![]() ![]() In 2012, the small publisher Universe released a translated edition of the first Maltese story, The Ballad of the Salt Sea, a long tale of high-seas double-dealing set on the eve of World War I. A few scattered translated editions appeared over the years but quickly went out of print, and import copies have only been available at premium prices. Like most European comics, though, Pratt’s Corto Maltese adventures have remained inaccessible and virtually unknown in the United States. Through the 1970s and ’80s, Maltese became one of the most popular and acclaimed comics characters in Europe. ![]() “Maybe I’m the king of idiots, the last representative of an extinct dynasty that believed in generosity! In heroism!” he sneers sarcastically after standing up to a bully. He’s a peer of Sergio Leone’s Man With No Name, Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe, and the protagonists of Easy Rider. ![]() Maltese fit the mood of the times-a classic antihero, a romantic dropout whose jaded sensibility masks a crusading impulse, a roguish loner who always finds himself in the middle of a lost cause. The Italian cartoonist Hugo Pratt introduced his most famous character, the cynical sailor and “gentleman of fortune” Corto Maltese, in 1967. ![]()
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