Corto Maltese: Concerto in O' minore per arpa e nitroglierina - Hugo Pratt

We usually know where Corto Maltese stands in terms of political allegiances, which is less to do with ideology than being in the side of the ordinary people against oppression, on the anti imperialist and anti-colonialist side of any conflict - but more often he remains romantically more than ideologically involved. That's the case when in Concerto in O' minore per arpa e nitroglierina he arrives in Ireland in 1917 just after the Easter Uprising to find trouble on the streets of Dublin. Soldiers patrolling in 'autoblindos' armoured cars come under attack from a group of IRA operatives led by Banshee O'Dannan.

Corto's first objective is not to get involved in the struggle, but to visit the grave of the recently deceased Pat Finnucan. When he is asked what is is looking for, he replies in his usual wry manner 'La pentola d'oro del lepricano' (The leprechaun's pot of gold). Finnucan had been the leader of Sinn Féin, hoping to take the revolution against the English occupation of Ireland further but he has been killed. Major O'Sullivan, who used to be a friend of Finnucan, is now seen as a traitor working with the British army trying to put down the rebellion.

Finnucan's son Sean is now the leader of Sinn Féin. One of their colleagues, Tim Brennan has been captured by the British Army, and they want to rescue him before he is hanged.  Banshee, who has a beautiful singing voice and was married to Finnucan, also wants revenge for her husband's killing. The information they have been given on the time and place of Brennan's execution however is a trap, but it's one that reveals to the forces at Dublin Castle that O'Sullivan has been working secretly inside as a spy. There's another spy inside Dublin Castle, and it's Corto Maltese in police uniform.

Hugo Pratt - as he always does I find wherever the story is located, and this is a world away from his earlier adventures in the South Seas and the Caribbean - goes to great lengths to depict Ireland and it's people accurately. Inevitably it's a little clichéd and romanticised  - which is part of the charm of his Corto Maltese - but there are no blindingly obvious inaccuracies in the names or the feel for the period setting. The underlying theme is sound and relevant here - and consistent with Corto Maltese elsewhere (notably in Samba con Tiro Fisso) - on the need for martyrs, myths and heroes being more important to a revolution than the truth. There's little that I can add to what is already universally acknowledged about Pratt's art, which in its original black and white is just stunning. There is wonderful detail and character in the faces and personalities, all of whom are as droll and dark-eyed as Corto Maltese here. There's a lovely scratchiness and looseness to the line work here. It's just beautiful, and one of my very favourite Corto Maltese adventures.

Reading notes. Concerto in O' minore per arpa e nitroglierina by Hugo Pratt (1972). Original black and white edition, Italian language, published by Rizzoli-Lezard. I read this in Kindle eBook format. While I prefer Hugo Pratt's artwork in black and white, the colourised versions are subtle and well done. I've included a side by side of one of the full pages for comparison. Neither of these eBook versions however present Pratt's artwork in its original page layout format. The Kindle versions are based on the 'pocket' editions of the Corto Maltese series that have been reformatted, some panels cropped and the whole thing relettered for readability, I've included an example below of how the above two pages look in the original page formatting..