Stereo Comics   +  Hugo Pratt

latest eBay purchases - a report

A couple of old NBM CORTO MALTESE editions, "Voodoo For The President" and "The Early Years".

The translation is terrible, but man is it worth persevering. No stiff, strangled dialogue can undermine the glory of Hugo Pratt's linework. For the uninitiated, the nearest comparison is that it's like an existentialist, post-imperialist TINTIN drawn by Milton Caniff. But then, that's a pretty horrible comparison. Anyway, it's bloody criminal that these are out of print in English, and the NBM editions are starting to sky-rocket on the back issue market.

If I won the lottery (which isn't very likely, seeing as I never buy a ticket) I'd start a publishing house that buys the English language reprint rights to European classics currently languishing in limbo. Corto, Blueberry... there's money to be made in them thar hills!