Today is The Grandma'sbirthday and the weather has wanted to give her a lovely rainy day, perhaps because it knows that The Grandma really likes these rainy and introspective days, fantastic for a good read and good company.
She will have the best company this afternoon when Claire Fontaine and Josephde Ca'th Lon, who is some days in Barcelona, come to see her and all together enjoy the French football cup final, a very important match for the Northern Star, and she will have a good read before and after accompanied by Corto Maltese and his Celtic adventures.
Celtic Tales (or The Celts) is a volume of comics that brings together six adventures of Corto Maltese, a Maltese sailor. These stories were written and drawn by the Italian comic book creator Hugo Pratt, and published for the first time between 1971 and 1972 in the French comic magazine Pif Gadget. They take place in Europe, during World War I, between 1917 and 1918. The stories are:
-The Angel in the Window to the Orient
-Under the Flag of Gold
-Concerto in O Minor for Harp and Nitroglycerin
-A Midwinter Morning’s Dream -Côtes de Nuit and Picardy Roses
-Burlesque Between Zuydcoote and Bray-Dunes
Hugo Pratt has produced numerous additional drawings of the characters and places relating to the stories in this album, as he did with other episodes of the series. Here, for example, he drew different places in Ireland and historical or legendary characters.
Among the many covers existing for Celtic Tales, one of them shows a poem in which Corto Maltese thanks different characters, mostly from Celtic legends:
-Merlin, the enchanter or wizard featured in Arthurian legend (like the followings three characters);
-Morgan le Fay and Viviane the Lady of the Lake;
-King Arthur;
-Oberon (king of the fairies) and Puck;
-The Irish leprechauns;
-The Cornish Pixies;
-The Scottish boggles;
-The Breton Korrigans;
-The Welsh miners, Wales being renowned for its coal industry;
-The French elves;
-The Druids of Folle Pensée (name of a locality in the Paimpont forest);
-The little folk of the forest of Brocéliande;
-The royal ravens of Stonehenge;
-W. B. Yeats, the Irish poet;
-And the harp of the wind somewhere to the north.
Hugo Pratt won the Prix Saint-Michel, for "Best Realistic Writing" in 1977, for the story A Midwinter Morning's Dream.
Twenty years after the death of Hugo Pratt, his ex-assistant Lele Vianello, another Italian comic book creator, gave him a tribute album. Entitled Twenty after... Homage to Hugo Pratt, it includes drawings inspired by the story A Midwinter Morning’s Dream, where Corto and characters from Celtic legends await Pratt on the day of his death to welcome him into their world.
The Grandma has had a few days of introspection and reflection. These days she never lacks the company of her beloved Corto Maltese to whom she turns in search of peace, tranquility and spirituality.
Joseph de Ca'th Lon sent her a fantastic Panini collection entitled CortoMaltese: Diario di Viaggioand she has been reading it, sticking the stickers and placing the cards until she has had the complete collection. Then, she has reread TheBallad of the Salty Sea, the first episode of the adventures of Corto Maltese, her admired adventurer.
As she always turns to Corto, it has been a great pleasure to share these days with him, to recharge and to get up again to continue forward, because we really have to continue forward on this beautiful but complicated journey that is life.
Una ballata del mare salato, in English The Ballad of the Salty Sea, is a graphic novel, the first episode of the adventures of Corto Maltese, aMaltese sailor.
This story was written and drawn by the Italian comic book creator HugoPratt.
It was published for the first time between 1967 and 1969, in the magazine Il Sergente Kirk. It takes place in Melanesia (Western Oceania), shortly before World War I, between 1913 and 1915. It introduces many future important characters from the series, such as the romantic Corto, the crazy Russian sailor Rasputin, and the young cousins Pandora and Cain.
Although the story introduces a new comic book character destined to become famous, Corto Maltese is not the main character. According to Pratt, Pandora Groovesnore is the central character. He explains that everyone is in love with her, and that she is a kind and beautiful girl who becomes an adult. Corto is just a secondary character, like so many others in this story. The cartoonist did not suspect that he would reuse the Corto Maltese character for a whole series.
