Corto Maltese Beyond the Windy Isles

The second volume in the definitive English language edition of Hugo Pratt's masterpiece, Corto Maltese, presented in the original oversized B&W format and with new translations made from Pratt's original Italian scripts. "Mushroom Heads" begins in Maracaibo, Venezuela, where Corto Maltese and Professor Steiner lead an expedition on the trail of the legendary El Dorado, financed by the antiquarian Levi Colombia. In "Banana Conga," Corto has his first and nearly fatal encounter with the beautiful yet dangerous mercenary Venexiana Stevenson. Within this framework of adventure, Hugo Pratt weaves themes dealing with the exploitation of indigenous people, the noble struggle to gain freedom and independence, and how cowardice can poison men of all classes. The action, set in 1917, takes Corto Maltese from the Mosquito Coast to Barbados to a deadly struggle among Jivaro head-hunters in the Peruvian Amazon.