Comics Alternative

This week on the podcast, Derek and Andy discuss beginnings, endings, and renewals. They start with the latter, looking at the first in a projected twelve-volume Hugo Pratt collection from IDW/EuroComics, Corto Maltese: Under the Sign of Capricorn. This is a brand new English edition — translated by Dean Mullaney and Simone Castaldi — and presented in the original black-and-white. (The previous translated version of a Corto Maltese edition, 2012’s The Ballad of the Salt Sea, from Universe Publishing, was colorized.) It’s also published in a European album-sized format, roughly 11 1/2 x 9 1/2″, so that the reader can experience the clean, full radiance of Pratt’s art. Although they’ve read a little of Pratt’s work in the past, this is the guys’ first real introduction to Corto Maltese, at least in terms of full storylines. They spend a lot of time focusing on the narratives in this new volume, noting that the first three chapters form a cohesive and ongoing story, with the final three chapters — especially the