To pretend that this story is true, Pratt published, in addition, a fake letter from Cain's nephew, Obregan Carrenza, which he had to give to the cartoonist himself. This process is also often used in adventure novels. This document, dating from the middle of the 20th century évokes Corto's old age and his sadness following the death of his friend Tarao. This letter is missing from many editions of this story, probably because some publishers refuse to let the reader imagine the aging hero.
Hugo Pratt will reuse Corto Maltese for news adventures taking place in America, published for the first time in 1970 and collected in the volume Under the Sign of Capricorn. This is the start of his Corto Maltese series, comprising twelve episodes. One of which takes place eight years before the first episode, in 1905 in Manchuria (China), relating the meeting between Corto and Rasputin:Corto Maltese: The Early Years. After Pratt's death, the series was resumed by Ruben Pellejero and Juan Diaz Canales. They have currently made three additional episodes. In the last one, they imagined a prequel to The Ballad of the Salty Sea, All Saints Day, to explain why Corto was attached to the raft and how he worked for the Monk.
Escondida is a fictional island located in Western Oceania, the scene of an important part of this story. Its coordinates are 169° west longitude, 19° south latitude. Which corresponds to the location of the Tanna Island, in Vanuatu, near New Caledonia. However, Pratt claimed that his model was Abaiang (Gilbert Islands, Kiribati).
The story abounds in literary references. For example, at the start, Rasputin is reading Voyage autour du monde, Louis Antoine de Bougainville's travel diary. This French explorer indeed sailed in the same zone where he was at that time. Cain, on several occasions, spreads his culture through various allusions. Thus, when he failed on a beach with Tarao, he compares themself to Robinson Crusoe and Friday (characters created by Daniel Defoe). Then, when they escape from the cannibals with the others, he tells him about Moby Dick (from the novel Moby-Dick by Herman Melville). Later, in Slütter's submarine, he is reading The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the long poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Finally, when he leaves Escondida with Pandora, he evokes the ship Argo and the character Jason, from Greek mythology.
Twenty years after the creation of this story, Pratt slipped a dedication into it. It pays homage to the Irish writer Henry De Vere Stacpoole, who piqued Pratt'sinterest in the South Seas.
Hugo Pratt discreetly slides into his story various allusions to cultural elements of the different Oceanian peoples encountered, whether through their songs or their conversations. They allude for example to gods, creatures or illustrious people, like Kanaloa, Tāne, Tū, Rongo, Tangaroa, Māui, Kupe, Tamatea (explorer), Pehee Nuee Nuee. They also speak of mythical places like Hawaiki. Finally, they evoke several of the many Pacific islands: Mangareva, Hawaii, Tahiti, Heragi (Māori name for Pitcairn Island, in Pitcairn Islands), Aotearoa (Māori name for New Zealand), Tubuai. The decor of the comic is punctuated by various Oceanian masks. Several of them are thus visible on the house where Cain is a prisoner. These items resemble those made by Baining people, they live in Papua New Guinea.
Despite this realism, Pratt allows himself touches of fantasy, sometimes making his Oceanian characters speak in Venetian language (an element that translators leave as is).
The album won the award for the best foreign realistic work at the 1976 Angoulême Festival.
This story was classified in 2012 at the 3rd place of the classification of 50 essential BD established by the French magazine Lire.
Umberto Eco, Italian novelist and literary critic, wrote a preface to this story (found in the 1989 edition) on the geographic and cultural references of this story.
Anyone who knows TheGrandma even a little knows about her passion for literature, art, history, sports, nature and graphic novels. And anyone who knows her well knows that her platonic love is an enigmatic sailor born in Valletta, with no future line in his hands and a tremendously attractive life.
Today, the postwoman has brought a very special package to TheGrandma. It was a shipment from Josephde Ca'th Lon from Italy and upon opening it, she hasgone crazy with love to find there books, stickers and a puzzle of his beloved sailor, the incomparable and mysterious CortoMaltese. Thank you very much, Joseph,for always thinking of her despite the distance. Next Sunday you will meet again and share hobbies and emotions as always.
