Happy Birthday Corto Maltese.
Corto Maltese was born in 1887, July the 10th, in the Valeta (Malta). His father was a British sailor from Cornualles and her mother was a gipsy, nicknamed "the little girl of Gibraltar" , born in Seville . Due to the Origin of his father Corto Maltese is British. Corto's official residence is in La Antigua, in the Antilles, but his favourite residence (and the only one we see in the comics) is in Hong-Kong. And don..t forget that Corto Maltese lived good part of his childhood in Cordoba, Spain.
The first appearance of Corto takes place in the title The Ballad of the Salty Sea. Where maltese is gathered out of the water by his ancient friend Rasputin. In this story, introduced by the Ocean, Corto gives us a small track of his origins. He tells Pandora how a friend of his mother, the gypsy Amalia, was interested in reading the future of the young Maltese in his line of the fortune. But something happenned, in the hand of Corto there was no line. To a child of only 10 and grown in this kind of knowledges and traditions the fact of not having this line caused a big impression to him and he decided to make one himself and so he could become the only owner of his destiny. The way to make the line of fortune was using the blade for shaving of his father, the result was a long and deep bloody line of fortune.
"it seems to be that Corto disappeared during the war of Spain". But to be disappeared does not mean to die.
On the other hand Corto didn..t die during the war of Spain. If we read the introduction of the Ballad we find a letter, dated in 1965, where Pandora tells how Corto is living with her family and the sad he is after Tarao..s death. "I see uncle Corto walking alone or sitting in the garden, watching to the sea, with the lost glance"
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