Corto Maltese

Corto Maltese is a roguish, free-spirited sailor and soldier of fortune created by Hugo Pratt, first appearing in the graphic novel 'Ballad of the Salt Sea.' Born in Malta to a British sailor father and Andalusian mother, he drifts through early 20th-century adventures across exotic corners of the world.

Few characters in the comic art form carry themselves with quite the mystique of Corto Maltese — the wandering sailor and adventurer born from the singular imagination of Hugo Pratt, who first set him adrift in La Ballata del Mare Salato in 1972. A Bronze Age creation published under Rizzoli Libri, he anchors his own rich body of work across titles like Corto Maltese and Corto Maltese - Favola di Venezia, a catalogue that kept growing for some 35 years — a testament to the character's enduring pull. Along the way he shares pages with figures as varied as Max Fridman and even Superman and Clark Kent, hinting at the remarkable range of worlds this seafarer has been invited into. With 74 catalogued appearances, at least one of them a recognized key issue, Corto Maltese is a figure any serious collector of international comics will want to know.