As always, I am late to the party and when I went looking for art, I found almost none of it out there. I know a number of Corto Maltese pages sold over a year ago when the book first came out but I missed out on those. After having read Dieter's stories, I liked them more even than the Corto relaunch so I was happy to find this rare page available. Perhaps not the most dynamic page at first glance but it has a lot of what I like in Pellejero's artwork and storytelling.

I like to analyze pages so I certainly don't expect many to read beyond this point.

First off, I'd like to present storytelling that needs no words. Look at the page again and ask yourself what is happening and where? We are in Venice and an intoxicated character trips and falls in to a canal. Fortuitously there is a Gondola with a mysterious young woman passing by. How is that for a meeting of a character that would go on to be central to the story. Not a word or explanation needed and a whole part of a story told.

The next thing I'd like to look at is the panel design and layout. In the first panel we see a man staggering with a wide based gait from an interesting angle. He stumbling along a cobblestone road next to some water. The next panel is a narrow (fast timing) close up of his foot as he trips. (aside - close ups of feet is a mechanism Pellejero uses a lot in his work to give cadence, transition, attention to detail and atmosphere). He falls and we get a great back lit view as he falls towards us with his bottle being let go of so he can prepare for his plunge into the canal. A huge swing in perspective in this first tier alone. It is like a falling and spinning perspective reinforcing the vertiginous and unsteady view of the subject. Next the panel widens giving a sense of just how much trouble the drunk might be in. The depth of the water (and depth of trouble) Dieter is in is emphasized by the positioning of the boat in the top third of the panel. We also get the sense that the boat is already coming to help but is a bit of a distance away. Next is the drowning man in a deep water panel. The final panel as the oarsmen helps out and we are introduced to the Chinese beauty that will become the love interest in this story. So, perhaps what looks like a quick page belies the mastery of graphic storytelling that is there. An artist's careful planning and skilled artistry that helps the story but is not meant to be noticed is the mark of a true craftsman.

The lighting and lush inks in each panel are also quite impressive and in this we can see where Tim Sale and others draw inspiration from while at the same time we see Pellejero taking ques from artists like Pratt, Caniff and Tardi.

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