Corto Maltese: Under The Sign of Capricorn – spoiler light (3 preview pages incl

[Timothy]

Just picked up Mu! Now which to read first - Mu or Cruel Summer?   V excited for both.

[I, Cosh]

Just picked up Mu! Now which to read first - Mu or Cruel Summer?   V excited for both.

Bah! People who have access to actual comic shops make my blood boil.

Had been holding off on ordering this one but it's still not available on Wordery with a week to go until the "official" publication date. Should I just give in and get it from Amazon?

[Colin YNWA]

Wow didn't realise Mu was such a beast of a volume - mines just landed today.

And that's it. Wow - less than a week after I get a full set of lovely (off topic spines aside) set of hardcover Dante volumes finished I get these beautiful collections done and dusted.

Who'd have thunk even 7 years ago that we'd end up with such a well presented, complete set of these wonderful stories? I was happy with my, now clearly shoddy, reprint of Ballad. I'm off to do a special nerd wee I think...

[I, Cosh]

Pfft. Now it's gone from Amazon and Wordery completely. Feel quite aggreived about this.

[Colin YNWA]

Just finished 'Mu' and wow, possibly my favourite of the lot. I mean I haven't got a clue what was going on. Was it all a dream from when the islanders gases them in their sleep? What's with the return of his five o'clock shadow just as he leaves the Kingdom of the Dead and finds Rasputin again??? I mean it feels lazy to call this Corto Maltese in Wonderland but that's what it is.

Its a dreamy dream of a book and quite superb. I'm already looking forward to revisiting and discovering more. I suspect I'll be revisiting many times!

[Hawkmumbler]

Took delivery of IN SIBERIA and THE FABLE OF VENICE today. I'm about half way caught up after falling off the Corot wagon a few years back, a most egregious crime.

Six more volumes to go and yet more Pratt is still being rolled out, what a time to be alive.

[Colin YNWA]

Six more volumes to go and yet more Pratt is still being rolled out, what a time to be alive.

You have a world of wonderful to catch up on you lucky thing!

[I, Cosh]

Pfft. Now it's gone from Amazon and Wordery completely. Feel quite aggreived about this.

The saga continues. Finally gave in and ordered Mu from Amazon six weeks ago. Only problem is that I've moved house since I last ordered anything from them. The postcode is the same so I didn't think twice until the missed delivery.

Have another one coming now which should hopefully be here in time for Christmas.

[Colin YNWA]

Oh there's nothing like a necro, and this one isn't even really in context BUT its close enough and this thread should never fall so far off the top of the topic...

ANYWAY

Just read Indian Summer by Hugo Pratt and Milo Manara in a Manara Library edition, I'll come back to that. Now its a horrible read about a terrible world, full of vicious unplesent characters, violence and ugliness ... and its bloody brilliant and beautiful. The juxaposition of Manara's simply beautiful art and the ugly world the pair create is completely compelling.

The story centres on colonial America and it harsh realities. One act of horrible violence escaltes to focus the savage world all parties live in. This though is contrasted with much harder brutalities in a family history torn out in the middle of the tale. Nothing is right here and yet it reads so well.

I would suggest its not quite as good as Corto as it lacks the enigma and charm of the lead there, but its bloody good.

The Manara Library edition is the only one I own, I only got it for the Prattness not the Manaraness - why isn't there a Pratt Library... which is churlish given we have all those lovely Corto Maltese editions now AND the Treasury books ANYWAY - its a bloody lovely book and sits well alongside the glory that is the Maltese books. Its got a second story The Paper Man by Manara alone - which I hope to read tomorrow. But yeah if you like Corto get this.

Oh and The Man From the Great North is coming up soon.

[Colin YNWA]

Wow well Paper Man is a pretty great story. A down to earth flight of fantasy set in the early west. I could stretch my sense of it and say it provides potted history of America... but I think I'd be reading things that aren't there... maybe. I don't get it, I don't get what its about, but its still an absolute delight.

Wish I'd got more of the Manara Library volumes - they're crazy expensive now alas.

[The Mind of Wolfie Smith]

thanks for reminding me of indian summer, colin. i remember it so fondly from back in the day. in fact i recall picking it up along with a bunch of love and rockets, escape magazine, moebius, hermann and so much else that, heretically, didn't have any spandex. and having my tiny mind blown to smithereens forever.
i see that the first manara library edition is the only affordable volume at the moment. but i'm looking forward to your reviews of the other tales within before taking the plunge ...

[Colin YNWA]

i see that the first manara library edition is the only affordable volume at the moment. but i'm looking forward to your reviews of the other tales within before taking the plunge ...

No sorry that's it. I don't have any other volumes. I might just check my LCS as they used to have some. I'd like to get volume 2 as that has more Hugo Pratt stuff, I do wonder what put me off getting it back in the day. I remember I'd always wanted to read Indian Summer after hearing about it on some tv / film... so grabbed that and check volume 2 for the Pratt... I wonder what put me off getting it???

[Colin YNWA]

The Man from the Great North

Apparently the first English translation of Hugo Pratt's work about Jesuit Joe (there's an 1991 French film which uses that name) dressed in a red coat of a Canadian Mountie moving through the bleak snowy Canadian landscape making stark and intriguing choices. Its a fascinating read spoiled somewhat by the presentation. In an attempt to make this a complete collection of all of Pratt's work on Jesuit Joe. So interspersed with the 48 page original albums are additional pages from storyboards Pratt drew for the above mentioned film. They only serve as a distraction and would have served the story much better if presented outside the main story.

After this is a short beginning of an abandoned sequel. This resolves the wonderfully ambigious ending from the first story, but doesn't take the story elsewhere due to its aborted end.

In the end while it great to see all this its a classic case of less if more. The original story would have been far better served by being presented on its own, the rest added as seperate back matter. Shame as its all lovely and interesting, just poor used in this instance.

[CalHab]

That was my thought as well. I understand the desire to have a "complete" edition, but it didn't hang together and really took me out of the story.

That said, it's a striking piece of work.

[Colin YNWA]

That was my thought as well. I understand the desire to have a "complete" edition, but it didn't hang together and really took me out of the story.

That said, it's a striking piece of work.

It is that - its stunning, as ever with Hugo Pratt of course.