Corto Maltese - the Early Years

by Pratt, Hugo

• ISBN13: 9781684055036
• ISBN10: 1684055032
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2019-08-20
• Publisher: Idea & Design Works Llc

Summary

This short adventure tells the backstory of Corto Maltese first meeting Rasputin at the end of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905.

The protagonist of this tale, actually, is not the 18-year-old Corto, but Rasputin, a deserter from a Siberian rifle regiment, and the writer Jack London, who was a war correspondent in the region at that time. London is already friends with Corto and introduces the sailor to the unpredictable Russian, who even as a young man kills with disconcerting ease and is ready to lie and betray without hesitation. It is, however, "the beginning of a beautiful friendship" that continues throughout the series. As a bonus, the book includes additional material that sets up the entire series, as well as several never-before published pages that Pratt intended for a continuation of the tale, in which Corto and Rasputin were to embark on a search for King Solomon's mines.

Author Biography

Hugo Pratt (1927-1995) is considered one of the great graphic novelists in the history of the medium. His strips, graphic works, and watercolors have been exhibited at the Grand Palais in Paris and the Vittoriano in Rome, and a landmark show in 2011 at the Pinacotheque in Paris drew 215,000 visitors, hailing Pratt as "the inventor of the literary comic strip."