Short maltese

Corto Maltés (Corto Maltese in its original version) is a series of adventure comics, named after the character Corto Maltés, an adventurous sailor. It was created by Italian cartoonist and screenwriter Hugo Pratt in 1967. The comics are highly praised as some of the most artistic and literary graphic novels ever written and have been translated into numerous languages and adapted into several animated films.

The series features Corto Maltese, an enigmatic sea captain living in the first three decades of the century XX. Born in Valletta, on the island of Malta, on July 10, 1887, the son of a Cornish sailor and a gypsy from Seville, Corto is a British national. The series narrates his adventures in his travels around the world.

In his adventures filled with real-world references, Corto has often crossed paths with real historical figures such as American writer Jack London, American bandit Butch Cassidy, German air ace of the World War I Manfred von Richthofen, and many others.

The series includes 33 stories of various lengths, published, without a fixed periodicity, over the years by various publishers, in Italy and France; the character is a totally different prototype of a hero, far removed from the canons of the classic hero and the comics are characterized by their adult themes and style, by the precise and well-documented historical context and by the timely and coherent geographical annotations, with cultured references and cultural dispersed throughout the work.

The first album, The ballad of the salty sea, is considered a classic of the genre, an ante-literary graphic novel that has set the standard. Appreciated by critics and the educated public since the decade from 1970, over the years its popular success has grown until it reached cult status; an animated film and series based on his adventures were made in the 2000s, as well as several stage adaptations, and countless references in other comics, songs, and books. There have also been several successful exhibitions on the character and his author, and a statue has been dedicated to him in Grandvaux, on Lake Geneva, where Hugo Pratt spent part of his life.

The protagonist

Corto Maltés (whose name derives from Andalusian slang meaning "quick hands") is a laconic sea captain who ventures into the early 20th century XX (1900-1920). A 'rogue with a heart of gold', he is easygoing and sympathetic to the underdog. Born in Valletta on July 10, 1887, he is the son of a Cornish British sailor and an Andalusian-Gypsy fortune teller and prostitute known as "The Girl from Gibraltar." As a child, growing up in the Jewish quarter of Córdoba, Maltés discovered that he did not have the line of fate in the palm of his hand and, therefore, he carved his own with his father's razor, determining that his fate was to be the one he chose. While he maintains neutral positions, Corto instinctively supports the disadvantaged and oppressed.

The character embodies the author's skepticism towards nationalist, ideological and religious expressions. Corto befriends all kinds of people, including the Russian assassin Rasputin (no relation to the historical figure, apart from physical resemblance and some character traits), the British heir Tristan Bantam, the voodoo priestess Boca de Oro, and the Czech academic Jeremiah. Steiner. He also meets and meets several real-life historical figures including Jack London, Ernest Hemingway, Hermann Hesse, Butch Cassidy, James Joyce, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Frederick Rolfe, Joseph Conrad, Süjbaatar, John Reed, General White Russian Roman von Ungern-Sternberg, Enver Pasha from Turkey and Sergei Semenov, based on Grigori Semionov. His acquaintances treat him with great respect, such as when a phone call to Joseph Stalin frees him from arrest when he is threatened with execution on the Turkish-Armenian border.

Corto's favorite reading is Utopia, by Tomás Moro, but he never finishes it. He also reads books by London, Lugones, Stevenson, Melville, and Conrad, and quotes Rimbaud.

The stories in Corto Maltese range from straightforward historical adventure to occult dream sequences. He is present when the Red Baron is shot down, helping the Jíbaros in South America and fleeing the Fascists in Venice, but also unwittingly helping Merlin and Oberon defend Britain and Tristan Bantam visiting the lost continent of Mu.

Chronologically, the first adventure of Corto Maltese, La giovinezza (The Early Years), takes place during the Russo-Japanese War. In other albums he experiences the Great War in various places, participates in the Russian Civil War after the October Revolution and appears during the early days of Fascist Italy. In another Pratt series, Gli Scorpioni del Deserto ( The Scorpions of the Desert ), it is stated that he disappeared in Spain during the Civil War.

