Artist Hugo Pratt�s most famous creation, the indefatigable sailor Corto Maltese, sails back to American readers after a far too-long absence in Corto Maltese: Fable of Venice and Other Adventures. Corto, a modern Ulysses whose wanderings in the early decades of the 20th century take him to the most fascinating places on Earth, is a hard-luck, hard-driving iconoclastic anti-hero who values freedom and independence more than wealth and status. In �Fable of Venice,� a riddle from a deceased friend plunges Corto into a phantasmagorical mystery thriller that zigzags between the solidity of dreams and the fluidity of reality. A frantic chase in 1921 Venice ensues, up twisting stairs and down tangled alleys, as Corto vies against Freemasons, occultists, budding fascists, and his friend (suddenly back from the dead) in a mad scramble to secure a mystical emerald that will open the doors of forbidden magic and unravel time and space itself! In addition, this collection of quintessential seafaring adventures also presents the Corto Maltese classics �The Secret of Tristan Bantam,� �So Much for Gentlemen of Fortune,� and �The Seagull's Fault,� making this book an exciting introduction to Pratt�s work.