Corto Maltese - Original Strip «La Jeunesse de Corto» - Loose page - (1981)

Without a doubt, all collectors of original drawings would be very proud to set up in their library a "Strip" or an "Original Plate" of this remarkable album designed by Hugo Pratt in 1981: « La Jeunesse de Corto Maltese ».

As the original drawings of this album are rare on the market, very few collectors saw that these Strips are quite large, 15 x 15 cm, and therefore more than 45 cm x15 cm for a whole strip, which makes the framing very spectacular.

This album is very well known in Italy and in the French-speaking world for the following reasons:

- Preprint by individual Strip in 1982 in Italy (magazine L’internauta: The Gionivezza) and in France (Le Matin de Paris) in 1981 and 1982 (A suivre, Casterman).

-many publications in albums and reissues, black and white + colour, including illustrations found on internet are presented as documentation in this lot.

- exceptional encounter between Corto Maltese, Rasputin and Jack London to make a mythical trio in the history of the European comics, only in this Album.

This strip is well evocative of this famous first Russian-Japanese war of 1904-1905 and, especially of this ambivalent atmosphere of end of war that begins from the first plate of this story, with Rasputin who kills a Japanese soldier while the end of the war is announced, and will serve as a line to the whole story...

Hugo Pratt had the intelligence to mix fictional characters, such as Corto Maltese,.... with other characters more rooted in reality, like Jack London, the American... and the Russian Rasputin.

Large format Strip, original texts in Italian with Pratt's original handwriting in pencil, which is a "little miracle", since this strip has been published several times in French with various books (see illustration of the details of the successive publications).

This very decorative lot is very attractive for an Italian or French collector. It will be impressive with a nice frame that will enhance the prestige of a large collection.

Guaranteed 100% authentic by Bernard Soetens, international Hergé expert and editor of the "Catalogue Scriptura" of sale of comics and original drawings to Luxembourg for more than 25 years, (Catalogue sent on simple request to Bernard.soetens@icloud.com) this remarkable Strip of Hugo Pratt is an opportunity to enhance a collection of original drawings of high quality.

Free registered shipping worldwide, and for sure, to Italy...