In the early eighties I used to order albums from Denmark that hadn't been translated into Norwegian. One of them was The Ballad of The Salt Sea, by Hugo Pratt, where Corto Maltese makes his first appearance. It's one of the first graphic novels (before that term was invented!), and it's still a great book. Pratt's drawings are just as fresh today. The book has been published in both black and white and in colour, but I really reccommend the black and white version.
Storm P (1882-1949) was a Danish cartoonist. I had several collections of his drawings and really enjoyed his characters and the inventiveness of his drawings.
A Contract With God by Will Eisner made a big impression when I first read it. I also liked his Big City - A Portrait and The Spirit comics.
In the early eighties I used to order albums from Denmark that hadn't been translated into Norwegian. One of them was The Ballad of The Salt Sea, by Hugo Pratt, where Corto Maltese makes his first appearance. It's one of the first graphic novels (before that term was invented!), and it's still a great book. Pratt's drawings are just as fresh today. The book has been published in both black and white and in colour, but I really reccommend the black and white version.
Storm P (1882-1949) was a Danish cartoonist. I had several collections of his drawings and really enjoyed his characters and the inventiveness of his drawings.
A Contract With God by Will Eisner made a big impression when I first read it. I also liked his Big City - A Portrait and The Spirit comics.
I've got an excellent black and white English edition of Ballad of the Salt Sea, which is probably one of my three most re-read graphic novels. Never knew that it was Corto's first appearance though. Read a couple of the Cartland books but I'm more a Ford and Hawks man too.
ReplyDeleteA new copy of Ballad of the Salt Sea goes for 260 dollars at amazon. It's too bad that it's out of print in English. Corto Maltese in Siberia is another excellent book.
ReplyDeleteOh, I accidentally stumbled upon an ancient NBM copy of "Corto Maltese in Siberia" in the library and yes, that's so true, his works stood the test of time well. I love the last few quiet pages where Corto comes back to find the Lanterns girl (and her husband), such a perfect ending! I must've spent a week copying every other panel and re-reading it a thousand times...
ReplyDeleteI heard that The Ballad of The Salt Sea is finally to be reprinted in English around Fall and other Corto books are (hopefully) to follow. Can't wait!
Corto getting back in print in English sounds great. (Where did that first comment go? Blogger's been acting strange lately...) Anyway, yes! The ending of Corto Maltese in Siberia was pretty much perfect.
ReplyDeleteI've done some editing on this post. Originally I showed a Jonathan Cartland cover, a series I liked, but it's not really among the biggest favourites. Then a Chaland cover, but again it didn't feel quite right. I ended up replacing them with the current A Contract With God cover.
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