MANARA
MILO MANARA
El Gaucho, Casterman 1995
Original plate n°24, pre-published in (À Suivre)
n° 180 of January 1993
India ink on paper
47.8 × 68 cm (18.82 × 26.77 in.)
It is always a pleasure to look at a page of
especially in this second collaboration with Hugo Pratt
with Hugo Pratt, El Gaucho, eight years after An Indian Summer
Indian Summer (1983). He has again gained in maturity with a setting,
Argentina, which Pratt knows inside out, in the heart of the
the heart of the war between the English and the Spanish
at the beginning of the 19th century. Especially since, in this very dynamic plate
the main protagonists of the story: the young and very
of the story: the young and very ingenuous drummer of the 71st Scottish
the young and very ingenuous drummer of the 71st Scottish Hunters, Tom Brown; the attractive Molly Malone, a young
from her prison to be delivered as a prostitute to a
prostitute to a Buenos Aires brothel, mistress of Sir Home, supreme
Sir Home, supreme commander of the fleet; and Mathew
the hunchbacked sailor who has a crush on her. A love triangle
A love triangle over which the wind of history is blowing.