in the second part of his career includeGli scorpioni del deserto (five stories) andJesuit Joe. He also wrote stories for his friend and pupilMilo Manara forTutto ricominciò con un'estate indiana andEl Gaucho.
From 1970 to 1984, Pratt lived mainly in France where Corto Maltese, a psychologically very complex character resulting from the travel experiences and the endless inventive capacity of his author, became the main character of a comics series. Initially published from 1970 to 1973 by the magazinePif Gadget, it brought him much popular and critical success. Later published in album format, this series was eventually translated into fifteen languages. From 1984–95 he lived in Switzerland, where the international success that Corto Maltese sparked continued to grow. In France, most of his pre-Corto Maltese works were published in several album editions by publishers such asCasterman,Dargaud, andLes Humanoïdes Associés. A wanderer by nature, Hugo Pratt continued to travel from Canada to Patagonia, from Africa to the Pacific area. He died ofbowel cancer on 20 August 1995.[5]
Pratt cited authors such asRobert Louis Stevenson,James Oliver Curwood,Zane Grey,Kenneth Roberts,Henry De Vere Stacpoole,Joseph Conrad,Fenimore Cooper,Herman Melville andJack London as influences, along with cartoonistsLyman Young,Will Eisner, and especiallyMilton Caniff.[citation needed]
On Friday, 15 July 2005, atSan Diego Comic-Con's 17th AnnualWill Eisner Comic Industry Awards, he was one of four professionals that year inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame.[citation needed]
One of the series created by Pratt, entitled "The Scorpions of the Desert" in English, has been continued after Pratt's death. In 2005 a sixth volume in this series was released, drawn by Pierre Wazeem and entitled "Le chemin de fièvre". A seventh album was scheduled by the French publishers Casterman for release in March 2008. Casterman have also on several occasions hinted at the possible future release of a further episode in the Corto Maltese saga.[citation needed]
In 2015, IDW Publishing'sEuroComics[6] imprint launched the definitive English-language edition of Corto Maltese, with new translations made from Pratt's original Italian scripts.
Swiss directorStefano Knuchel started a trilogy of documentaries about Pratt, releasingHugo en Afrique in 2009, followed byHugo in Argentina in 2021.[7][8] In 2022, Knuchel announced working on the third part of the trilogy,Hugo in Venice.[9]
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