As posted on the Corto Maltese website (with a hat-tip to American comics’ resident “Corto Maltese” #1 superfan Joe Keatinge), it appears that there’s going to be a new adventure starring Hugo Pratt’s seminal comic character for a new age, as was reported today by the French newspaper Le Figaro.
Written by Juan Diaz Canales (most known for his work on “Blacksad”) and Rubén Pellejero (of “Dieter Lumpen”), Pratt’s Corto Maltese will once again be adventuring sometime next year. It is not yet said what the story will itself be about, though it’s fair to assume a great adventure is involved. What’s noteworthy about this already, though, is that it will be published simultaneously in Italy by Rizzoli Lizard, in France and the Netherlands by Casterman, and in Spain by Norma Editorial for an October 2015 release date — which is pretty huge. While there is not a lot of reporting done on American comic sites about foreign books, it stands worth noting how big it is that a series like this would get simultaneous multilingual editions released.
There’s no word on an English edition, but IDW is publishing some new translations of Pratt’s original Corto Maltese adventures here in the states soon, so it’s possible that they might have something worked out for that. (If not, buy Rosetta Stone!)
I’ve read one iteration of a Corto Maltese adventure, and apparently it was a really poor and disrespectful iteration of it. I enjoyed it at the time before I was made aware of the flaws, but more importantly I am interested to see more of the character — both in terms of Pratt’s original releases and current adaptations, especially since I’m a firm believer that we need more adventure comics in general. Additionally, as Pratt had apparently told Dominique Petitfaux in “Shadow of Corto” (according to the Italian website Fumetto Logica via Google Translate), “I do not mind the idea that one day someone will decide to continue the adventures of Corto Maltese.” Having Canales and Pellejero seems like a good start, and it’s not like we haven’t had fairly decent and authentic re-imaginings of classic comic characters done by current talents — at least here in the States. Just look at the work Gabriel Rodriguez and Eric Shanowar have done on IDW’s “Little Nemo”.
That said, I can easily see the opposite side, wherein some might not find this news as great as others. There are a ton of classic comic characters created by amazingly prolific talent who have had large impacts on current generations of creators that I’d hate to see revived. Not for nothing, and maybe this is an inappropriate comparison, but certainly something like “Before Watchmen” comes to mind; the Maltese revival is definitely something that will not be even half as maligned as that endeavor was (at least not in the states), but it was talented creators reviving a comic series that didn’t necessarily call for it or need it. Pratt seemed OK with an eventual Maltese revival, but just because you can do something new doesn’t mean you should — especially when Pratt’s work is already so phenomenal.
(The aforementioned Keatinge makes perhaps a better analogy than I did, for what its worth.)
With America already having such poor access to English translations of Pratt’s comics, I imagine that the reaction to this news will be fairly muted overall. I don’t see many people throwing up arms either way. However, I’m certainly very interested to see what comes of this; I’ll happily to give the benefit of the doubt in this situation, especially with Canales and Pellejero involved.
Look for Corto Maltese to return in 2015 — or, if you’ve never read a Corto Maltese comic, to arrive later this year in December.
