Editing Hugo Pratt (section)

===Return to Italy and the creation of Corto Maltese===
[[Image:Pratt-corto1.jpg|thumb|230px|Cover of Italian publication ''[[The Ballad of the Salty Sea|Una ballata del mare salato]]'']]
From the summer of 1959 to the summer of 1960, Pratt lived in London where he drew a series of war comics for [[Fleetway Publications]], with British scriptwriters. He then returned to Argentina, despite the harsh economic times there. From there, he moved again to Italy in 1962 where he started a collaboration with the children's comic book magazine ''[[Corriere dei Piccoli]]'', for which he adapted several classics of adventure literature, including ''[[Treasure Island]]'' and ''[[Kidnapped (novel)|Kidnapped]]'' by [[Robert Louis Stevenson]].

In 1967, Pratt met Florenzo Ivaldi; the two created a comics magazine named after his character, ''[[Sergeant Kirk]]'', the hero first written by [[Héctor Germán Oesterheld|Héctor Oesterheld]]. Pratt's most famous story, ''[[The Ballad of the Salty Sea|Una ballata del mare salato]] (A Ballad of the Salty Sea)'', is published in the first issue and introduced his best-known character, [[Corto Maltese]].

Corto's series continued three years later in the French magazine ''[[Pif Gadget]]''. Due to his rather mixed family ancestry, Pratt had learned snippets of things such as [[Kabbalah|kabbalism]] and much history. Many of his stories are placed in real historical eras and deal with real events: the 1755 war between French and British colonists in [[Fort Ticonderoga|Ticonderoga]], colonial wars in Africa and both [[world war]]s, for example. Pratt did exhaustive research for factual and visual details, and some characters are real historical figures or loosely based on them, such as Corto's main friend/enemy, Rasputin. Many of the minor characters cross over into other stories in a way that places all of Pratt’s stories into the same continuum.

Pratt's main series in the second part of his career include ''Gli scorpioni del deserto'' (five stories) and ''[[Jesuit Joe]]''. He also wrote stories for his friend and pupil [[Milo Manara]] for ''Tutto ricominciò con un'estate indiana'' and ''El Gaucho''.