The bondbetween the characters of Valentina and Corto Maltese has deep and ancientorigins, and was revealed to us readers in 1977 when the deep esteem that hasalways united their two creators gave birth to an unprecedented collaboration.In that year it was in fact the story of Antrophology to narrate the fatefulmeeting between Valentina's grandmother, the beautiful Louise Brookszovycprostitute originally from Warsaw, and Corto Maltese, an encounter born from anidea of Hugo Pratt accepted with great enthusiasm by Crepax. Valentina wouldtherefore be Corto's granddaughter, a narrative ploy to bring together twocharacters whose respective dates of birth are more than half a century away(10 July 1887 and 25 December 1942), from whom she would have inherited theproud and rebellious nature together with that libertine of her ancestor.