tic tac 6!

Hi guys... so I set back the counter.... I have the power to turn back time!!! Muahahahaha... no, I don't! But I can change the date on the countdown.

Sorry for the delay, hopefully I will be done by sunday and we'll have the update on the weekend. The arm is doing fine and so the rendering is coming along nicely and without complications. I truly hope it will be worth the wait - this installment is supposedly funny/entertaining and cute! ^^" The most suffered 12 pages of my life, so far... hahahaha.

Animated gif

Hello! I have started rendering!
What???
Yes, I am behind and it took me one evening to just do page one... but it's in color!
And probably there will be more color, here and there, in this chapter! I have at least a couple of "romantic occasions".
In the meantime... since I had to work with the animation menu for a job.... I've made a banner and avatar - I was just playing around but I find them cute >///<

so you can spam me around LOL... or just keep them and stare at them... like I do... and go: ooooooh... uuuuh...
like I do! (then, again, maybe not!)

Pirate LOL

Here's someone who brought a pirate life in his life.

If you got 100 grands? You can rent Johnny Depp's pirate yacht the Vajoliroja (click on the title above to read the full article).

Although luxurious I don't really find it very pirate looking! Hahahahahaha. I'd rather rent Jack Sparrow instead - but that was done, once, already for me... as my friends rented a Jack Sparrow for my birthday once! back in 2005 <--- best birthday ever! (my friend Keika went all out for me *_* - sorry no pics there cuz I look like a happy clam hahahahaha XD)

tic tac 5!

As you can see I am behind... but I did manage to scan and edit all of my 12 pages in one evening! ^_^/

Yay for me. starting tomorrow it's rendering and lettering!

Now, time for me to go to bed! Goodnight!

Famous Illustrators - Howard Pyle

I finished the clean up and will start rendering today - after work.

I am sorry for Foxy, Josh and Castalia's fans but I will have to keep you waiting for their paper dolls since I need to work on the comic first and scanning the drawings takes a while.

So, since I don't have a drawing for you to play with, today... I want to talk about my favorite Pirate Illustrators.

I'll start by taking a distance by a certain type of art... not because I'm snob or deem myself cooler... It's just that when you'll see the Origin of Love it's hard to accept surrogates.

The web is full of pirate illustrations as the sea is full of fishes.

His blog has a cute take on illustrations! (Aside from the fact he starts off with a Pierre Alary's drawing: lads, there's no competition there) - Lol he made a top ten pirate movie list too! XD

These dudes instead list what I would never pick... I honestly don't really like any of the illustrations posted (except the chubby pirate at the bottom that is super adorable and the one at the top that looks like a European comic - the animals are interesting too, nice shot.) because they look "been there, seen that already" and/or "I can't live without my smudge tool" digital. Objectively : they are all nicely done, wonderful drawings with effective stands and cool characters... Personally: I don't think they look so original... they are something else's echo... in fact they all look the same to me (colors, faces, poses, looks) it's an after image effect, post Johnny Depp shining appearance - that's why my eyes scroll and don't stop.

- please keep in mind that I am not saying this as a fellow artist but as a Universtiy Instructor and that I always recommend my students to be their own voices instead of somebody's echo -

I'll show you the voices who created this echo!

I might be traditional but when I think about pirates... I think of the real deal! I think of someone whose drawings has no parallel, yet... I think of someone whose pirates created a whole generation of pirate artists the cool, professional ones (I am not one of them, unfortunately, I'm just having fun drawing ^^)...

I think of someone whose drawings inspired Pirates of the Caribbean (ride and movies) and Monkey Island.

Me Hearties... let me present you the kings of Pirate Illustrations:

1) His Majesty.... Howard Pyle!

Marooned. Why is the rhum gone? My thought exactly. Look at the composition, how the guy sit alone, on a flat horizon, small against an empty sky... a spot on the sand. Look at his gesture and how desperate he is... left there... with a bullet in his pistol and nothing left to do but die, one way or another...

