Corto Maltese Mural – Comic Strip Route

First appearing in 1967 in Sergent Kirk magazine, the adventures of Corto Maltese were published in Italy by writer and illustrator Hugo Pratt. By 1970, the series had been translated into several languages and distributed throughout Europe, notably by the French magazine Pif Gadget starting in 1970, and then by the publisher Casterman for the French translation of the albums, the first of which appeared in 1975.It features a solitary hero who encounters different cultures and traditions. Unlike many comic book characters, Corto Maltese is anchored in a timeline: we know his past, and he grows older. Born on July 10, 1887, in Malta, to a Gypsy mother sometimes described as a prostitute and a Royal Navy sailor father, he himself became a sailor in 1904 and then a pirate a few years later. He sailed the world until 1925. Elusive and attached to his independence, he observed the world with detachment. He met characters inspired by real events but reinterpreted (Stalin is a hotel porter, Rasputin is a wandering criminal) and seduced numerous women, whom he always ended up leaving, like sailors navigating in a male-dominated world where women had no place. Intrigued by numerous myths and legends, Corto Maltese set out in search of El Dorado, the Seven Cities of Cibola, the treasure of Alexander the Great, and even Atlantis.The eventful story of Corto Maltese is inspired by that of its author, who knew how to construct his own legend and play with the tenuous space that separates reality and fiction in the description of his life and his work. Born in Italy, Hugo Pratt (1927-1995) joined his father in the Italian army in Abyssinia (present-day Ethiopia) at the age of 10, before joining the colonial police three years later to suppress Ethiopian independence fighters. When Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie regained control of the country in 1941, his father was taken prisoner and died a few months later, while Hugo Pratt and his mother were repatriated to Italy after being imprisoned in a camp. He was then forcibly conscripted by the Nazi forces, before escaping and joining the Allies. After the war, Hugo Pratt began working for various comics, notably British War Comics, and collaborated with Dino Battaglia and Alberto Ongaro to form the Venice group in Argentina. Like his hero, Hugo Pratt traveled extensively and formed relationships with several women in different parts of the world, with whom he had several children.Derived from several Corto Maltese albums, the largest fresco in the Comic Strip Trail is composed of four sections, the first of which, taken from the album Les Celtiques (1980), was inaugurated during "Brussels the Baths," a festive attraction located along the Brussels canal, transformed into an urban beach for a few weeks.