The series The Scorpions of the Desert<\/em> by Hugo Pratt will be published for the first time in English in eBook format.<\/h1>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\nCongeEditions is the new publishing house of CONG SA \u2013 Hugo Pratt Art Properties, the company that manages all of Hugo Pratt\u2019s work. The 5 titles in the series will be published in English in eBook format only.<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>![](\"https:\/\/cortomaltese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1\/koinsky-hugo-pratt.jpg\")
<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>M<\/span>any consider Pratt\u2019s narrative level to be of the same caliber as that of such novelists as Dumas, Conrad, or Jack London. This view is not an exaggeration, given the great quantity of adventures that he drew. Corto Maltese is certainly his most famous character (the series has been published in the USA by Euro Comics \u2013 IDW Publisher \u2013 starting in December 2014), but Pratt created many other characters and series, such as The Scorpions of the Desert<\/em>, Wheeling<\/em>, Sgt Kirk<\/em>, Ernie Pike<\/em> e Jesuit Joe<\/em>, just to mention the most important ones.<\/p>\n<\/div>![](\"https:\/\/cortomaltese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1\/Corto-Maltese-scorpioni-del-deserto.jpg\")
<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>Even his personal life recalls that of a character straight out of an adventure novel.
\nThe saga of The Scorpions of the Desert<\/em> was not a random choice for Pratt; he actually lived in Abyssinia for a number of years that were important from both a historical and a personal viewpoint. In 1940, Hugo, who was only 13, was enlisted by his father in a battalion of the Italian colonial army in Addis Ababa. The battalion was made up of high school and college students who were in charge of protecting civilians from potential attacks by marauders while awaiting the arrival of official troups. At the time, Hugo was the youngest soldier of the Italian army: a sort of mascot of his battalion.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>![](\"https:\/\/cortomaltese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1\/hugp-pratt-1941.jpg\")
<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>In this apparently ridiculous role, Pratt experiences the real war. In the adventures of the Scorpions<\/em>, one clearly picks up on the memories of a young wanderer who, in the guise of a \u2018mascot,\u2019 discovers the hard reality that permeates the situations that all men, like it or not, must face in a conflict.<\/p>\nThe Scorpion<\/em> series was born out of a little-known piece of history that took place in North Africa between 1940 and 1941, when the famous \u201cAfrikakorps\u201d had not yet entered into action in the desert, while on the Mediterranean Sea the French had momentarily left the field of operations. Hence, only the Italians and the English were left to confront each other directly.<\/p>\n<\/div>Translated by Fiore Sireci and colored by Patrizia Zanotti.
\n<\/em><\/strong>First volume available on iTunes in February 2015.
\n<\/em><\/strong>52 pages, ISBN 978-2-940552-00-9, $7.99<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>eBook:\u00a0The Scorpions of the Desert<\/h1>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>![](\"https:\/\/cortomaltese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1\/Scorpions_1.jpg\")
<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>Vol. 1 –\u00a0Gli Scorpioni del Deserto<\/h2>\n<\/div>Autumn 1940, in the desert on the border between Libya and Egypt. The protagonists of the story are a group of men that belong to the fighting elite of the British Army: the Long Range Desert Group, aka the Scorpions of the Desert. They come from every battlefield of the Empire, and they travel alone, on the edges of the great maneuvers. They appropriate jeeps, armored vehicles, camels; or they march for days on end before an attack, striking and disappearing behind the sand dunes without much regard for rules.
\nBut everything is bewildering around here, the borders, the enemy\u2019s uniforms, the colors and the flags on the vehicles used by these men. Sometimes whoever is telling a story doesn\u2019t tell the whole truth. Only Vladimir Ko\u00efnsky, lieutenant of the Polish cavalry, stays right on track. Ko\u00efnsky has enrolled in the LRDG after leaving behind the Cracow disaster and fleeing across Romania and Persia. He is a cynic and an individualist, but he can see beyond the mirages and recognize a spy. Redheaded, tough, disfigured (and not just in the face), Ko\u00efnsky is among those characters who do not want to make history, but rather live from day to day facing risks straight on, and overcoming them, because tomorrow doesn\u2019t matter when you have nothing to lose.<\/h5>\n<\/div>AVAILABLE ON APPSTORE<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>![](\"https:\/\/cortomaltese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1\/Scorpions_2_PiccoloChalet.jpg\")
<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>Vol. 2\u00a0–\u00a0Piccolo Chalet<\/h2>\n<\/div>January 1941. Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.The war, the desert, the regular Italian and English armies\u2014all these elements appear and disappear in the vibrant mirage on the far horizon and set a distant scene for the story of three solitary men: Ko\u00efnsky, the cynical Polish lieutenant of the Desert Scorpions; the individualistic and romantic lieutenant Stella; and Cush, the tough and charming revolutionary of the Beni Amer tribe. This odd trio acts outside normal limits. They are not allies; they are just trying to survive, to keep each other in check and to mutually respect each other in order to arrive alive at a common destination. All three are in search of a treasure, a way out of a war that doesn\u2019t consider them. Each has his own, different motives, but they share the journey across the fragile border between life and death, between dreams and escape, between materialism and idealism.
