Post-Pratov Corto remains a dreamer

The first complete album of the post-Pratov Corto Maltese on almost 180 pages, Black ocean, finally came out in Serbia, published by Darkwood and translated by Goran Kostrović. The authors are the French cartoonist and screenwriter Bastien Vives and Martin Kenen, mostly unknown to the domestic audience.

Black ocean

This Corto Maltese, however, is different from the one we were used to when Hugo Pratt drew it. However, did we really get a different comic?

Like many other comics on which the original cartoonists left a deep mark (Prince Valiant, Lieutenant Blueberry, Asterix, Tall Tom, Alan Ford), Corto Maltese was continued after the death of the author who conceived and founded it. Black ocean (Black Ocean) is the fourth album drawn after the death of Hugo Pratt, and the first which, in the form of a comic album, was published in Serbia. But this time it's about the young Cort, and the plot is set at the beginning of the 21st century, at the time of Al Qaeda's attack on America on September 11, 2001.

The first episode of Corto Maltese titled Ballad about the salt sea was published in 1967, and the last one under the name Mu, the lost continent in 1988. After the death of Hugo Pratt in 1995 and a lot of thinking about what to do with the series, the Belgian publishing house Casterman decided to restart the series with new artists in 2015 when the first album was released. Black ocean was originally published in 2021 in the European Union and is the first complete post-Pratov album by Kort Maltese published in Serbia.

Twenty years had to pass before the continuation of the series. The new Corto Maltese began to develop in two directions. The former continued to inherit the tradition of the original Pratt Court. This direction was entrusted to Juan Diaz Canales and Ruben Paljero, two Spanish authors, who were given the task of literally imitating Pratt's drawing and the atmosphere of the comic. Within this direction, four albums have been released so far, which are set in time in the period 1911-1924. year, therefore, at the time when the plot of Prat's Corto Maltese takes place. Parts of the first album of these two authors Under the midnight sun were published in Serbia in sequels in Comics during 2017/2018. year, but so far they have not been published as comic albums.

The second direction, which represents the just released Black ocean, however, brings a visual reworking of the series. The main change is not only related to the drawing, but also to the historical period in which the comic takes place. While Pratt's Corto is set in the first quarter of the 20th century, Corto from Black Ocean is some 20 years younger, and the action begins at the beginning of the 21st century at the moment when Al Qaeda demolishes the Twin Towers in New York. Although the album caused controversy and debate immediately after its release, due to the different way of drawing and the era, the episode quickly sold out in Europe. Recently, the second album of this French tandem was printed in a circulation of 100.000 copies Queen of Babylon. One part of the action takes place in Sarajevo.

Black Ocean side

Vives and Kenen are authors who belong to a different comic and film tradition. Pratt was influenced by western films as well as the black wave films of the 1940s. Vives and Keenen grew up in the action cinematography of the 1980s and 1990s, which is felt in the completely different action scenes. Vives (1984) also grew up on a different comic book genre. Although it belongs to the genre black and, like Pratt, cultivates a minimalist style (without much surrounding detail), his drawing is quite different. While Pratt used lines of varying thickness to create a black and white effect, Vives creates more massive objects. His drawing is denser and fuller than Pratt's.

Vives, whose work is not known in the domestic comics market, attracted the attention of the European comics public in 2009 when he released his debut album The taste of chlorine, which brought him critical acclaim for its unique artistic style and emotional depth. Vives' drawing has a unique ability to capture the subtleties of human relationships and the complexities of everyday life, which has kept him at the top of the European comics scene with a whole series of albums he's released over the last ten years. The themes Vives tackled are varied: the discovery of sexuality (Blouse, 2018), the breakup of a love relationship (Butcher's, 2021) or crime (14. July, 2020) whose story delves into the righteousness of a traumatized, paranoid and divided France. Vives devoted a part of his career to experimentation. Serial Lastman (published in the period 2013–2019 in collaboration with two other French authors) is heavily influenced by manga, which is why the comic got the name "French manga".

The drawing is different, but the French authors adhere to Court's figure established by Pratt. Kenan remains faithful to Hugo Pratt's narrative that actively challenges the Western-centric worldview and maintains epistemological pluralism (recognition that there are multiple ways of knowing or understanding the world.) Corteau remains a dreamer. Once again, he goes in search of a treasure that does not exist. Continuity is also observed in the relationship between Cort and Rasputin, Cort's dark alter ego, without whom it is impossible to imagine the series. Although both are on the other side of the law, Corto is tolerant, compassionate towards outsiders and often supports the vulnerable and downtrodden. In contrast, Rasputin has no moral scruples and unfailingly chooses to operate on the dark side.

The two meet once again in The Black Ocean. And this time, the dynamics of their relationship is crucial to the storytelling and the definition of Cort's character. The appearance of Rasputin and the mockery of Cort's reverie enriches the narrative. While Corto is looking for a treasure that doesn't exist, Rasputin is dealing in drugs. The temporary parting in this episode also underscores that counterpoint: while Corto continues to search for treasure, Rasputin indulges in sexual debauchery on a bus full of psychedelic feminists.

Corto remains a life cynic who does not tolerate authority, neither official nor unofficial. At the beginning of the episode, he leaves the pirate gang because he doesn't agree with their violent and bloody techniques. When he arrives in Japan, he sneers at a member of the Japanese secret service who informs him that he is under surveillance. He treats the CIA agent who interrogates him at the US Embassy in Lima on 11/XNUMX in a similar way. After telling him that characters like him are constantly doing shit, the agent gets a message on the phone that the Twin Towers have fallen. Corto asked him with a sneer: "Some shit?"

The redefinition of the comic series is not radical, but it is still significant to say that Corto will not be the same comic after Vives' intervention. The beginning is promising. Judging by Vives' other comics, we can expect an equally good sequel.