Ugo Eugenio Prat (15 June 1927 – 20 August 1995), better known as Hugo Pratt, was an Italian comic book creator who was known for combining strong storytelling with extensive historical research on works such as Corto Maltese.

The same year, Hugo Pratt and his mother were interned in a prison camp at Dirédaoua, where he would buy comics from guards, and later was sent back to Italy by the Red Cross.

Later Pratt joined the Venice Group with other Italian cartoonists, including Alberto Ongaro, Gian Carlo Guarda[2][3][4] and Mario Faustinelli.

During that period he produced his first comic book as a complete author, both writing and illustrating Anna della jungla (Ann of the Jungle), which was followed by the similar Capitan Cormorant and Wheeling.

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 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 Oesterheld.

Pratt's most famous story, 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.

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.

[citation needed] In 2015, IDW Publishing's EuroComics[6] imprint launched the definitive English-language edition of Corto Maltese, with new translations made from Pratt's original Italian scripts.