\nIn the background a gramophone plays a repetitive refrain and there is the vague but intense fragrance of a faraway woman. There are scorpions who pretend to be scorpions and an Andalusian hawk that brings to mind poems in Arabic and the right place to find more than just a treasure.<\/h5>\n<\/div>AVAILABLE ON APPSTORE<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>![](\"https:\/\/cortomaltese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1\/Scorpions_3_SpadesDanakil.jpg\")
<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>Vol. 3\u00a0–\u00a0The Spades of Danakil<\/h2>\n<\/div>Lieutenant Ko\u00efnsky, \u00a0who has been promoted to commander of the Desert Scorpions, is now on board an airplane, on his way to the British military summits for an important meeting with the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie. His flight is intercepted by the CR42 of one of the aces of the Italian Royal Air Force, Captain Visentin. The English are not shot down, only forced to land, and their imprisonment does not last long; after seizing a Savoia Marchetti, they take off in a southerly direction, but the fate of that trip is sealed: the aircraft has mechanical problems and Ko\u00efnsky ends up in a strange, small Italian fort surrounded by Danakil marauders, among Eritrean mercenaries weary of a futile war and officers on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
\nA surreal and deeply human story enhanced by a soundtrack of opera music; there are the sensual movements of a curvaceous woman, shots that come out of nowhere, officers with brilliantine-sculpted hair, and French soldiers fleeing a desert teeming with more than just ghosts.<\/h5>\n<\/div>
CongeEditions is the new publishing house of CONG SA \u2013 Hugo Pratt Art Properties, the company that manages all of Hugo Pratt\u2019s work. The 5 titles in the series will be published in English in eBook format only.<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>M<\/span>any consider Pratt\u2019s narrative level to be of the same caliber as that of such novelists as Dumas, Conrad, or Jack London. This view is not an exaggeration, given the great quantity of adventures that he drew. Corto Maltese is certainly his most famous character (the series has been published in the USA by Euro Comics \u2013 IDW Publisher \u2013 starting in December 2014), but Pratt created many other characters and series, such as The Scorpions of the Desert<\/em>, Wheeling<\/em>, Sgt Kirk<\/em>, Ernie Pike<\/em> e Jesuit Joe<\/em>, just to mention the most important ones.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>Even his personal life recalls that of a character straight out of an adventure novel.
\nThe saga of The Scorpions of the Desert<\/em> was not a random choice for Pratt; he actually lived in Abyssinia for a number of years that were important from both a historical and a personal viewpoint. In 1940, Hugo, who was only 13, was enlisted by his father in a battalion of the Italian colonial army in Addis Ababa. The battalion was made up of high school and college students who were in charge of protecting civilians from potential attacks by marauders while awaiting the arrival of official troups. At the time, Hugo was the youngest soldier of the Italian army: a sort of mascot of his battalion.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>In this apparently ridiculous role, Pratt experiences the real war. In the adventures of the Scorpions<\/em>, one clearly picks up on the memories of a young wanderer who, in the guise of a \u2018mascot,\u2019 discovers the hard reality that permeates the situations that all men, like it or not, must face in a conflict.<\/p>\nThe Scorpion<\/em> series was born out of a little-known piece of history that took place in North Africa between 1940 and 1941, when the famous \u201cAfrikakorps\u201d had not yet entered into action in the desert, while on the Mediterranean Sea the French had momentarily left the field of operations. Hence, only the Italians and the English were left to confront each other directly.<\/p>\n<\/div>Translated by Fiore Sireci and colored by Patrizia Zanotti.
\n<\/em><\/strong>First volume available on iTunes in February 2015.
\n<\/em><\/strong>52 pages, ISBN 978-2-940552-00-9, $7.99<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>eBook:\u00a0The Scorpions of the Desert<\/h1>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>Vol. 1 –\u00a0Gli Scorpioni del Deserto<\/h2>\n<\/div>Autumn 1940, in the desert on the border between Libya and Egypt. The protagonists of the story are a group of men that belong to the fighting elite of the British Army: the Long Range Desert Group, aka the Scorpions of the Desert. They come from every battlefield of the Empire, and they travel alone, on the edges of the great maneuvers. They appropriate jeeps, armored vehicles, camels; or they march for days on end before an attack, striking and disappearing behind the sand dunes without much regard for rules.