Hugo Pratt explained the genesis of the character, stating that he needed a Mediterranean character, but one that was part of an Anglo-Saxon culture because "in the Anglo-Saxon narrative tradition there are more fairy tales, more legends". For this reason, he opted for a Maltese, originally from a place where many cultures intersected (an element that would come in handy in the creation of the different stories), the son of a Gibraltar prostitute and a Cornish sailor.

Outwardly, the Corto Maltese comes across as a cynical, individualistic and self-centered character, stating that he is not interested in other people's affairs and complaining if he gets involved in them despite himself. However, beyond the ostentatious cynicism, the Corto Maltese's personality is actually marked by loyalty and human solidarity. He is often found helping others, even those with whom he has hostile relations, and to him killing is always a 'critically conscious' decision: kill, even decisively, but only if the situation calls for it. Brunoro even notes a "romantic component" in character, contradicting his apparent cynicism. He is romantic in the realm of feelings (moments of discouragement or sadness are not rare when he has to leave the woman he has fallen in love with), in his humanitas, in siding with one of the weakest and most in need of help when they have to participate in a conflict. But Brunoro defines it as "romantic" also in the true textbook sense of the term, that is, "the one who wants romanticism as a movement that feeds the propensity towards the unknown, the fairy tale, the vague fantasizing far from reality." The critic points out, in effect, that the "pirate" Corto Maltese often goes in search of gold, but also lost treasures and legendary cities. This is not because he gets lost in ramblings and idealistic exaltations and, therefore, is disconnected from reality - Brunoro explains -, but because he has a great imagination and great curiosity, qualities that unmask his apparent cynicism.. The critic points out that the "pirate" Corto Maltese is usually in search of gold, but also of lost treasures and legendary cities.

Another peculiar aspect of the Corto Maltese personality is irony. Brunoro defines Corto's irony as "arguce and distancing"; it is a "psychological" which, according to the critic, allows him to face the adventures he finds himself involved in - despite himself or not - Runoro also points out how irony sometimes acquires a cathartic function with respect to the previously accumulated dramatic charge.

Corto Maltese's appearance is characteristic: he dresses predominantly in marine fashion, with a long navy blue black coat, wide white pants, a light red vest, white shirt with a high collar and a thin black tie; he often wears a white sailor hat with a peak. His face is loosely inspired by that of Burt Lancaster in the film His Majesty of the South Seas; he has light brown eyes, with a vaguely oriental cut, and shaggy black hair with long, thick sideburns, which will become less apparent in later stories. He wears a ring-shaped earring in his left ear (symbol of belonging to the merchant navy and recurrent anarchist symbol at the beginning of the XX < century ). He is 1.83m tall and has a lean and agile physique.

Fictional biography of the protagonist

La Valetta, island of Malta

According to the data that appear in the different comic strips, Corto Maltés was born in Valletta (Malta) on July 10, 1887. His mother was a gypsy known as the Girl from Gibraltar, from Seville by birth, and his father a sailor from Cornwall (England). Due to the latter, Corto is a British subject, with official residence in La Antigua (Antilles).

Corto spent his childhood in Córdoba, where he was initiated into the study of Kabbalah and the Talmud by a rabbi named Ezra Toledano. One day, a gypsy friend of his mother wanted to read his palm and discovered that he had no line of fortune. Short, then, he recorded one to her liking with his father's razor, although he doesn't like anyone to see it.

His first trip was to Egypt, and in 1900, at the age of 13, he was in Manchuria. It was the time of the Boxer Rebellion and Corto carried out a military feat, destroying a cannon. Four years later he appears in the middle of the Russo-Japanese War, where he meets a young writer named Jack London. He introduces him to another character who will subsequently meet Corto on numerous occasions: a Russian defector named Rasputin. Rasputin is the opposite of Corto: homicidal, selfish, neurotic and ambitious. They maintain a strange relationship and will share many adventures. They both decide to go looking for King Solomon's mines in South Africa, but the crew of their ship mutinies and abandons them at sea, where they are picked up by a cargo ship heading to Argentina. In this country Corto meets the bandits Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (see Two Men and One Fate).

