Let's talk about Corto Maltese. I never visit this board and consequently have never seen any discussions of this comic, so I'll dump as many questions as possible here.
Firstly, which book is your favourite? Mine are Les Celtiques and Tango when it comes to story, and Tango and Les Éthiopiques when it comes to art.
Do you think colour or bw editions are superior? In my country most releases are b/w, with the exception of La Jeunesse and Les Hélvétiques. I feel that the colour, though well done, takes away some of the elegance of Pratt's lines in those two books, so I prefer b/w.
And here's a thing that really bugs me - does anyone really "get" Mu? Is it even meant to be rationally comprehended or is it a sort of Andalusian Dog?
Joshua Phillips
>Sup Forums >European comics
Son, Sup Forums only cares about their capefags and comics based on licensed properties like IDW.
Caleb Fisher
Is this from Marvel or DC?
Dominic Roberts
I always wanted to read it, how is it?
Jose Scott
It's pretty good.
Anthony Thomas
Banshee is my waifu.
Thomas Jones
Stupid.
Michael Jones
Do you honestly expect threads about European comics to be as popular as cape comics? Perhaps if you wouldn't start off the thread with passive-aggressive bitching people would be more inclined to read the thread and develop an interest.
Daniel Reyes
I've only seen sobe snippets of his animated films what's his deal as a character?
Henry Bennett
So it is Dark Horse?
Liam Butler
i love the ballad of the salt sea because i also haven't seen people discuss it, i wanted to find decent scans and storytime it i prefer the b/w version for the most part
Aiden Taylor
I hate the IDW covers but appreciate they do put them out in a decent format com)pared to the last attempt which was horrible
Ian Cox
The only Corto Maltese book I read was the "Fable of Venice".The first part is all mystery and intrigue , and then , the second part is all trippy and shit,I love it.
Being Spanish , I read more European comics like this , and they are pretty good , except the ones from my country , they are all comedy shit (Mortadelo and Filemon , and such)
There shouldbe more threads about these instead of the daily"DC REBIRTH IS KILLING MARLEL" shit we have on the board
Justin Brown
...
Adam Reyes
Got more pics? Art looks interesting. Especially watercolor.
Wyatt Mitchell
It can oscillate in quality. The first three books (La Ballade, Sous le signe du Capricorne and Corto toujours un peu plus loin) are very rough, you can leave them for later. But the ones I mentioned in op and Sibérie and Samarkand are first-class.
I think The Ballad isn't very good or representative of Corto overall. The art is clumsy, lacks the simplicity and elegance of the later works and the characters look weird (the faces are inconsistent and can look like crap on some panels). The story lacks any fantasy (while later stories can be extremely fantastic, take place in some other world altogether) and drags on. The characters act weirdly, I remember Corto being very aggressive and physically fighting with Rasputin, which is at odds with his otherwise melancholic personality. It just doesn't feel like THE Corto book to me.
The art in the comics doesn't look like that, sorry to disappoint you. That watercolor is from cortomaltese.com. The comics actually look like pic related.
Hunter Edwards
I thought Blacksad was made in Spain.
Brody Stewart
I thought it was french
Asher Richardson
>Blacksad
Thats only one example of the little mature content you are going to find of , not only Spanish comics , but also all Spanish media.
I mean , it sucks that the biggest exponent of "dark comedy" (in like , Sausage Party dark comedy) we have is "El Jueves" a satire magazine that gone too PC when one of the covers was the King naked or something like that
Tyler Murphy
I've only read Ballad and La Jeunesse. Even though it was a much shorter and simpler story, I think I preferred La Jeunesse.
Jace Sanders
He's hot. That's pretty much my whole opinion.
Eli Cooper
The Spanish comicbook scene is so shite both authors Juan and Juanjo decided to publish it in France instead.
I read one in 100% colour, though I don't remember the name.
Luis Rodriguez
Isn't Corto Maltese the island that nearly ignited a nuclear war in the Dark Knight Returns?
Logan Carter
I know this might be a pleb question but are the movies a good place to start?
Jack Powell
Nah, they are just adaptations. Pratt's art is beautiful and it would be a pity to miss out and see some random North Korean's work instead.
Adrian Sullivan
Any good collections in English? Preferably hardcover.
Charles Ross
I got the first volume of the series from IDW, was pretty good quality but I haven't finished it yet. Glad to hear the later volumes are more interesting- I like the setting and characters but I don't find it super compelling, unfortunately.
Evan Ross
eyyyyy where my Crepax readers at?
Evan Ward
It is actually from Vertigo.
Parker Morris
Most of it (as far as I know) isn't available in English and it's so far down my "to read" list that I'll probably never get to it.
