The Ballad of the Salty Sea is a graphic novel, the first episode of the adventures of Corto Maltese, a Maltese sailor. This story was written and drawn by the Italian comic book creator Hugo Pratt. It was published for the first time between 1967 and 1969, in the magazine Il Sergente Kirk. It takes place in Melanesia (Western Oceania), shortly before World War I, between 1913 and 1915. It introduces many future important characters from the series, such as the romantic Corto, the crazy Russian sailor Rasputin, and the young cousins Pandora and Cain. Source: Wikipedia (en)