Between 1908 and 1913 Corto traveled to various places. In Italy he meets a young Georgian named Zhugashvili: the same one who would later lead the USSR under the name of Stalin. In Argentina he sees Jack London again. He also traveled to the Antilles, India, China, New Orleans... During this time, specifically in 1910, he worked as second mate on board the Bostonian , a ship that made the Boston- NY. However, he falls out of favor for defending a cabin boy, John Reed, accused of causing the death of another cabin boy. Corto must leave that job and dedicates himself to piracy.

He joins an organization led by a mysterious character called The Monk. On October 13, 1913, the crew of his ship mutinied to steal his merchandise and left him tied to a raft, adrift (it is at this precise point that the first published adventure of Corto Maltese begins, La ballad of the salty sea). He is rescued by a ship captained by Rasputin, who also works under El Monje. In this adventure, Corto meets some characters with whom he will later coincide, such as Pandora Groovesmore and her cousin Cain, two adolescent nephews of El Monje. Pandora will always be Corto's platonic love.

In 1916 Corto is in Brazil, after having separated from Rasputin in Panama. He heads to the mouth of the Amazon, where he meets a centuries-old witch, Boca Dorada , who claims to have known her mother, her grandmother, and her great-grandfather. It is common for Corto to find characters who seem to know more about him than himself: magic is present in many comics, although Corto always maintains an attitude of ironic skepticism towards it. On that occasion, he participated in a combat of the cangaceiros (bandits and revolutionaries) against a dictatorial colonel of the Brazilian army, and also helped them defeat a detachment of Germans who were in the area looking for coal to feed their warships. The world political situation is present even in such a remote corner: it is the time of the Great War and Corto is still a British subject. In fact, after numerous vicissitudes in Latin America we find him the following year in the middle of the war in Italy, where with a group of deserters from the fighting armies he searches for the hidden treasure of the King of Montenegro. He then leaves for Ireland, where he becomes involved in the IRA's actions against the English army.

Corto Maltés represented in a mural in Brussels.

From Ireland to France, and from France to Somalia and Ethiopia, where she meets the warrior dankalo Cush, whom she will also meet again later. He then will settle for a while in Hong Kong. From there another adventure begins: together with the rediscovered Rasputin, and under the orders of an organization called Red Lanterns, they head to Siberia to try to steal the jewels of the Russian royal family, who are traveling in an armored train. It is the time of the civil war that followed the Russian revolution. He returns to Hong Kong after a long journey.

In April 1920 Corto is in Venice looking for King Solomon's clavicle. He finds himself involved in the brawls between Freemasons and the gunmen of an incipient Fascist Italy. Leaving Italy, he learns that Rasputin is a prisoner of the Ottoman Turks in Samarkand, and goes there to free him. In this adventure he is also a prisoner of the Red Army, but a call from his incredulous commander to Stalin (then Nationalities Commissioner and Corto's old acquaintance) manages to save his life.

He returned to Argentina in June 1923, where he met old acquaintances. The following year he passes through Switzerland, where he does the same thing and also meets Hermann Hesse. The Swiss adventure is internal, as it is induced by a magical or hallucinogenic concoction called "Paracelsus filter". Corto emerges rejuvenated from that trip into his own mind.

After passing through Switzerland, he plunges with Rasputin into the depths of the Pacific Ocean to search for the lost continent of Mu and discover the origin of humanity. This adventure that took place in 1925 will be the last published in Corto. He will eventually give up the affair and spend his old age in peace living in the house of Pandora Groovesmore and her family.

However, there is another version of Corto's disappearance: according to what his friend Cush narrates in Los escorpiones del desierto, a work that does not belong to Corto's series and whose action takes place in 1941, In 1936 Corto enlisted in the International Brigades to fight for the Republic in the Spanish Civil War, and there he disappeared.