Le sere azzurre d'estate, andrò per i sentieri, Punzecchiato dal grano, a calpestare erba fina: Trasognato, ne sentirò la freschezza ai piedi. Lascerò che il vento mi bagni il capo nudo. Non parlerò, non penserò a niente: Ma l'amore infinito mi salirà nell'anima, E andrò lontano, molto lontano, come uno zingaro, Nella Natura, -felice come con una donna.
Corto Maltese is a series of adventure comics following the eponymous protagonist, an adventurous sailor.
It was created by the Italian comic book creator Hugo Pratt in 1967. The comics are highly praised as some of the most artistic and literary graphic novels ever written and have been translated into numerous languages and adapted into several animated films.
The series features Corto Maltese, an enigmatic sea captain who lives in the first three decades of the 20th century. Born in Valletta on the island of Maltaon 10 July 1887, the son of a sailor from Cornwall, and a gypsy from Seville.
In his adventures full of real-world references, Corto has often crossed with real historical characters like the American author Jack London and his nurse Virginia Prentiss, the American outlaw Butch Cassidy, the German World War I flying ace Red Baron, and many others.
The character debuted in the serial Ballad of the Salty Sea, one of several Pratt stories published in the first edition of the Ivaldi Editore comics magazine Sergeant Kirk in July 1967. The story centers around smugglers and pirates in the World War I -era Pacific Islands. In 1970, Pratt moved to France and began a series of short Corto Maltese stories for the French comics magazine Pif Gadget, an arrangement lasting four years and producing many 20-page stories. In 1974 he returned to full-length stories, sending Corto to 1918 Siberia in the story CortoMaltese in Siberia, first serialised in the Italian comics magazine Linus.
In 1976, Ballad of the Salty Sea was published in book format and was awarded the prize for best foreign realistic comic album at the Angoulême International Comics Festival.
Pratt continued to produce new stories over the next two decades, many first appearing in the eponymous comics magazine Corto Maltese (published between October 1983 and July 1993), until 1988 when the final story Mu, the Lost Continent was serialised, ending in June 1989.
Corto Maltese is a laconic sea captain adventuring during the early 20th century (1900-1920s). A rogue with a heart of gold, he is tolerant and sympathetic to the underdog. Born in Valletta on July 10, 1887, he is the son of a British sailor from Cornwall and an Andalusian–Romani witch and prostitute known as "La Niña de Gibraltar". As a boy growing up in the Jewish quarter of Córdoba, Maltese discovered that he had no fate line on his palm and therefore carved his own with his father's razor, determining that his fate was his to choose. Although maintaining a neutral position, Corto instinctively supports the disadvantaged and oppressed.
The character embodies the author's skepticism of national, ideological and religious assertions. Corto befriends people from all walks of life, including the murderous Russian Rasputin (no relation with the historical figure, apart from physical resemblance and some character traits), British heir Tristan Bantam, voodoo priestess Gold Mouth and Czech academic Jeremiah Steiner. He also knows and meets various real-life historical figures, including Jack London, Ernest Hemingway, Hermann Hesse, Butch Cassidy, James Joyce, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Frederick Rolfe, Joseph Conrad, Sükhbaatar, John Reed, White Russian general Roman von Ungern-Sternberg, Enver Pasha of Turkey and Sergei Semenov, modelled after Grigory Semyonov. His acquaintances treat him with great respect, as when a telephone call to Joseph Stalin frees him from arrest when he is threatened with execution on the border of Turkey and Armenia.
Corto's favourite book is Utopia by Thomas More, but he never finishes it. He also read books by London, Lugones, Stevenson, Melville and Conrad, and quotes Rimbaud.
Corto Maltese stories range from straight historical adventure to occult dream sequences. He is present when the Red Baron is shot down, helps the Jívaro in South America, and flees Fascists in Venice, but also unwittingly helps Merlin and Oberon to defend Britain and helps Tristan Bantam to visit the lost continent of Mu.
