Thumbnails from a Corto Maltese calendar

publication croisée depuis : https://lemm.ee/post/13238614

Corto Maltese (Andalusian slang for "quick hands") is a laconic sea captain adventuring during the early 20th century. A "rogue with a heart of gold", he is tolerant and sympathetic to the underdog. Born in Valletta, 1887, he's the son of a British sailor and an Andalusian–Romani witch. As a boy growing up in the Jewish quarter of Córdoba, Maltese discovered that he had no fate line on his palm and therefore carved his own with his father's razor, determining that his fate was his to choose. Although maintaining a neutral position, Corto instinctively supports the disadvantaged and oppressed.

The character embodies Pratt's skepticism of national, ideological and religious assertions. Corto befriends people from all walks of life, including the murderous Russian "Rasputin," British heir Tristan Bantam, voodoo priestess "Gold Mouth" and Czech academic Jeremiah Steiner. He also knows and meets various real-life historical figures, including Jack London, Ernest Hemingway, Hermann Hesse, Butch Cassidy, James Joyce, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Frederick Rolfe, Joseph Conrad and others. His acquaintances treat him with great respect, as when a telephone call to Joseph Stalin frees him from arrest when he is threatened with execution on the border of Turkey and Armenia.

Corto's favourite book is Utopia by Thomas More, but he never finishes it. He also read books by London, Lugones, Stevenson, Melville and Conrad, and quotes Rimbaud.

The Corto Maltese stories range from straight historical adventure to occult dream sequences. He's present when the Red Baron is shot down, helps the Jívaro in South America, and flees Fascists in Venice, but also unwittingly helps Merlin and Oberon to defend Britain, and helps Tristan Bantam to visit the lost continent of Mu. --WP