Corto Maltese: Heads and Mushrooms (2002)

A compilation of three short Corto's adventures all set in 1917. In "Heads and Mushrooms", he's in Maracaibo, Venezuela apparently suffering from slight amnesia. His friend Jeremiah Steiner, a down-on-his-luck elderly former university professor he met and helped in "Under the Sign of Capricorn" is keeping an eye on him until he recovers. Influential local antiquarian and Steiner's acquaintance, Levi Columbia, brings them a long lost diary written by a famous explorer who disappeared in the jungles of Venezuela while searching for the legendary mythical city of gold - El Dorado. He suggests that Corto continues the perished explorer's journey since there are clues in the diary to where El Dorado might actually be. Levi will finance the expedition, of course. He also gives Steiner a small bag of hallucinogenic mushrooms that supposedly restore memory. The journey proves to be an ill-fated one. Or does it? In "Banana Conga", Corto is in Honduras seeing the Mosquito coast and visiting a daughter of his old friend. He runs into an ambush in progress that ends in carnage. A suitcase is left behind, so Corto claims it. It turns out that every political faction in the politically unstable country, including the US emissary, the anti-government rebels, adventuress Venexiana Stevenson and even "Golden Lips" (or "Golden Mouth"), the friendly mysterious young-looking 200-year-old voodoo medium who knows Corto well, want it for themselves and bodies and back-stabbings begin piling up. In "Piece in O' Minor for Harps and Nitroglycerin", Corto arrives in Ireland with a shipment of arms for his friends in Sinn Féin, an Irish anti-British political organization that is about to birth the IRA. They are trying to find a way to release one of their most important members from the British army's hold and all violent options are on the table. Corto doesn't care much about politics, but he'd never say no to a friend. Based on two stories from "Corto toujours un peu plus loin" issue and one from "Les Celtiques" issue of Corto Maltese comic book by a famous Italian comic book artist and storyteller, Hugo Pratt.