'Corto Maltese: The Early Years' sets the stage for future adventures(Hugo Pratt, 1983)

While "Corto Maltese: The Ballad of the Salt Sea" took place in a dreamy, sun-kissed South Pacific, "Corto Maltese: The Early Years" is set in China at the messy conclusion of the Russo-Japanese war around 1904.

A young and cheerful Corto, already established as a world-traveller with friends in every port, of every colour and creed, has wound up in China.

His timing is bad, as Russia and Japan are grappling over trade access through Korea and Manchuria and he appears to have become stuck in the tail end of the war.

But it’s almost two-thirds of the way through the book before Corto even makes an appearance.

Instead we meet Rasputin, Corto’s villainous soon-to-be ‘frenemy,’ and Jack London. Yes, that Jack London. Throughout his books, which are Tintin-esque in their efforts to fuse fiction with good storytelling, Hugo Pratt places real historic characters in Corto’s path wherever he goes (though strangely not in "Salt Sea".)

It’s London, who is in China working as a foreign correspondent, who first meets Rasputin, and, unaware that he has just murdered two Japanese, sets him up with Corto for passage on his sailboat out of China.

Corto, who has been busy convincing the other journalists to fund his search for King Solomon’s gold, happily agrees to take Rasputin out of the country as a favour to London. And even after he finds out that Rasputin is a cold-blooded killer, he keeps his word to help the Russian deserter flee China -- a characteristic though sometimes bizarre loyalty that Corto displays repeatedly throughout the books.

The book moves at a faster pace than "Salt Sea," and the artwork is a little rougher too. Where the Salt Sea felt gentle and peaceful, with incongruous splashes of violence, "Early Years" is clearly a war memoir of sorts, and has the urgent, desperate feel of the times. Anyone could die at any time.

As a longtime Jack London fan, it was a nice surprise to see him in these pages. Pratt has some fun at his expense, though, apparently based on London’s reputation as a know-it-all who had a habit of one-upping everyone else’s stories.

In one exchange he pompously asks Corto if he is a “vision of L’Arlesienne,” which appears to be a reference to this.

Corto looks at him strangely and replies ‘Not really…”

In another conversation he is asked by a fellow journalist if he has heard of King Solomon’s mines.

“Yeah, it’s an African novel by RH Rider Haggard,” he responds. “I like ‘She’ or ‘The Witch’s Head’ Better. But his main opus is ‘Rural England.’

“Well…thanks for the bio. London. And after that bit of showing off, I’ll ask again: What do you know about King Solomon’s mines?”

Classic.

Though this book is purported to be an introduction to Corto Maltese, there’s unfortunately very little of him in the book. But it’s still a fun read and a great set up for future adventures, laying the groundwork for the weird relationship he has with Rasputin and giving you a sense of his character.

The art is good too, particularly the sketches in the first few pages depicting Japanese soldiers in various uniforms. Beautiful.

Worth a read!