PRATT - Lot 89

PRATT HUGO PRATT ◊ CORTO MALTESE Les Éthiopiques (T.2), Casterman 1978 Original half sheet no. 11A of the story Les Hommes Léopards du Rufiji, prepublished in Pif n° 217, April 23, 1973. Phylacteries are reproductions affixed to the the original. India ink and felt pen on paper 36 × 24 cm (14.17 × 9.45 in.) This is a very important scene from the Rufiji Kamarad episode, published in Pif Gadget in April 1973, then in an album five years later, where it was entitled Les Hommes Léopards du Rufiji. This was the last adventure to appear in the weekly, as the management (Communist, close to Moscow) considered Pratt's ideas too libertarian in the context of the Ethiopian government's rapprochement with the Soviet Union. Hugo Pratt left the paper and co-opted his deputy editor-in-chief, Jean-Paul Mougin, with whom he got on well at Casterman, to manage (À Suivre). Corporal Mungo is fatally shot and reveals to Corto Maltese the reason for his nocturnal escapade: to recover the map to a treasure chest filled with gold sterlings and silver thalers. The corporal is part of the commando, murdered by his own partner. He wins Corto's promise to avenge him. A scene as only Hugo Pratt knew how to tell it...