Chronologically, the first adventure, Corto Maltese: The Early Years, happens during the Russo-Japanese War. In other albums he experiences the Great War in several locations, participates in the Russian Civil War after the October Revolution, and appears during the early stages of Fascist Italy. In a separate series by Pratt, The Desert Scorpions, Corto is said to be missing in action in Spain during the Spanish Civil War.
Par les soirs bleus d'été, j'irai dans les sentiers, Picoté par les blés, fouler l'herbe menue: Rêveur, j'en sentirai la fraîcheur à mes pieds. Je laisserai le vent baigner ma tête nue.
Je ne parlerai pas, je ne penserai rien: Mais l'amour infini me montera dans l'âme, Et j'irai loin, bien loin, comme un bohémien, Par la Nature, -heureux comme avec une femme.
Today, Claire Fontaine and The Grandma are on their way to Barcelona afterspending a few days in El Port de la Selva wherethey are going to pay a final tribute to an old friend andvisit another, TinaPicotes.
Yesterday, they took their bicycles and went up from El Port de la Selva to the Monastery of Sant Pere de Rodes, one of the most imposing and mysterious buildings from where on a clear day you can even see the Serra de l'Albera, Canigó and the Pyrenees.
On the way back, they went down through Vilajuïga and returned to El Port de la Selva along the Llançà road, a road that allows you to enjoy an extraordinarily beautiful landscape and, although you have to keep your attention on the road 100%, it allows you to stop at different places and contemplate how the sea and the mountain coexist.
NOTES SOBRE EL PORT DE LA SELVA per J.V. Foix
Em trobaren ajaçat a la sorra quan ja tots els banyistes havien desertat la platja. Enganxats a la nuca i a l'esquena tenia papers de totes les colors amb inscripcions de duanes i de grans hotels i balnearis exòtics. Me'ls volien arrencar, però seguien trossos de carn viva. Els ulls dels cavalls els pesquen a la cova de la Colomera quan toquen les dotze de la nit. Només en aquell instant precís es poden obrir com qui obre una ostra. Llur pupil·la flota damunt un licor tan ardent, que mai cap llavi humà no ha pogut acostar-s'hi. No els mireu mai de fit a fit, perquè us prendrà per sempre una tristesa sense fi, i la passió per les cales inabordables lligarà la vostra vida al més misteriós dels destins.
NOTES ON PORT DE LA SELVA by J.V. Foix
They found me lying in the sand when all the swimmers had already abandoned the beach. Stuck on my back and the nape of my neck were pieces of paper in all colours with inscriptions from customs houses and from grand hotels and exotic spas. They wanted to tear them from me, but chunks of live flesh came off as well. They go fishing for horses' eyes in Colomera's cave when it strikes midnight. Only at that precise instant can they be opened as one opens an oyster. Their pupils float on a liquid which burns so strongly, that no human lips have ever been able to come near. Don't ever stare at them, because an endless sadness will take hold of you for good, and the passion for inaccessible inlets will bind your life to the most mysterious of destinies.
They
arrived on Friday with J.V. Foix and his poetry and they leave in the
same way, remembering his writings about this beautiful town and what
is, perhaps, his best-known poem, the one that tells us about dreams as a
way to escape from reality, especially when it is harder and crueler
than you can bear.
In this poem, J.V. Foix reminds us of the Occitan poets who also sang
of love at night surrounded by the dreamlike atmosphere, and even
reminds us of CortoMaltese, the character of Hugo Pratt, who also uses
dreams as a way of refuge (or escape) in Les Cèltiques. Calderón
de la Barca also told us that life was a dream and Bernat Metge took
advantage of the resource of dreams to be able to criticize society and the political power of the time and avoid the established censorship, and dreams allow us to live as we want and desire, that's why our beloved BruceSpringsteen also invites us to daydream...
És quan plou que ballo sol Vestit d'algues, or i escata, Hi ha un pany de mar al revolt I un tros de cel escarlata, Un ocell fa un giravolt I treu branques una mata, El casalot del pirata És un ample gira-sol. Es quan plou que ballo sol Vestit d'algues, or i escata.
