Line #12 ComicBook/CortoMaltese


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Corto_Maltese_acquerellato.jpg]]
2
3	->''"When I want to relax, I read essays by Engels. When I want something more serious, I read Corto Maltese."''
4	-->-- '''Creator/UmbertoEco'''
5
6	''Corto Maltese'' is a graphic novel series created by Hugo Pratt in 1967, and one of the most famous examples of the [[FrenchBelgianComicBooks French-Belgian comics school]] at its best (even though the author was actually Italian). The best-known adventure, ''Una Ballata Del Mare Salato'' (''The Ballad of the Salt Sea'') made ''Le Monde'''s "100 Books of the Century" list.
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8	The title character is a fictional adventurer active during the years before, during and after UsefulNotes/WW1. Born of a sailor from Cornwall and a fortune-teller from Gibraltar, Corto Maltese has a lifelong case of wanderlust and travels across the world as a gentleman of fortune, treasure seeker and occasional pirate. His recurring sidekick is a psychopathic Russian named Rasputin (who coincidentally [[CelebrityResemblance does look like the historical Rasputin]]).
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10	An AnimatedAdaptation produced by Creator/EllipseAnimation was released in 2002, ''Corto Maltese et la Cour Secrète des Arcanes'', and Canal+ adapted six of the shorter stories into the 30-minute episode format too.
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12	In 2015, new Corto Maltese adventures by ''Comicbook/{{Blacksad}}'' author Juan Diaz Canales and artist Ruben Pellejero began, beginning with ''Under The Midnight Sun''. It was followed by ''Equatoria'', a celebration of the series' fiftieth anniversary, and ''Tarowean's Day'', which [[{{Prequel}} finally told the story of how Corto came to be tied to that raft]] in his very first appearance, all the way back in 1967. 2021 saw the release of ''The Black Sea'', a [[ContinuityReboot story set in modern times.]]
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14	The series can be purchased in the Anglosphere via {{Creator/IDW Publishing}}, who are reprinting the entire series in oversized black-and-white collections.
15
16	[[folder: List of Corto Maltese albums]]
17	The following list of Pratt's original albums is in in-universe chronological order.
18	## The Early Years (1905)
19	## The Ballad of the Salty Sea (1913-15)
20	## Under The Sign Of Capricorn (1919-17)
21	## Beyond The Windy Isles (1917)
22	## Celtic Tales (1917-18)
23	## The Ethiopian (1918)
24	## Corto Maltese In Siberia (1918-20)
25	## Fable of Venice (1921)
26	## The Golden House of Samarkand (1921-22)
27	## Tango (1923)
28	## The Secret Rose (1924)
29	## Mu, The Lost Continent (1925)
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31	In 2015, the series was continued by Ruben Pellejero and Juan Díaz Canales, and currently comprises the following albums.
32	## Under The Midnight Sun (1915)
33	## Equatoria (1911)
34	## Tarowean's Day (1912-13)
35	## Berlin Nocturnes (1924)
36	[[/folder]]
37	----
38	!!Tropes:
39
40	* AlasPoorVillain: Several villains get strangely dignified deaths, [[spoiler: like the Countess in TheMovie]].
41	* AllMythsAreTrue: Corto gets to meet mythical creatures from plenty of different folklores.
42	* AntiHero: Corto is an early example of this.
43	* ArmiesAreEvil: Corto meets his share of power-hungry warlords and unsavory military officers.
44	* ArtEvolution: As the book progress, Pratt's art becomes increasingly less detailed and more stylised and cartoonish.
45	* ArtisticLicenseHistory: In ''Corto Maltese in Siberia'', Hugo Pratt gives warlord [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigory_Semyonov Grigori Semenov]] Asian features, complete with Fu-Manchu moustache. Also, [[spoiler: he dies fighting Corto]], unlike the RealLife Semenov who was executed by the Soviets in 1946.
46	* BadassLongcoat: Corto.
47	* BadassNormal: Corto acquits himself admirably in every dangerous situation, realistic or fantastic, although he is far from being infallible; sometimes, when the focus shifts to secondary characters, he is a little more than a bystander.
48	* BelatedHappyEnding: A letter in the final page of "The Ballad of the Salty Sea" reveals that in his old age, Corto and Tarao returned to live with Pandora Groovesnore and became beloved uncles to her children. This is the only mention of what happened after he disappeared in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, and is not even included in all reprints of the "Ballad".
49	* TheCasanova: Corto, with a hint of ChivalrousPervert.
50	* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Rasputin.
51	* TheDeadCanDance: And in "The Helvetics", Corto dances with them.
52	* {{Doppelganger}}: In "The Golden House of Samarkand", the Turkish officer Timur Chevket is a dead ringer for Corto. Not to mention, of course, Rasputin's resemblance with his more famous namesake.
