The return of Corto Maltese

The climate was already that of the imminent Sixty-eight when Hugo Pratt, one of the geniuses of Italian comics, created “ Una ballata del mare salato ”, an unforgettable choral adventure in which his ironic anti-hero appears for the first time: Corto Maltese .

Since that distant 1967, water has flowed under the bridge, yet the stories of this fascinating globetrotting sailor have not lost their polish as demonstrated by the audio series "Corto Maltese - Suite caribeana" (2023, available in downloadable MP3), created by Emons and Storytel The project aims to revive the collection of adventures by Corto Maltese published between 1970 and 1973 in a new and more accessible guise .

Each episode reproduces the intact flavor of the classic language of Hugo Pratt's cartoons by translating them into audio format. It also links the original dialogues with the essential descriptions of the individual cartoon boxes, which thus support and bring the unfolding of the scenes to life. The story is narrated by Corto's alter ego voice, which alternates with those of great actors. Indeed, in each episode Corto Maltese lives his own complete adventure, in which encounters and clashes alternate with male and female characters emblematic of the universe created by Hugo Pratt.

Each listen thus allows us to relive the creative magic of a true master of comics , magic thanks to which Corto Maltese has become an immortal, a character totally unrelated to fashions or seasons: fatally universal and eternal. It doesn't age, or rather it ages well like some wines made in the right way. Corto Maltese is, in fact, the charm of a hero foreign to time and conventions , yet perceived by readers as "close". Even when he performs feats beyond the reach of most of us, Corto Maltese remains, in fact, profoundly human: with his cigarette in his mouth, his earring in his left ear and the uniform of a merchant marine officer – an anarchist hero like Pratt's would never wear a military uniform! – is the man that all men would like to be a little bit and that all women would like to meet at least once in their life.

Without superhero powers, without being superhuman like Tex Willer, Corto Maltese dominates the scene with the awareness of knowing the world and its rules … knowing that he is in any case a little better than the world around him.

Corto Maltese is the last of the adventurers and moves in an era - the first thirty years of the twentieth century - not yet fully modernized and technological, in a world where terrestrial spaces and marine expanses can grant a "gentleman of fortune" - as Pratt defined his character - to give the best of himself, acting freely, with strength and vigor, irony and detachment.

«I'm nobody to judge, I only know that I have an innate dislike for censors, probiviri...but, above all, redeemers are the ones who disturb me the most»: here, in a nutshell, Corto Maltese and his philosophy of life . Simple, forthright and eternal as that of a literary hero can be.

Pratt's hero does not always win, but he is never completely defeated and, above all, his road and his journey seem to never stop.