És quan ric que em veig gepic Al bassal de sota l'era, Em vesteixo d'home antic I empaito la masovera, I entre pineda i garric Planto la meva bandera; Amb una agulla saquera Mato el monstre que no dic. És quan ric que em veig gepic Al bassal de sota l'era.
És quan dormo que hi veig clar Foll d'una dolça metzina, Amb perles a cada mà Visc al cor d'una petxina, Só la font del comellar I el jaç de la salvatgina, -O la lluna que s'afina En morir carena enllà. Es quan dormo que hi veig clar Foll d'una dolça metzina.
It's when it rains I dance alone Dressed in seaweed, scales and gold, There's a patch of sea at a bend in the road And a piece of scarlet sky, A bird loops the loop And a shrub branches out, And the pirate's manor-house Is a broad sunflower. It's when it rains I dance alone Dressed in seaweed, scales and gold.
It's when I laugh I see my hunched back In the pond below the threshing floor, I dress up as a man from antiquity And harass the farm-girl, And between pine grove And kermes oak I plant my standard; With a sail needle I slay the monster whose name I do not utter. It's when I laugh I see my hunched back In the pond below the threshing floor.
It's when I sleep I see all clearly, Deranged by a sweet venom, With pearls in either hand I live in the heart of a scallop shell, I am the spring in the gulley And the bed Of the wild creature, —Or the moon who becomes more delicate As she dies beyond the ridge—. It's when I sleep I see all clearly, Deranged by a sweet venom.
I quan tot just si la tenora sona, Pastors i estels perduts serrat enllà, La Verge i Tu tots sols, a l'Hora Sola, I els corns reials qui sap qui els sentirà, Vindré mudat, al costat de la dona, Amb els vestits de quan ens vam casar.
And then just as the woodwind tenora sounds, shepherds and stars lost beyond the hills, the Virgin and You all alone at the Single Hour, a and who knows who will hear the royal horns, I shall come, having changed my clothes, beside my wife, dressed as we were when we married.
The Grandma is in Venice. She's travelling across the channels enjoying the Venetian culture and the hospitality of its inhabitants. She arrived from Milan on The Orient Express and its first stop has been in the capital of Veneto, where local people celebrated La Biennale last September.
The Grandma loves Venice. She visits this city as times as she can because the city is full of history, art and wonderful people like Asun Holmes, Belén Collins,Eva Collins-Maltese, Marco Polo, Hugo Pratt and Corto Maltese.
Let's go to know a little more about Venice and Hugo Pratt...
The name of the city, deriving from Latin forms Venetia and Venetiae, is most likely taken from Venetia et Histria, the Roman name of Regio X of Roman Italy, but applied to the coastal part of the region that remained under Roman Empire outside of Gothic, Lombard, and Frankish control. The name Venetia, however, derives from the Roman name for the people known as the Veneti, and called by the Greeks Eneti (Ἐνετοί).The meaning of the word is uncertain, although there are other Indo-European tribes with similar-sounding names, such as the Celtic Veneti, Baltic Veneti, and the Slavic Wends.
Hugo Pratt and Corto Maltese
The Grandma is a fan of Hugo Pratt's comics, especially Corto Maltese.She wants to talk about an old friend, Hugo, and her memories with him. They shared incredible moments when they travelled around the world.
Hugo Eugenio Pratt (1927-1995) was an Italian comic book creator who was known for combining strong storytelling with extensive historical research on works such as Corto Maltese.
Born in Rimini, Hugo Pratt spent most of his childhood in Venice in a very cosmopolitan family environment. His paternal grandfather Joseph was of English origin. In 1937, Hugo Pratt moved with his mother to Abyssinia (Ethiopia). Pratt's father, a professional Italian soldier, was captured in 1941 by British troops and in late 1942, died from disease as a prisoner of war. The same year, Hugo Pratt and his mother were interned in a prison camp at Dirédaoua, where he would buy comics from guards, and later was sent back to Italy by the Red Cross. In 1944, he was at risk of being executed as SS troops had mistaken him for a South African spy.