Jose Collins
I bought a nice english translation of under the sign of Capricorn. Sated my need for a nice tropical adventure story really well. I'll probably buy another book here in a couple weeks, any recs OP? I see you mentioned a couple but is there a core story or is it mainly contained stories with overlapping characters?
Nolan Kelly
hahaha, that's insane !
Carson Murphy
The new IDW collections.
Christian Wood
Thanks user I'll give them a look!
Justin Cooper
You'll have to buy Corto toujours un peu plus loin (Beyond the Windy Isles) as well for the complete story. And, honestly, these two are the weakest Cortos I've read. The best starting point is probably In Siberia.
Regarding the core story - mostly there isn't one. Minor characters reappear here and there, and there is a defined chronology of the stories (see Wikipedia), but you can pick any book, read it and understand it. With two exceptions - Windy Isles largely finishes the story of Capricon, and Mu, the last Corto book, finishes the last arc left over from The Windy Isles.
Robert Garcia
Ok, I got it, it is DC them.
Asher Rivera
Ballad of the Salty Sea. It's classic but still, it's an emotional rollercoaster every time I read it. I guess reading it on the original artwork during the Pratt's exhibition in Paris helped with the mystique, too. And it has the advantage of being one single story, compared to the chapters/historiettas in other books like the Celtics.
We have some eurocomics generals and storytimes threads, but it isn't the board's main crowd. The fact that some mods are a bit trigger-happy, deleting threads about Blacksad (furry) or Persepolis (feminist flame-bait) doesn't help.
It's a direct reference, yes. One could say a hommage. For someone that read Pratt before any Cape story, it feels a bit forced, though. Like some author naming an island "Bruce Wayne"
David Bailey
I prefer early Pratt art, it may be less natural but his later works can feel too ethereal/abstract at times.
On a sidenote, did anyone read other Pratt stories like Sergeant Kirk, Wheeling, Jungle Ann, Desert Scorpions or Ernie Pike ? Dans un Ciel Lointain, a story about an italian and a british fighter pilots in Africa, is excellent.
Isaiah Clark
hot diggity damn that's a beautiful piece of art
Nicholas Hill
Pratt said in an interview "I love watercolors, because it doesn't allow any mistake". (which is lucky, because his oil painting are mediocre at best)
For some reason, most watercolors don't good when you take a pic of them or scan them. According to an author I've met, putting a transparent plastic film on it before scanning gives good result. She used it mostly to do digital colors on her pencilworks.
Ayden Cooper
The ethereal style is precisely what I love about it. It certainly fits the trippier works such as Les Hélvétiques.
I've read Desert Scorpions not too long ago, but can't remember anything that happens. One episode had Cush reappear and say that Corto has gone missing during the Spanish Revolution, and that's it. It wasn't bad, though.
Jayden Foster
>Corto has gone missing during the Spanish Revolution There was a cameo about that bit in one tome of L'Histoire Secrete, with Corto before a Franquist firing squad. (There's a reference to "Uncle Corto" after ww2 in Pandora's letter at the end of some editions of the Ballad, though)
Luke Hall
Isn't The Veil spanish? It's pretty good shit if you ask me.
Carter Allen
>We have some eurocomics generals and storytimes threads, but it isn't the board's main crowd.
I sometimes search the catalog and archive for "euro" to find threads on Eurocomics, but they seem quite rare (or they don't use "euro" in the OP). When there's an active thread though, I think it's quite good. Like this one! I'm learning a lot here about Corto Maltese which I haven't read yet.
>The fact that some mods are a bit trigger-happy, deleting threads about Blacksad (furry) or Persepolis (feminist flame-bait) doesn't help. .. they do that?
Benjamin Sanders
Bought ballad of the salt sea when I was in Italy bought my Italian is still pretty amateurish so I've yet to fully read it. Love the art though.
In case I go back, what are some other stories I should get?
Gabriel Adams
The art looks really ugly and there's an excess of text. Why do you people like this?
Jackson Sanders
What the fuck. The art looks amazing and how the fuck can reading be something to cry about? I know people can have different tastes but come on.
Matthew Williams
It's a visual medium, you should let the drawings tell the story sometimes, not just draw a head and then give it a long ass dialogue box. And I don't see how that's "amazing". There's very little things drawn except for the charterers and even they aren't very expressive.
Nathaniel Wright
You may get better mileage out of franco-belgian.
Adam Smith
I have a huge place in my heart for "E riparleremo dei gentiluomini di fortuna," with the whale bone cards and the gold in the cannon. It really feels like a grand adventure in a melancholic tone. And Les Helvetiques is always good.
I've read a fair share of Pike and Kirk. Fantastic stuff.
Owen Morgan
You should actually read one of the books at some point.
Angel Torres
>bought my Italian is still
Angel Baker
>except the ones from my country , they are all comedy shit There is some good Spanish stuff, i quite like Paco Roca work.