Corto Maltese and the Ethiopian
Compilation of three Corto's adventures, all set in 1918. In 'Out of Misery' Corto is asked by his friend, a Bedouin called El Oxford, to help him infiltrate a Turkish fort in Yemen and rescue young boy Prince Saud who is being held hostage by his unscrupulous uncle. They are joined by Cush, an extreme coldblooded Danakil (African ethnic group) fighter who hates most white people, seeing them as occupiers, and always quotes the Quran. The key to their mission could be the Scottish prisoners of war, but things get very complicated. Some time later, Cush is whipped by a cowardly commander of a small British military unit. Cush's revenge is swift, cold and brutal. In 'Different Romeos. Other Juliets, Cush and Corto are now almost friends. They arrive at Cush's village in Ethiopia just as a war between his Muslim village and the neighboring Christian village is about to break out over the Christian village chief's missing daughter. She fell for a Muslim, but her father forbade her to marry a non-Christian and now she's missing. Both sides blame the other for her disappearance. When the bloodshed begins, Corto is contacted by the village's mysterious and possibly supernatural witchdoctor and medium. In 'The Leopard Men', a strange and highly secretive cult has been mutilating leopards all over Africa. Corto arrives with his friend, a UK soldier called Tenton, to Rufiji River delta, Tanzania (then part of a German colony known as German East Africa) where UK forces are setting up to fight the Germans. The local British base is on a beached German cruiser 'Koenigsberg' destroyed by the UK Royal Navy. That night, a man masked as a witchdoctor attacks a soldier on the ship and steals a note. Corto runs after him, only to find him dying after being betrayed and shot by his partner in crime. The dying man reminds him of a German officer called Slütter he once knew and he vows to find the dying man's killer, even if it means seeking help from the eery Leopard Men. All the stories are based on 'Les Éthiopiques' issue of Corto Maltese comic book by popular Italian comic book artist and storyteller Hugo Pratt.
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