After the war, Pratt moved to Venice where he organized entertainment for the Allied troops. Later Pratt joined the Venice Group with other Italian cartoonists, including Alberto Ongaro and Mario Faustinelli. His character Asso di Picche (Ace of Spades) was a success.
Inside Ponte di Sospiri
In the late 1940s, he moved to Buenos Aires. He often travelled to South American destinations like the Amazon and Mato Grosso. During that period he produced his first comic book as a complete author, both writing and illustrating Anna della jungla (Ann of the Jungle).
He moved again to Italy in 1962 where he started a collaboration with the children's comic book magazine Il Corriere dei Piccoli, for which he adapted several classics of adventure literature, including Treasure Island and Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson.
In 1967, Pratt met Florenzo Ivaldi, and with him created a comics magazine named after his character, Il Sergente Kirk, the hero first written by Héctor Oesterheld. In the first issue, Pratt's most famous story was published: Una ballata del mare salato (A Ballad of the Salt Sea), which introduced his best known character, Corto Maltese.
Corto's series continued three years later in the French magazine Pif gadget. Due to his rather mixed family ancestry, Pratt had learned snippets of things like kabbalism and lots of history. Many of his stories are placed in real historical eras and deal with real events: the 1755 war between French and British colonists in Ticonderoga or colonial wars in Africa and both World Wars. Pratt did exhaustive research for factual and visual details, and some characters are real historical figures or loosely based on them, like Corto's main friend/enemy, Rasputin. Many of the minor characters cross over into other stories in a way that places all of Pratt’s stories into the same continuum.
Pratt's main series in the second part of his career include Gli scorpioni del deserto (five stories) and Jesuit Joe.
The Grandma inside Palazzo Ducale
From 1970 to 1984, Pratt lived mainly in France where Corto Maltese, a psychologically very complex character resulting from the travel experiences and the endless inventive capacity of his author, became the main character of a comics series. Initially published from 1970 to 1973 by the magazine Pif gadget, it brought him much popular and critical success. Later published in album format, this series was eventually translated into fifteen languages.
From 1984 to 1995 Pratt lived in Switzerland where the international success that Corto Maltese sparked continued to grow. Hugo Pratt continued to travel from Canada to Patagonia, from Africa to the Pacific area. He died of bowel cancer on 20 August 1995.
Pratt has cited authors like Robert Louis Stevenson, James Oliver Curwood, Zane Grey, Kenneth Roberts, Joseph Conrad, Fenimore Cooper, HermanMelville and Jack London as influences, along with cartoonists Lyman Young, Will Eisner, and especially Milton Caniff.
Venice is a city in northeastern Italy sited on a group of 118 small islands separated
by canals and linked by bridges. It is located in the marshy Venetian Lagoon
which stretches along the shoreline, between the mouths of the Po and the Piave
Rivers.
Venice is renowned for the
beauty of its setting, its architecture, and its artwork. The city in its
entirety is listed as a World Heritage
Site, along with its lagoon.
Venice
is the capital of the Veneto region.
The name is derived from the ancient Veneti people who inhabited the region by
the 10th century BC. The city was historically the capital of the Republic of Venice. Venice has been
known as the "La Dominante",
"Serenissima", "Queen of the Adriatic", "City of Water", "City of Masks", "City of Bridges", "The Floating City", and "City of Canals".
The Republic of Venice was a major maritime power during the Middle
Ages and Renaissance, and a staging area for the Crusades and the Battle of
Lepanto, as well as a very important centre of commerce (especially silk,
grain, and spice) and art in the 13th century up to the end of the 17th
century. This made Venice a wealthy
city throughout most of its history. It is also known for its several important
artistic movements, especially the Renaissance period. After the Napoleonic
Wars and the Congress of Vienna, the Republic was annexed by the Austrian
Empire, until it became part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1866, following a referendum
held as a result of the Third Italian War of Independence.
He's dreaming with his
eyes open, and those that dream with their eyes open are dangerous, for they do
not know when their dreams come to an end.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
