The one hundred and twelfth comic: #266 Corto Maltese: Ballad of the Salty Sea
Oh boy, this didn't do the job. Over the years, I had started to enjoy the black and white, European action based comics, the dramatic adventure stories like this. For Corto Maltese's first entry, however, it doesn't work. The lead character doesn't feature into the story as much for a long time, and is an enigmatic charaacter for longer - he knows more about the world, but seems intent on not letting us in. The real leads, instead are these cousins who get kidnapped and dragged around, but they lack agency for so much in the story that it isn't any more interesting. It just doesn't really add up to anything I find enjoyable. I'm due another story in the series, which I want to cover soon, and I only hope that'll work better.