\nBut everything is bewildering around here, the borders, the enemy\u2019s uniforms, the colors and the flags on the vehicles used by these men. Sometimes whoever is telling a story doesn\u2019t tell the whole truth. Only Vladimir Ko\u00efnsky, lieutenant of the Polish cavalry, stays right on track. Ko\u00efnsky has enrolled in the LRDG after leaving behind the Cracow disaster and fleeing across Romania and Persia. He is a cynic and an individualist, but he can see beyond the mirages and recognize a spy. Redheaded, tough, disfigured (and not just in the face), Ko\u00efnsky is among those characters who do not want to make history, but rather live from day to day facing risks straight on, and overcoming them, because tomorrow doesn\u2019t matter when you have nothing to lose.<\/h5>\n<\/div>AVAILABLE ON APPSTORE<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>Vol. 2\u00a0–\u00a0Piccolo Chalet<\/h2>\n<\/div>January 1941. Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.The war, the desert, the regular Italian and English armies\u2014all these elements appear and disappear in the vibrant mirage on the far horizon and set a distant scene for the story of three solitary men: Ko\u00efnsky, the cynical Polish lieutenant of the Desert Scorpions; the individualistic and romantic lieutenant Stella; and Cush, the tough and charming revolutionary of the Beni Amer tribe. This odd trio acts outside normal limits. They are not allies; they are just trying to survive, to keep each other in check and to mutually respect each other in order to arrive alive at a common destination. All three are in search of a treasure, a way out of a war that doesn\u2019t consider them. Each has his own, different motives, but they share the journey across the fragile border between life and death, between dreams and escape, between materialism and idealism.
\nIn the background a gramophone plays a repetitive refrain and there is the vague but intense fragrance of a faraway woman. There are scorpions who pretend to be scorpions and an Andalusian hawk that brings to mind poems in Arabic and the right place to find more than just a treasure.<\/h5>\n<\/div>AVAILABLE ON APPSTORE<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>Vol. 3\u00a0–\u00a0The Spades of Danakil<\/h2>\n<\/div>Lieutenant Ko\u00efnsky, \u00a0who has been promoted to commander of the Desert Scorpions, is now on board an airplane, on his way to the British military summits for an important meeting with the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie. His flight is intercepted by the CR42 of one of the aces of the Italian Royal Air Force, Captain Visentin. The English are not shot down, only forced to land, and their imprisonment does not last long; after seizing a Savoia Marchetti, they take off in a southerly direction, but the fate of that trip is sealed: the aircraft has mechanical problems and Ko\u00efnsky ends up in a strange, small Italian fort surrounded by Danakil marauders, among Eritrean mercenaries weary of a futile war and officers on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
\nA surreal and deeply human story enhanced by a soundtrack of opera music; there are the sensual movements of a curvaceous woman, shots that come out of nowhere, officers with brilliantine-sculpted hair, and French soldiers fleeing a desert teeming with more than just ghosts.<\/h5>\n<\/div>
<\/span><\/div>M<\/span>any consider Pratt\u2019s narrative level to be of the same caliber as that of such novelists as Dumas, Conrad, or Jack London. This view is not an exaggeration, given the great quantity of adventures that he drew. Corto Maltese is certainly his most famous character (the series has been published in the USA by Euro Comics \u2013 IDW Publisher \u2013 starting in December 2014), but Pratt created many other characters and series, such as The Scorpions of the Desert<\/em>, Wheeling<\/em>, Sgt Kirk<\/em>, Ernie Pike<\/em> e Jesuit Joe<\/em>, just to mention the most important ones.<\/p>\n<\/div> Even his personal life recalls that of a character straight out of an adventure novel. In this apparently ridiculous role, Pratt experiences the real war. In the adventures of the Scorpions<\/em>, one clearly picks up on the memories of a young wanderer who, in the guise of a \u2018mascot,\u2019 discovers the hard reality that permeates the situations that all men, like it or not, must face in a conflict.<\/p>\n The Scorpion<\/em> series was born out of a little-known piece of history that took place in North Africa between 1940 and 1941, when the famous \u201cAfrikakorps\u201d had not yet entered into action in the desert, while on the Mediterranean Sea the French had momentarily left the field of operations. Hence, only the Italians and the English were left to confront each other directly.<\/p>\n<\/div> Translated by Fiore Sireci and colored by Patrizia Zanotti.<\/span><\/div><\/div>
\nThe saga of The Scorpions of the Desert<\/em> was not a random choice for Pratt; he actually lived in Abyssinia for a number of years that were important from both a historical and a personal viewpoint. In 1940, Hugo, who was only 13, was enlisted by his father in a battalion of the Italian colonial army in Addis Ababa. The battalion was made up of high school and college students who were in charge of protecting civilians from potential attacks by marauders while awaiting the arrival of official troups. At the time, Hugo was the youngest soldier of the Italian army: a sort of mascot of his battalion.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>
\n<\/em><\/strong>First volume available on iTunes in February 2015.
