© Gallerie Collin

On 30th of September 2015, the thirtieth adventure of romantic sailor Corto Maltese, entitled »Under The Midnight Sun« will be relaunched by the publisher Casterman.

Corto Maltese is a veritable legend of twentieth century literature. Described as a makeshift gentleman and a traveller, Corto is an anti-hero. Created in 1967 by Hugo Pratt, and seen first in Italy in the comic book »The Ballad of the Salt Sea«, Corto is not only an anarchist and libertarian but also a seducer who combines Mediterranean style with English culture. Led by the dream of freedom, far from the characters who fill the pages of Tintin or Spirou, Corto is a modern-day Ulysses sailing around the world in the early 20th century in search of adventure. Travelling to the Caribbean, the Amazon forests, the waters of the Pacific and North-east Asia, Corto remains Hugo Pratt’s quintessential travelling hero.

© Cong SA

Although Pratt, his creator, died in 1995, Corto Maltese will be revived for the first time thanks to the Spanish pair, comic book artist Rubén Pellejero and Juan Diaz Canales, one of the foremost scriptwriters in the world of Spanish comics.

The first page of the new Corto Maltese comic book has been revealed. It starts with a Robert W. Service’s poem entitled »The Cremation of Sam McGee« and sets the action in the Canadian Great North in 1915.

There are strange things done in the midnight sun 

By the men who moil for gold;

The Arctic trails have their secret tales 

      That would make your blood run cold;

The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, 

      But the queerest they ever did see 

Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge 

      I cremated Sam McGee.

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