In 1983, after the birth of Corto Maltese magazine, Manara works to one of his best stories. It’s written by Hugo Pratt, it’s inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and by the novels of James Oliver Curwood. By remembering this comic book Manara will often declare: “I felt honoured to be the only one cartoonist for which Hugo Pratt has written not just one but two stories”.