\n<\/em><\/strong>52 pages, ISBN 978-2-940552-00-9, $7.99<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>eBook:\u00a0The Scorpions of the Desert<\/h1>\n<\/div>
<\/span><\/div>Vol. 1 –\u00a0Gli Scorpioni del Deserto<\/h2>\n<\/div>
Autumn 1940, in the desert on the border between Libya and Egypt. The protagonists of the story are a group of men that belong to the fighting elite of the British Army: the Long Range Desert Group, aka the Scorpions of the Desert. They come from every battlefield of the Empire, and they travel alone, on the edges of the great maneuvers. They appropriate jeeps, armored vehicles, camels; or they march for days on end before an attack, striking and disappearing behind the sand dunes without much regard for rules.
\nBut everything is bewildering around here, the borders, the enemy\u2019s uniforms, the colors and the flags on the vehicles used by these men. Sometimes whoever is telling a story doesn\u2019t tell the whole truth. Only Vladimir Ko\u00efnsky, lieutenant of the Polish cavalry, stays right on track. Ko\u00efnsky has enrolled in the LRDG after leaving behind the Cracow disaster and fleeing across Romania and Persia. He is a cynic and an individualist, but he can see beyond the mirages and recognize a spy. Redheaded, tough, disfigured (and not just in the face), Ko\u00efnsky is among those characters who do not want to make history, but rather live from day to day facing risks straight on, and overcoming them, because tomorrow doesn\u2019t matter when you have nothing to lose.<\/h5>\n<\/div><\/span><\/div>Vol. 2\u00a0–\u00a0Piccolo Chalet<\/h2>\n<\/div>
January 1941. Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.The war, the desert, the regular Italian and English armies\u2014all these elements appear and disappear in the vibrant mirage on the far horizon and set a distant scene for the story of three solitary men: Ko\u00efnsky, the cynical Polish lieutenant of the Desert Scorpions; the individualistic and romantic lieutenant Stella; and Cush, the tough and charming revolutionary of the Beni Amer tribe. This odd trio acts outside normal limits. They are not allies; they are just trying to survive, to keep each other in check and to mutually respect each other in order to arrive alive at a common destination. All three are in search of a treasure, a way out of a war that doesn\u2019t consider them. Each has his own, different motives, but they share the journey across the fragile border between life and death, between dreams and escape, between materialism and idealism.
\nIn the background a gramophone plays a repetitive refrain and there is the vague but intense fragrance of a faraway woman. There are scorpions who pretend to be scorpions and an Andalusian hawk that brings to mind poems in Arabic and the right place to find more than just a treasure.<\/h5>\n<\/div><\/span><\/div>Vol. 3\u00a0–\u00a0The Spades of Danakil<\/h2>\n<\/div>
Lieutenant Ko\u00efnsky, \u00a0who has been promoted to commander of the Desert Scorpions, is now on board an airplane, on his way to the British military summits for an important meeting with the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie. His flight is intercepted by the CR42 of one of the aces of the Italian Royal Air Force, Captain Visentin. The English are not shot down, only forced to land, and their imprisonment does not last long; after seizing a Savoia Marchetti, they take off in a southerly direction, but the fate of that trip is sealed: the aircraft has mechanical problems and Ko\u00efnsky ends up in a strange, small Italian fort surrounded by Danakil marauders, among Eritrean mercenaries weary of a futile war and officers on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
\nA surreal and deeply human story enhanced by a soundtrack of opera music; there are the sensual movements of a curvaceous woman, shots that come out of nowhere, officers with brilliantine-sculpted hair, and French soldiers fleeing a desert teeming with more than just ghosts.<\/h5>\n<\/div>
![](\"https:\/\/cortomaltese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1\/Scorpions_4_DryMartini.jpg\")
<\/span><\/div>![](\"https:\/\/cortomaltese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1\/Scorpions_5_BriseDeMer.jpg\")
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