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The first story, Under the Sign of the Capricorn, takes place in 1916, a year after the end of The Ballad of the Salty Sea. Although Corto’s past adventure is referenced by some of the people he meets here, it is not necessary to have read The Ballad of the Salty Sea beforehand as the stories read well on their own.
This ebook consist of six chapters, making for several stories loosely connected as they occur during distinct voyages in the Pacific and South America.
The secret of Tristan Bantam: Tristan, who has inherited precious papers that tell of the lost kingdom of Mû, has a dream that portends an apparently incomprehensible fate. At Paramaribo, in the sultry heat of Dutch Guyana, Corto finds himself entangled in a sordid tale about a stolen inheritance, while surrounded by such strange characters as Kerster, an unscrupulous lawyer; Jeremiah Steiner, a former university professor, and Madame Java, “hotel” manager and expert knife thrower…
Rendez-Vous in Bahia: Corto Maltese, Steiner, and Tristan Bantam sail for Bahia to meet Morgana, Tristan’s half-sister. She has their father’s notes concerning the lost continent of Mû, the very papers Tristan glimpsed in his dreams; even the Indians have predicted that his fate lies there. But in Bahia, a lawyer by the name of Milner tries to kill Tristan. Corto exposes Milner and beats him at poker; he wins and Milner loses his life. The treasure hunt can now continue on its way towards Itapoa.
Sure shot Samba: At Itapoa, Corto, Tristan, and Steiner meet Bocca Dorata, the great voodoo sorceress who raised Morgana and initiated her into black and white magic. For a thousand pounds, Corto accepts Gold Mouth’s proposal to take weapons and money to the Cangaceiros led by Sureshot, rebels fighting in the Brazilian Sertão against the big landholding oil tycoons and their henchmen. Corto and his friends will get tangled up in these conflicts and will have to choose sides.
The Basilian Eagle: Corto, Tristan, and Steiner sail along the Brazilian coast in search of the wreck of a Spanish galleon loaded with gold. It is supposed to be somewhere in the vicinity of Marajò Island, at the mouth of the Amazon River.
But they are not the only ones on this treasure hunt; they’re part of a plan hatched by Bocca Dorata. Not only will a German baron and a British secret agent intervene, but also the dangerous Jawbreaker, whom Corto will have to confront.
The character of Rasputin, the friend-enemy considered by many to be Corto’s evil alter ego, reappears on the scene from the times of the Ballad in the episode And we’ll talk again of the gentlemen of fortune, in an adventure centred on the search for a fabulous treasure, set in Saint Kitts in the Antilles, The cycle closes with Seagull’s Fault, wherein, despite itself, it is this very bird (which Pratt so loved to draw because of the sense of freedom it gave off in flight) which is the main character of the story set on an island near British Honduras.
As The New York Journal of Books said, “Under the Sign of Capricorn brings one of the most exciting and original adventure narratives in the world of graphic novels to American shores with the beauty and intelligence of the author intact….The perfect introduction to the character. Corto Maltese is as timeless as Batman or The Man With No Name in the Sergio Leones film series that made Clint Eastwood a star.” -Mark Squirek
After the success at Comicdom CON Athens 2024, the exhibition dedicated to Hugo Pratt and Corto Maltese continues its journey through Greece to the Comic
An entire museum completely occupied by comics. The six floors of the Centre Pompidou in Paris celebrate 60 years of the ‘band dessinée’ from 1964
FROM 31 MAY TO 28 JULY 2024 – AND IN CONNECTION WITH THE LYON BD FESTIVAL FROM 7 TO 9 JUNE – DESIGNED LITERATURE IS
