Corto Maltese in Africa (Corto Maltese Series, 5) - Softcover

Pratt, Hugo

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0918348382 ISBN 13: 9780918348388

Publisher: Nbm Pub Co, 1987

Synopsis

Nominated for both the Eisner and Harvey Awards for Best Foreign Language Publication!

With this book Pratt leaves behind the short story form he’d used for twenty-one 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. The sweeping plot allows Pratt to fully investigate the complicated and competing motivations of his cast that includes the return of Rasputin and the introduction of the cold and dangerous Duchess Marina Seminova, the enigmatic warrior/spy named Shanghai-Lil, and historical figures such as the "Mad Baron" Roman Ungern-Sternberg, a Russian general who who sees himself as the modern-day Genghis Khan!

About this title

About the Author

Hugo Pratt (1927-1995) is considered one of the great graphic novelists in the history of the medium. His strips, graphic works, and watercolors have been exhibited at the Grand Palais in Paris and the Vittoriano in Rome, and a landmark show in 2011 at the Pinacotheque in Paris drew 215,000 visitors, hailing Pratt as "the inventor of the literary comic strip."

From Publishers Weekly

In this latest escapade featuring Corto Maltese ( The Early Years ), we find the sailor and gentleman of fortune in Asia. It is 1919, Russia is in the throes of revolution, the czarist army in retreat. Imperial China is in ruins, shattered into a horde of private kingdoms ruled by warlords. From Manchuria, Japanese, English and American forces manipulate what's left of the republic to satisfy their own conflicting interests. Acclaimed European cartoonist Pratt sends his celebrated creation Corto Maltese into this political caldron in search of adventure, love and an armored train loaded with czarist gold. Corto and his demented, mercurial ally, Rasputin, find themselves confronting one of the most lunatic generals of the White Army. The black-and-white drawings in this tremendously entertaining strip are historically based and beautifully delineated, expressive yet precise. One of the world's great adventure strips.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Nbm Pub Co
• Publication date: 1987
• ISBN 10: 0918348382
• ISBN 13: 9780918348388
• Binding: Paperback