Corto Maltese, Côtes de nuit et roses de Picardie half-page

Of course he is present. He is inside the vehicle, talking.
This storytelling device is something of a Pratt speciality, and we see it again and again in the Corto Maltese stories. Corto is talking, but all we actually see is something he is standing behind or to the side of - zebras, billiard balls, fish - or First World War military vehicles.
This 20-pager was originally published in Pif Gadget 172 in 1972 and has been republished countless times as part of the Les Celtiques sequence. Apparently Pratt´ s assistant Guido Fuga drew the vehicles in this story. From the Corto Maltese en Siberie story, all cars, trains, airplanes and so on in the Corto stories were drawn by Fuga.