French Hugo Pratt Part Work continues, 70 ”Tout Pratt” books planned

By John Freeman on July 28, 2019

Following up on our news item on Rebellion’s upcoming series of oversize Picture Library reprints centring on the British War comics work of award-winning Italian artist Hugo Pratt, you may be interested to know that French publisher Altaya is running a planned 70-book part work featuring that aims to reprint all his published stories.

Despite his importance and the deserved acclaim for his work, some of Pratt’s many stories are hard to find in book shops on the continent, so Altaya launched Tout Pratt late last year (in English, perhaps best titled “The Complete Pratt”, to avoid snickering at a more literal translation).

The collection offers all the stories in one format and of course a subscription comes with the usual kind of bonuses you’d expect from a part work publication here – extra albums, exclusive merchandise and more.

It goes without saying that Hugo Pratt indelibly marked the world of the Ninth Art, and his creations are regarded by many as essential reading, particularly those featuring his best known creation, Corto Maltese. Each issue of the part work comes with background on the making of each story and more about Pratt’s comics career.

The fortnightly collection began with the Corto Maltese story La balade de la mer salée (The Ballad of the Salt Sea), and 17 books in the series have been published so far, and while some fans have criticised the paper quality and size, it does look like a pretty good way to gain French copies of rarer work by Pratt.

The series will include Pratt’s British War comics work, but not until the series reaches Volume 43, according to this list of planned releases on Wikipedia France.

While we’re still part of the European Union, it is possible to subscribe to magazines within the trading bloc, despite attempts by some licensors to that separate countries as different licensing territories. So it should be possible for UK residents to buy individual books if available from Altaya direct, or subscribe – at least until October…

• For subscription information in French visit this Page on the Atalya web site

With thanks to Nolino Nolino

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.