'DIARIO DI VIAGGIO' & 'UNA BALLATA DEL MARE SALATO'

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 Corto Maltese: Diario di Viaggio and she has been reading it, sticking the stickers and placing the cards until she has had the complete collection. Then, she has reread The Ballad 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, a Maltese sailor.

This story was written and drawn by the Italian comic book creator Hugo Pratt. 

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's interest 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.

More information: The Slings and Arrows

For me, my travels have been the chance 
to go to a place that already exists in my imagination.
 

Hugo Pratt