The Ballade of the salted sea

Written and drawn by Hugo Pratt, the Ballade of the salted sea is chronologically the 2nd adventure of Corto Maltese. It succeeds the Youth of Corto Maltese . However, it is in this history that the hero made his very first appearance, in Italy, in July 1967, whereas Youth left to France, in August 1981.

The account proceeds in the South Seas of November 1913 at January 1915.

One should not mistake by reading the title of an inattentive eye. Pratt, does not invite us to a walk. Ballade has two “L well”. Not dawdling thus. This account has the breath of an epopee and are connected more with the chanson de geste.

Birth of a hero

Hugo Pratt is forty years old when in June 1967, it becomes acquainted with Florenzo Ivaldi to Genoa. This one is about to make appear a new review of Cartoon: It Sergente Kirk . The first number appears in July with the first nine boards of Una ballata LED pond salato , written and drawn by Pratt. Astutely, it puts in introduction, the reproduction of a letter coming from the Chile. Dated from the June 16th 1965, it is written by Obregan Carrenza, nephew of Caïn Groovesnore. This letter informs us on the genesis of work: the correspondent returns account to his friend (the editor Florenzo Ivaldi), whom it gave well the manuscripts of his uncle to Mr Pratt. The author thus makes it clear that it was pressed on documents reporting of the actual facts to build the screen of his account.

When the fine word falls under number 20 of February 1969, Hugo Pratt is far from suspecting that it has just given life to a character who, of secondary in this adventure, will become one of the most remarkable heroes of ninth Article In 1970, the adventure east is again published in Corriere dei piccoli , then appears in album in the editor Arnoldo Mondadori in January 1972, under the title: Ballata LED pond salato .

Characters in the History:

Attention: what follows, reveals whole or part of the intrigue.

  • the Pacific Ocean : (This ocean, has of peaceful only the name. It is necessary to fear its sudden outbursts and the confrontations between the English fleet and allemande which are held there.) There are rumors of war, but that the war is declared or not, in this animated period there are no rules, for the greatest happiness of the pirates. We are on November 1st 1913 the shortly after a violent storm.

  • Raspoutine : (Pirate furrowing the southern Pacific on board a catamaran of the Fiji islands. Pitiless sailor, he with the easy trigger and works on behalf of mysterious “the Monk”.) This day there, off the islands mélanésiennes, it collects two young shipwrecked men in a launch. They result from a rich person and important English family of Australia.

  • Pandora and Caïn Groovesnore : (They are cousins. Pandora is the girl of Taddée Groovesnore, English Lord and large ship-owner of the port of Sydney. Caïn is the son of Elie Groovesnore. Rinald Groovesnore, the vice-admiral who orders the fleet of Royal Navy, is their uncle. There was another uncle: Thomas, but they did not know it. He would have died in the fire of his house the day of the marriage of his Taddée brother.) Raspoutine knows that they result from a rich person family and hopes well to draw a beautiful ransom from it. This same day, its crew locates with far a kind of raft. A man is attached there. It is an old knowledge. It is about Corto Maltese.

  • Corto Maltese : (Another pirate member of the secret organization of the “Monk” - Here is a man who seen that it did not have a line of chance; then a day, it taken a razor and cut one of them to measure - This strapping man knows the South Seas perfectly.) For a history of woman, the crew of its goélette was turned over against him and here it is in bad posture. Here it is the drifting one, bound on an emergency raft, under a sun relentless. Raspoutine recovers it on its board. Precisely the two pirates awaited a Dutch coal cargo liner to plunder it. Soon the ship is located, hailed and seized. In spite of the reprobation of Corto, Raspoutine makes kill all the members of the crew. Only Maoris which deals with the machines are saved. Corto will do what it can to gain its share of the nest egg and to preserve the life of the Groovesnore children. Here are parties to negotiate their catch with the commander of the German base of Kaiserine.

  • Christian Slütter : (Lieutenant of Kriegsmarine, marinades imperial allemande.) Against its liking, it receives the order of its superiors to take the orders of a submarine to place itself at the disposal of the “Monk”. To escape curiosity from the Germans, Corto leaves with the catamaran and the two teenagers towards a place appointment fixed by Raspoutine. This to preserve all the chances to draw a ransom from it. But the ocean breaks out and a tidal wave carries them. Failed on a beach, Caïn is not the only survivor, a young person maori is drawn up in front of him.

