Corto (Short) Maltes , as conceived by Hugo Pratt, was born in Malta to an English father and a gypsy mother in the late 1880’s. When his Mother had a friend read his palm as a child they discovered that he had no fortune line, Corto promptly took a knife and carved his own fortune line in his hand. From there he went on to become a pirate, adventurer, mercenary and dreamer, touring China, the South Pacific, Latin and South America, Europe and Africa, and witnessed first hand the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900, the Russian-Japanese war in 1904 where he met Rasputin, then on to Patgonia where he met Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, then on to Italy, where he crossed paths with Stalin. And on and on and on. For more information regarding the legend of Corto Maltes, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corto_Maltese