Hugo Pratt

Hugo Pratt (Rimini, 1927 - Pully, 1995) was an Italian comics author, regarded as one of the masters of the ninth art. Corto Maltese, his sailor adventurer, first appeared in 1967 in the magazine Sgt. Kirk with "The Ballad of the Salt Sea", and the series ran until 1991. His brushwork, all contrasts of black and white and flat areas of ink, left a lasting mark on European comics. A childhood in Ethiopia, years in Argentina and Brazil, travels in Africa, South America and the Pacific: his biography feeds directly into stories mixing adventure, erudition, esotericism and melancholy.