Comic books in 'Corto Maltese GN (EuroComics/IDW)'

1st printing.

Story and art by Hugo Pratt.

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 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.

Softcover, 9-in. x 11-in., 64 pages, B&W.

NOTE: "Classic adventure comics for adults, enjoyable but with depth. Strongly recommended." - Library Journal

Cover price $19.99.

1st printing.

Story and art by Hugo Pratt.

Celebrate this milestone in the history of graphic novels, winner of the world's first-ever "Best Graphic Novel" award, taking the prize in 1976 at the Angoulême Fesitval.

Originally serialized beginning in 1967, this book is universally acknowledged as Hugo Pratt's masterpiece, in which he introduces Corto Maltese to the world. Corto is but one of a strong ensemble cast of characters whose lives permeate the entire 12-book series. It is here that we also meet the young and beautiful Pandora, her brother Cain, the mysterious criminal mastermind Monk, the grim and ferocious Rasputin, Lieutenant Slutter of the German Navy, and the natives Skull and Tarao.

The Ballad of the Salty Sea is also hailed as the first example of the literary comic strip. Pratt was inspired by Conrad, Stevenson, and London, but even more directly by Henry de Vere Stacpool's Blue Lagoon, from which the author got the idea of a small island in the Pacific which he named "Escondida."

Softcover, 172 pages, full color.

Cover price $34.99.

Volume 1 - 1st printing. Story and art by Hugo Pratt. Treasure hunter, sailor, and adventurer, Corto Maltese remains one of the most popular characters from graphic literature in Europe and maintains a devoted cult following among American readers and creators. Originally published in 1967, Corto Maltese: The Ballad of the Salt Sea introduces our hero for the first time. The story begins with Corto Maltese adrift at sea in the Pacific during World War I. He is picked up by a Russian pirate/privateer named Rasputin. The graphic novel follows Corto and the adventure that ensues. Softcover, 256 pages, full color. Cover price $25.00.

2nd and later printings. Story and art by Hugo Pratt. This book, the first of 12 volumes, launches the definitive English language edition of Hugo Pratt's masterpiece, presented in the original oversized B&W format with new translations made from Pratt's original Italian scripts. Long before the term "graphic novel" entered the popular lexicon-ten years before Will Eisner's A Contract with God-Hugo Pratt pioneered the long-form "drawn literature" story. Corto Maltese set the standard for all adult adventure comics in Europe. By the mid-1970s Corto was the continent's most popular series and Hugo Pratt the world's leading graphic novelist. Hugo Pratt's peripatetic sailor was featured in a series of 29 stories. The adventures of this modern Ulysses are set during the first 30 years of the 20th Century in such exotic locales as Pratt's native Venice, the steppes of Manchuria, the Caribbean islands, the Danakil deserts, the Amazon forests, and the waves of the Pacific. Corto Maltese: Under the Sign of Capricorn collects the first six inter-connected short stories Pratt created in France in the early 1970s: "The Secret of Tristan Bantam," "Rendez-vous in Bahia," "Sureshot Samba," "The Brazilian Eagle," "So Much for Gentlemen of Fortune," and "The Seagull's Fault." Softcover, 140 pages, B&W. Cover price $29.99.

1st printing. Story and art by Hugo Pratt. This book, the first of 12 volumes, launches the definitive English language edition of Hugo Pratt's masterpiece, presented in the original oversized B&W format with new translations made from Pratt's original Italian scripts. Long before the term "graphic novel" entered the popular lexicon-ten years before Will Eisner's A Contract with God-Hugo Pratt pioneered the long-form "drawn literature" story. Corto Maltese set the standard for all adult adventure comics in Europe. By the mid-1970s Corto was the continent's most popular series and Hugo Pratt the world's leading graphic novelist. Hugo Pratt's peripatetic sailor was featured in a series of 29 stories. The adventures of this modern Ulysses are set during the first 30 years of the 20th Century in such exotic locales as Pratt's native Venice, the steppes of Manchuria, the Caribbean islands, the Danakil deserts, the Amazon forests, and the waves of the Pacific. Corto Maltese: Under the Sign of Capricorn collects the first six inter-connected short stories Pratt created in France in the early 1970s: "The Secret of Tristan Bantam," "Rendez-vous in Bahia," "Sureshot Samba," "The Brazilian Eagle," "So Much for Gentlemen of Fortune," and "The Seagull's Fault." Softcover, 140 pages, B&W. Cover price $29.99.

1st printing. Story and art by Hugo Pratt. Advance solicited for a May release! The second of twelve volumes presenting the definitive English-language edition of Hugo Pratt's masterpiece in the original oversized B&W format! Set in 1917, this volume takes Corto Maltese from the Mosquito Coast to Barbados to a deadly struggle among Jivaro head-hunters in the Peruvian Amazon. Translation by Dean Mullaney and Simone Castaldi. Softcover, 120 pages, B&W. Cover price $29.99.

1st printing. Story and art by Hugo Pratt. Nominated for both the Eisner and Harvey Awards for Best Foreign Language Publication! In this third volume in the definitive English language edition of Hugo Pratt's masterpiece, the action moves from South America to Europe against the backdrop of the First World War. In these six stories Pratt further explores such complicated themes as patriotism and greed, revolution and opportunism, and betrayal and seduction. Events take Corto from a small island in the Venetian lagoon, where he comes face to face with a beautiful blonde spy, to Stonehenge and an adventure with Merlin, Morgana, and Puck. Along the way he meets Ernest Hemingway and future billionaire Aristotle Onassis, Irish revolutionary Banshee O'Danann, the legendary Red Baron, and an intense cast of characters who weave in and out of a series of labyrinthine plots and counter-plots. Softcover, 140 pages, B&W. Cover price $29.99.

