What exactly is going on there? Corto Maltese’s hallmark since Hugo Pratt produced the captain without a ship in 1967 for his “South Sea Ballad” is that the sailor’s coat and cap are gone. Instead, wear a baseball cap. Bastien Vivès and Martin Quenehen bring the principal character into the twenty-first century in “Corto Maltese – Black Ocean” (Translation Resel Rebiersch, writer and reader, 184 pages, €24.80). In the case of a Marvel character, they retell Corto Maltese’s origin story and set it in a parallel universe.
They offer Corto a makeover as a result of this. He’s back to being a pirate, and he hasn’t yet figured out what his superpower is. As befitting an anti-hero, this is a difficult concept to grasp. When it comes down to it, it’s probably an inherent sense of fairness that consistently triumphs over the nominally pursued financial motive.
Vivès and Quenehen provide all of the elements that make a good Corto Maltese story: a dash of mystical exoticism via a secret society with enigmatic symbols; a dash of eroticism via mysterious women; and the laconic, often poetic verbal contributions, particularly in dialogues with the inevitable “friend” Rasputin, the embodiment of a ruthlessness that Corto himself can never pull off. As an action-packed MacGuffin, there must also be treasure.
Pratt believes that wars are ideal times for individuals to meet. It was the First World War in the “South Sea Ballad.” The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, are also mentioned in “Black Ocean” as an epochal historical event that occurred at the period of the novel. Corto, on the other hand, usually stays out of the fray and takes the troubling news of the events in New York as an excuse to flee.
Corto is transformed into a modern-day action hero in Black Ocean. Vivès pushes the story’s overall cadence at points, only to back off a few gears later, particularly in the erotically charged sequences with Corto and his old acquaintance Freya.
With sex appeal, he’s a bad boy.
This is more richly painted than Pratt’s very dainty women, and so optically comes very obviously from the graphic Vivès universe, which, in contrast to Hugo Pratt’s curved lines, is defined by a flatter, softer style. Freya also gets closer to the hero than she usually does – Pratt always left it at hints.
Another Scene from Corto Maltese – Black Ocean”, “On the Open Sea: Another Scene from Corto Maltese – Black Ocean”.
Photograph of a writer and a reader
Despite all of the modernisation, Vivès’ Corto retains its normal free-spirited nonchalance. Vivè’s totally digitally made drawings, on the other hand, brilliantly depict the mysterious bad boy’s suppleness and sex appeal, and create a great, sometimes slightly washed-out setting for the protagonists’ faces, which are frequently just hinted at, with their subtle gray tones and shadow play.
The cover of the album in question.
Photograph of a writer and a reader
The panels are occasionally fuller than Pratt’s in city settings, but his style isn’t imitated either; it’s an independent work that captures the model’s spirit and attitude. Corto Maltese, on the other hand, stays recognizable as Pratt’s character, owing to the scriptwriter, who, unlike the cartoonist, has grown up with the series.
It’s still uncertain if there’s a single One Shot left. Corto’s gesture at the end of “Black Ocean” demonstrates that there is a limited amount of time for fresh experiences in the new universe: After the millennium, the digital era truly begins, and it’s difficult to conceive how Corto Maltese would handle the control (and self-discipline) that comes with it.
Nonetheless, Diaz Canales and Rubén Pellejero, who have been granted less flexibility and have been continuing Corto Maltese in the style of Hugo Pratt since 2015, are preparing to transfer their protagonists to Prague.