The Man From The Great North

Hugo Pratt, hailed as the “inventor of the literary comic strip,” offers an provocative story whose protagonist is a seemingly wanton murderer, driven by a religious obsession with the absolute. First English-language edition.

This is the story Jesuit Joe, a lone traveler of French-Canadian and Mohawk descent. In northern Canada, circa 1920, he wanders the icy wastes, engaged in an obsessive religious search for the absolute. He wears the red jacket of the Canadian Mounties that he found in a hut—which gives rise to a series of misunderstandings when he is mistaken for a member of the Mounted Police. His actions in response to complex moral choices highlight his unusual ethical code and his disturbing and complex personality. He kills with terrible ease and shows an unmatched cruelty and ferocity, yet his mood suddenly shifts and he performs unexpected acts of kindness and compassion. All the while, he is tracked by his nemesis, Sergeant Fox, whose mission is to capture Jesuit Joe and bring him to justice.

This is the first English language edition of Pratt’s 1980 classic, and includes an incomplete second story of Jesuit Joe, plus Pratt’s storyboards drawn for the movie version.