I Classici Del Fumetto Nr 01 Corto Maltese <2027>

“A German U-boat,” Rasputin whispers. “The U-196 . It vanished in ’18. But three months ago, a Malay pearl diver found it. Not on the seafloor, Corto. Inside a cave on a cliffside. A hundred meters above the water.”

Corto sits on a dock, fishing. Achille is beside him, drawing the cave in a notebook. I Classici del Fumetto Nr 01 Corto Maltese

As Achille runs off, Corto Maltese lights his last cigarette. The sun sets over the Pearl River, painting the world in shades of gold and blood. He has no treasure. No prize. No glory. “A German U-boat,” Rasputin whispers

The promise of the impossible is Corto’s only true addiction. He tosses a coin to the owner. “Find me a junk. And a reason not to throw you overboard halfway there, Cossack.” But three months ago, a Malay pearl diver found it

She then whispers: “Rasputin works for the Bolsheviks. He plans to use the Egg to sink the entire American fleet in Manila Bay and start a new war.”

Here is the story, presented as if it were the lead tale in I Classici del Fumetto Nr. 01: Corto Maltese . Corto Maltese “The Serpent of the Magnetic Moon” Venice, 1921. A damp fog clings to the canals like a ghost’s shroud. In a dimly lit trattoria near the Ghetto, a man sits alone. Gold earring, dark curly hair, a slight smile that has seen too much. He stirs his coffee, watching a drop of milk spiral into oblivion.

As they sail past Borneo, Corto studies the chart. The “Magnetic Moon” is no moon, he realizes. It’s a – a mountain of lodestone that only becomes accessible when the real moon is at perigee, its gravity warping the local tides and revealing a hidden passage through the coral reefs.