Corto Maltese collected by Fantagraphics

Artist Hugo Pratt’s most famous creation, the indefatigable sailor Corto Maltese, sails back to American readers after a far too-long absence in Corto Maltese: Fable of Venice and Other Adventures in March, translated by Dean Mullaney, from US publisher Fantagraphics.

Corto Maltese: Fable of Venice and Other Adventures

International award-winning graphic novelist Hugo Pratt’s Corto Maltese returns to readers in a new collection of classic Corto tales, featuring a brilliantly executed wild chase through Venice for a vital occult treasure.

Artist Hugo Pratt’s most famous creation, the indefatigable sailor Corto Maltese, sails back to American readers after a far too-long absence in Corto Maltese: Fable of Venice and Other Adventures.

Corto, a modern Ulysses whose wanderings in the early decades of the 20th century take him to the most fascinating places on Earth, is a hard-luck, hard-driving iconoclastic anti-hero who values freedom and independence more than wealth and status. In “Fable of Venice,” a riddle from a deceased friend plunges Corto into a phantasmagorical mystery thriller that zigzags between the solidity of dreams and the fluidity of reality. A frantic chase in 1921 Venice ensues, up twisting stairs and down tangled alleys, as Corto vies against Freemasons, occultists, budding fascists, and his friend (suddenly back from the dead) in a mad scramble to secure a mystical emerald that will open the doors of forbidden magic and unravel time and space itself!

Corto Maltese: Fable of Venice
Corto Maltese: Fable of Venice
Corto Maltese: Fable of Venice

In addition, this collection also presents Pratt’s Corto Maltese classics “The Secret of Tristan Bantam,” “So Much for Gentlemen of Fortune,” and “The Seagull’s Fault,”.

As a side note, readers who enjoyed The Magnificent Adventure by Milo Manara and its book-length search for “H.P.” will be quick to note that “H.P.” is, in fact, Hugo Pratt, a beloved mentor to Manara.

Hugo Pratt (1927-1995), author and artist, was inducted into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2005 and was awarded the Grand Prix de la ville d’Angouleme at the Angouleme Festival. He is considered to be one of the greatest international graphic novelists. Born in Italy and hailed as “the inventor of the literary comic strip,” he is best known for his popular comic book adventurer, Corto Maltese.

Dean Mullaney is the winner of multiple Eisner Awards for his work as editor and publisher at Eclipse Comics. He is the creative director and editor of The Library of American Comics.

Corto Maltese: Fable of Venice and Other Adventures by Hugo Pratt, translated by Dean Mullaney and Simone Castaldi, is on sale from 17th March 2026 | ISBN: 979-8875001345| AmazonUK Affiliate Link



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