  • Tarao : (It one of the maori of New Zealand is saved by Raspoutine at the time of the capture of the cargo liner. Experienced sailor, it can benefit from the beliefs and of the legends of the people of the southern Pacific.) both are not long in being discovered and removed by papous cannibals. Dissimulated in the jungle, Corto considering and joined all Pandora…

  • Cranio : (Marine of the islands Fiji, boatswain of Raspoutine. It with the confidence of the Monk. He is afflicted to see his people implied in the wars of the white and aspires so that Mélanésiens finally link.) Rescapé him also of the shipwreck, he all will implement to draw them from this guêpier and to flee far from these inhospitable shores on board a dugout. Located at sea, they embark in the submarine ordered by lieutenant Slütter with Raspoutine on his board. Slütter raises questions about the presence of young people. He questions them and ensures them of its protection. The submarine moves right towards an island which is not reproduced on any maritime chart: Escondida.

  • the Monk : (the always dissimulated face - as to hide some secrecy. The Master of all the pirates, directs from his island of Escondida, an organization who foam the South Seas. He put himself at the service of the German state to satisfy their needs.) On their arrival, he teaches them that the August 4th 1914 England declared the war in Germany. He asks Slütter to be held ready to leave with him. Raspoutine teaches him the presence from the two young prisoners. The monk then questions Caïn and asks him questions about its family… During the absence of the Monk, Tarao warns Caïn and Pandora which it prepared a dugout to flee. Caîn wants to remain on the island with Corto and leaves Pandora and Tarao to try their chance to warn Admiralty dice the next island reached… A few days afterwards, It is same Tarao which shows the way of Escondida to the vice-admiral Rinald Groovesnore, with the head of a flotilla of destroyers. Soon, the English unload. It is the “stampede”. The expeditious justice of times of war makes its work. Blackmail also: to save the life of Raspoutine! … Corto Maltese, Raspoutine and Tarao leave Escondida on board a sailing ship and travel towards Pitcairn, the island of mutinés of the '' Bounty ''. We are the January 19th 1915.

Anecdotes

Alberto Ongaro said that Pratt had been torn off by a ground swell of the Pacific of its armchair of cinema where one played revolted of Bounty and had been transported with Corto in the South Seas.

Hugo Pratt asserted some films which more particularly inspired it:

Since the middle of the Sixties ten, it was planned to film the Ballade of the salted sea with actors. After having initially thought of Alain Delon, then to David Bowie, the project was called regularly in question during about fifteen years without concretizing itself.

First publications

  • In Italy: Una ballata LED pond salato appears in the n° 1 of July 1967 of the review Sergente Kirk . Goes away in the n° 2 and 3, it includes in the n° 4 of October to finish in the n° 20 of February 1969.

  • In France: the Ballade of the salted sea appears the July 3rd 1973, in the newspaper France-Evening - then first national daily newspaper - where the adventure is the subject of a serial until the January 16th 1974.

In June 1974, Phoenix, international review of the cartoon , takes the changing by republishing the account in its n° 38, under the title somewhat deformed of: the Ballade on the salted sea . After 3 numbers, the magazine which knows economic difficulties, ceases appearing, leaving the unfinished account.

Albums

Published at Casterman:
  • 1975, edition black and white in stitched album.
Price of foreign realistic work to the Festival of Angouleme 1976.
  • 1986, edition black and white in format pocket in the collection “I read data base”.
With the addition of the letter of the nephew of Caïn which precedes the account, as at the origin, in the Italian review, Sergent Kirk in 1967.
  • 1989, edition connected colors with documents and watercolours of Hugo Pratt.
With the addition of the letter of the nephew of Caïn.
  • 1991, republication connected colors with documents and watercolours of Hugo Pratt.
  • 2001, republication stitched in black and white.
  • 2006, edition colors of small size (14 X 21)
Tome 02: the Ballade of the salted sea
  • 2007, edition connected in black and white, toilée cover, large size (32 X 41)
Left on July 2nd to commemorate the 40 years of the very first appearance of Corto Maltese, the July 10th 1967, in Italy, in the review Sergeant Kirk , as well as the 120 years of its birth, on July 10th 1887, with Malta.

The novel

  • Corto Maltese
Novellisation of the Ballade of the salted sea by Hugo Pratt.
Denoël, 1996.
Folio, Gallimard, 1997.

The cartoon film

Means-measuring
  • the Ballade of the salted sea
Scenario writer: Jean Pecheux.
Realizer: Richard Danto and Liam Saury.
With the voices of Richard Berry (Corto Maltese), Patrick Bouchitey (Raspoutine), Barbara Schulz (Pandora).
Diffused on television on Canal+ in 2003.
DVD, Studio Canal, 2003.

The play

  • Una ballata LED pond salato
Scenario of Giancarlo Marinelli.
Put in scene of Damiano Michieletto.
With Titino Carrara in the role of Corto and the Compagnia Piccionaia I Carrara .
Teatro Stabile di Innovazione , Venice, July 2003.

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