Capitan Fortuna

In those years, as well as the exploits of the gigantic Furio, special issues of the magazine "Audace" also hosted other characters who have by rights entered into the history of Italian comics. One such character was Capitan Fortuna, written and illustrated by the great Rino Albertarellli, who was at the peak of his art in these stories. They constituted a veritable saga, after the style of Salgari, with a romantic aura but a genuine flavor of adventure in the cartoons. The protagonist, Capitan Fortuna, a valiant Italian sailor, is the commander of the ship La Pellegrina. He is flanked by the elderly Pappafico and the young Trinchetto, while the baddie in these adventures is the shifty pirate England. A touch of romance is given by the gentle but far from helpless Morena. Set in the seventeenth century, this saga took place in exotic environments, and was by no means shy of depicting apolcalytpic scenes and visions (one memorable scene is the cataclysm that destroys an entire island in the very first number). Reprinted several times, two adventures of this series were re-used in the postwar period for the Occhio Cupo series, on which occasion the hero was made to wear the by now typical black mask.