53	* TheDrifter: Corto never stays in any one place too long.
54	* ExpandedUniverse: Two characters from two of Pratt's other works, "Lord [=HawHaw=]" from ''Ann of the Jungle'' and Cush from ''The Scorpions of the Desert'' appear in "Corto Maltese in Africa" ("Les Ethiopiques" in France), the second as a close friend of Corto, making those three universes linked together in the same [[TheVerse verse]].
55	* {{Foil}}: Rasputin is a dark version of Corto.
56	* FortuneTeller: Corto's mother was one, and so is his friend Golden Mouth.
57	* FullyAbsorbedFinale: Combined with NoEnding. In ''The Scorpions of the Desert'', a character mentions that Corto Maltese has not been heard from since the "last great romantic adventure" - the Spanish Civil War. An addendum to the "Ballad" claims he eventually had a quiet retirement with Pandora and Tarao. But besides those two snippets, nothing is known of his life after 1925.
58	* HeartbrokenBadAss: Corto never quite got over his love for Pandora Groovesnore in "The Ballad of the Salty Sea".
59	* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Many, including some YoungFutureFamousPeople, like a young revolutionary named [[UsefulNotes/JosefStalin "Joe" Dzhugashvili.]]
60	* IdentityAmnesia: Happens to Corto in "Because of a Gull".
61	* ImmuneToFate: As a kid a palmreader told him he lacked a "fate line" in his palm. So he decided to create one on his own and carved one into his hand with a straight razor, declaring that he would choose his own fate.
62	* MagicalRealism: Real locations and historical events coexist with magic elements and pure fantasy.
63	* MightyWhiteyAndMellowYellow: Played with in the case of the unfulfilled attraction between Corto and Shanghai Li. [[spoiler: She was already married and more or less happy with her husband, whom she basically describes as a NiceGuy. Corto aknowledges it and wishes her well.]]
64	* MildlyMilitary: Corto's default outfit is a navy uniform of no particular nationality (he once claimed to belong to the Venetian navy, but that was a lie he made up on the spot).
65	* NeedleInAStackOfNeedles: In [[http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Celtiques#Burlesque_entre_Zuydcoote_et_Bray-Dunes "Burlesque entre Zuydcoote et Bray-Dunes"]], the last story in "The Celtics", a killer disguised as a wooden puppet hides in a room full of similar wooden puppets.
66	* NeutralityBacklash: invoked in ''The Golden House of Samarkanda'', when Corto tries to shrug off a Turkish soldier's warning against going into an area torn by inter-ethnic conflict:
67	-->'''Corto''': But I'm neither a Turk, nor a Kurd, nor a Russian.
68	-->'''Soldier''': Which means that no one will mourn your death.
69	* {{Pirate}}: When first encountered in "The Ballad of the Salty Sea", Corto and Rasputin are pirate captains in the Indonesian archipelago.
70	* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: Corto is often joined by characters so weird that they make even him and Rasputin look balanced by comparison.
71	* RasputinianDeath: Corto comments that his friend Ras is indestructible when somebody says he'd dead. Note that the latter insists he and the TropeNamer are entirely different people.
72	* RedBaron: Corto meets the original one.
73	* RedplicaBaron: In one of his stories about the WWI, he witnesses the defeat of the Red Baron.
74	* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: The series is curiously impossible to classify, oscillating between a dream-like, nostalgic, elegiac tone on one hand and bitter, realistic cynism on the other. Corto himself can sound both like [[SpaghettiWestern the Man with No Name]] and a hopeless romantic.
75	* SlidingScaleOfSillinessVersusSeriousness: a poignant, dramatic scene can be followed by a light-hearted one, often involving [[ComedicSociopath Rasputin]]. Strangely enough, it works.
76	* ShootTheShaggyDog: Some characters are liable to die pointlessly.
77	* ShoutOut: Lots of them. To ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', ''Hearts of Darkness'', ''Shanghai Express'' and more.
78	* SmokingIsCool: Corto smokes cigarillos.
79	* TheStateless: Corto is stateless in a very philosophical manner. He was born to an Andalusian Roma mother known as ''la Niña de Gibraltar'' and a Cornish sailor father in Valletta, the capital of Malta. He was raised in Córdoba, where he was educated by a Rabbi. An outsider everywhere, he considers himself a citizen of nowhere except possibly the sea. He also considers himself religious, but refuses to be drawn on ''which'' religion, exactly.
80	* SociopathicHero: Rasputin.
81	* TallDarkAndHandsome: Corto's good looks leave few women indifferent.
82	* WarriorPoet: Corto is a fine example of this trope. Literally, in fact: during a gunfight, he recites a poem by Rimbaud to himself as bullets fly all around.
83	* UsefulNotes/WW1: A few of Corto's adventures take place on the Western front.

Context ComicBook / CortoMaltese