1st printing. Story and art by Hugo Pratt. When Corto Maltese arrives in the Middle East and Africa in 1918 the shifting sands and loyalties reveal colonial powers still battling for domination over each other and the indigenous people. The desert of Yemen, controlled by the fading Ottoman Empire, is the setting for "In the Name of Allah, the Merciful and Compassionate," where Corto meets Cush, the Danikil warrior with whom he establishes a close yet conflicted relationship. In "The Coup de Grace" the stubborn racism of an English commander of a small fort in British Somaliland leads to conflict with Cush and the Dervish army of Sayyid Mohamed, whom the British call "The Mad Mullah." The action moves to Ethiopia amidst inter-tribal conflict in "...and of Other Romeos and Other Juliets," as Cush introduces Corto to the mysterious and powerful shaman Shamael, who hears the voices of the dead and of devils. German East Africa is the background of "The Leopard-Men of the Rufiji," where Corto is engulfed in a dreamlike atmosphere that reveals how African justice operates outside the constraints of "white" law. Softcover, 9-in. x 11-in., 96 pages, B&W. Cover price $24.99.

1st printing. Story and art by Hugo Pratt. With this book Hugo Pratt leaves behind the short story form he'd used for 21 interrelated tales and presents a truly epic graphic novel. In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution and the First World War, Corto Maltese is engaged by the Red Lanterns-a Chinese secret society made up entirely of women-to find an armored train laden with gold that belonged to the last Russian Tsar, Nicholas II. They aren't the only ones lusting after the treasure. The adventure, which shifts from the hidden courts of Venice to the mysterious alleys of Hong Kong, from Shanghai to Manchuria and Mongolia to Siberia, also attracts regular and irregular armies, as well as revolutionaries and counter-revolutionaries. Softcover, 9-in. x 11-in., 120 pages, B&W. Cover price $29.99.

1st printing.

Story and art by Hugo Pratt.

In this affectionate tribute to his hometown, Hugo Pratt offers a complex mystery thriller involving Freemasons, occultists, and esotericists set during the rise of Fascism in 1921. Corto Maltese's return to Venice is ostensibly a search for an emerald known as the Clavicle of Solomon, but by the end he is left questioning whether the object of his quest will open the hidden doors of magic and unravel the nature of time and space in this city of secrets... or if it's merely "the stuff that dreams are made of," as was the black bird of Dashiell Hammett's novel featuring another Maltese.

Softcover, 9-in. x 11-in., 64 pages, B&W. Cover price $19.99.

1st printing. Story and art by Hugo Pratt. Corto Maltese sets out on another globetrotting adventure after the discovery of a Byron manuscript in a mosque on the Isle of Rhodes. Set in the years 1921-22, the action soon shifts to Turkey, Azerbaijan, and the Caspian Sea, following the footsteps of the legendary Silk Road, as Corto Maltese searches for the fabled treasure of Alexander the Great. A parade of fascinating characters are introduced, including the Whirling Dervishes, Joseph Stalin (with whom Corto is on a first-name basis), the Hashinin sect of assassins, the Turkish general Enver Pasha, and the return of Venexiana Stevenson and Rasputin (who has just escaped from the dreaded prison known as "The Golden House of Samarkand.") Softcover, 9-in. x 11-in., 144 pages, B&W. Cover price $34.99.

1st printing.

Story and art by Hugo Pratt.

In 1923 Buenos Aires, while searching for a missing friend, Corto finds himself locked in a dangerous, yet elegant, game of cat and mouse. Before long, his investigation brings him up against an organized crime syndicate known as the "Warsavia" and their underworld network.

Just as Fable of Venice was Pratt's homage to his hometown, Tango is a nod to Buenos Aires, where the cartoonist lived during his earliest creative successes in the late 1940s and 1950s. The atmosphere of the story is steeped in the sensual music of the tango, whose melodies almost seem to emerge from the artwork, with close-ups of the dance steps framed by Pratt with extraordinary effectiveness. The first English-language translation of Hugo Pratt's graphic novel set in Argentina.

Softcover, 9-in. x 11-in., 64 pages, B&W.

Cover price $19.99.

Corto Maltese: Book 11 - 1st printing.

Story and art by Hugo Pratt.

Corto Maltese enters the crossroads of magic and the occult, astrology and history, religion and mythology in the first English-language translation of Pratt's award-winning book. Visiting the writer Hermann Hesse while researching alchemists with his old friend Professor Steiner, Corto drinks from the "source of the Alchemy Rose" and becomes immersed in a surreal and dreamlike adventure that involves Klingsor, the quest for the Holy Grail, Death, the Devil, and the Sandman, among others. This complexly plotted graphic novel was among Hugo Pratt's most philosophical ruminations on the imagination.

Softcover, 9-in. x 11-in., 80 pages, B&W.

Cover price $19.99.

1st printing.

Story and art by Hugo Pratt.

In this final entry of Hugo Pratt's epic series, the master graphic novelist returns to the theme he first explored in the initial episode-the search for the lost continent of Mu, the mythical Atlantis.

Featuring the return of most of the major characters seen throughout the long-running saga: Gold Mouth, Morgana, Tristan Bantam, Levi Colombia, Professor Steiner, "the Monk," Cain Groovesnore, Soledad, and (of course) Rasputin... each with their own reason to find the mythical realm.

Thus, the circle closes.

Softcover, 9-in. x 12-in., 140 pages, B&W.

Cover price $34.99.