Editorial trajectory

The series was created in 1967 by Hugo Pratt for Sgt. Kirk, consisting of the following works:

Title	Scenario	Edition	Época
The Salt Sea Ballad	New Guinea	1967	1913-1915
Under the sign of Capricorn	Dutch Guiana, French GuianaFrench Guiana, Brazil, British Honduras and the Lesser Antilles	1970	1916
Always a little further	Venezuela, EcuadorEcuador, HondurasHonduras, the Lesser Antilles and Peru	1970	1917
The Celtic	Venice and Veneto Italy), United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and North of France ( III French Republic)	1971	1917
Ethopic	Kingdom of Yemen, Ethiopian empire, British Somaliland and East German Africa	1972	1918
Maltese Choir in Siberia	Hong Kong, Manchuria ( Republic of China), Siberia (Russian Empire), Kanato de Mongolia	1974	1918-1920
Fábula de Venice	Venice ( Italy)	1977	1921
The golden house of Samarcanda	Kingdom of Greece, TurkeyTurkey, Persia, Soviet Union, Afghanistan and British Raj	1980	1921-1923
Youth	Mukden ( Empire of Japan)	1981	1904-1905
Tango	Buenos AiresArgentina)	1985	1923
Helvetics	SwitzerlandSwitzerland	1987	1924
Mû	Senior Antilles	1988	1925

Since 1977, it was disseminated in Spain by the magazine Tótem. It is currently distributed by Norma Editorial as part of its Hugo Pratt collection.

Legacy and influence

Echoes of Corto Maltés can be detected in later series, such as the tetralogy Los viajes de Juan Sin Tierra (2004-2010) by Javier de Isusi.

Corto Maltese appears in Frank Miller's graphic novel, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns as the name of a South American island where a war with the United States and a subsequent missile crisis took place.. It can be assumed that Miller used the name as a tribute to Pratt. Since then, the island has been referenced numerous times, becoming part of the DC Universe. In the movie Batman the reporter and photographer Vicki Vale traveled to Corto Maltese to take pictures of the consequences of the revolution. In the CW series Arrow Corto Maltese is a recurring destination for Green Arrow and various characters in the series.

Jairo, the Cordovan singer-songwriter, also has a song entitled La Balada de Corto Maltese. In it he recounts his last step through Argentina and the son he leaves there.

Critical appraisal

The theoretician Francisca Lladó includes it among the "adventure comics of the second degree", although it can also be included within the historical ones, since it is set at the beginning of the century XX. In any case, it does not fail to highlight the "clash between fable and history".

Adaptations to other media

In 2002 Corto Maltese: The Movie (also known as The Secret Court of the Arcanes) was released, a cartoon feature film based on the Short Maltese in Siberia. Later, between 2002 and 2004, Canal+ produced a series of four films for television, namely: The Ballad of the Salty Sea (La Ballade de la mer salée), Under the Sign of Capricorn (Sous le signe du Capricorne), The Celtic Women (Les Celtiques) and The Mansion Dorada de Samarkand (Maison dorée de Samarkand) also based on comics created by Hugo Pratt.

Continuation with new authors

In October 2014 it was announced that the screenwriter Juan Díaz Canales, screenwriter of the successful Blacksad, and the cartoonist Rubén Pellejero were working on a new Corto Maltés adventure that came to light in October 2015 The scriptwriter affirmed that it will be a story of new creation, because it is considered as the next album. It is the continuation of the series. In October 2015, Norma Editorial published the first adventure of the artistic tandem with the title Under the midnight sun. A double edition in color (in Spanish and Catalan) and in black and white. In October 2017, the same authors published the album Equatoria in Norma Editorial, a story set in Central Africa. A few weeks before they had published a small watercolor story of Corto Maltese in the newspaper El País, located in Central America. In November 2019, they published their third album again in a double version in color and black and white with the Norma publishing house, El día de Tarowean, set in Oceania and responding to why Corto Maltés appears on the drifts in the sea at the beginning of Ballad of the Salty Sea. In October 2022 they published Berlin Nocturne, set in Berlin in 1924, during the beginning of the Nazi party. Corto Maltese investigates the death of a friend, Steiner, there. The story would be located just after The Helveticas.