The True Captain Kidd - Kidd burying his treasure. Here, look at the costumes this man draws on his pirates... you'll see how Barbossa and Jask Sparrow are not figment of sheer imagination... whoever came up with those characters knew his/her Howard Pyle.

Consider that the Red drawing at the top of this post is absolutely the most possible source of inspiration for Disney's Captain Hook.

The Fate of a Treasure Town - An attack on a Galleon.
Are you seeing Master and Commander here? Yes, that's because Master and Commander took inspiration from Pyle's illustration!


















The Ruby of Kisshmoor - Captain Keitt.

The Flying Dutchman. The real deal! Fokke or Van der Decken... who knows? Absolutely not Davy Jones... anyways. We do know, now, that the Flying Dutchman is not a cursed ship but a mirage, like a Fata Morgana, appearing at the horizon due to the refraction of the light in the heat - like a superior image, the ones we see in summer. Back in the days a superior image must have been a superior way of getting scared LOL.


This store sells prints and reproductions of his famous illustrations.
Can't you see how some of them have literally been pillaged by the movies?









Now I am going to show you my very favorite!

Yes, yes! The fakest pirate imagery ever: walk the plank! But, oh, such class!
Look at the composition, this wonderful up-shot and the details! (No sharks in sight, though LOL).
I love this man!

Next time I'll show you NC Wyeth!

Calliope Dress Up Doll

Just like Robin Hood, isn't she! Ahahahahahaha!

So green, I love green!

Here's today's doll: Calliope.

She has two different hair pieces - how fancy!

Her hair looks more and more like Farah Fawcett's!

Tic tac D'oh!

Okay, you guys, four days left.. I will say it right now... I might be 2 or 3 days late in the upload, this time around. I am trying my best though... but a 2 or 3 days delay might actually be impossible to avoid. I am sorry!

Anyways, as I was saying this morning: today was a national holiday in Italy - other than being sunday - but I did work and found the time to make some more clean up and other things (amongst which a bunch of zucchiniballs - like meatballs but with zucchini XD - for lunch).

I wanted to thank you all for voting on the polls!
I am surprised to see Callista and Cassandra lead the poll for the girls (well, maybe not, the other girls did not shine much so far and Castalia... she will be getting cooler soon).

I am not surprised to see Wilson Kane lead for the boys - because he is a funny guy ... but I honestly thought the Prince-like charm of the doctor would win over Cat's (but Cat is sweet isn't he? So this is totally making my point: men are wrong when they say that girls don't like sweet guys and prefer jerks! XDD).

All this blabber is also to propose one more game.

Have you ever associated the characters to a song?

I was listening to some Cole Porter today and suddenly I thought: oh this is absolutely what Westley would sing if this was a musical. Actually I think a lot of Cole Porter songs would be perfect for my kids XDD but that might be because I listen to Cole Porter a lot - even though Castalia has George Gershwin song cut for her!

In a while, when the story will be up and running properly, with all the pairings set... I might ask you to suggest a love song for the couples. Would you like to do that?

Cat Dress Up Doll

Here we go, people! The Cat is naked! XD Droooool!

Today is a national holiday in Italy, kinda like Independence Day. So I have to leave you - tear myself from you - and go to a pic-nic... against my will, ergo I'll take work with me!

To all the Italians following this blog: Buon 25 Aprile!

P.s. I started clean up and I cleaned 4 pages last night ^^" Ay, I'm soooo behind schedule!

Greetings!

Hello! (shyly appears from behind a corner)

I know I know what you're saying: What? Deda, what are you doing? You're showing pictures of the rough only now?!? There's only 5 days left to upload!

I knooooow!!!!


Still this is as far as I could go this week and I still have a pile of homework to check out. Sigh.

Anyway let me blabber for a few minutes.

First of all I'd like to say the yesterday's Fan Art was a great success!
The blog was super visited - even more than on release dates hahahahaha!
Way to go Supervillain!

I take advantage of this to encourage you all to do more and participate to the fun *_* I already prepared folders for all the characters and I expect to fill them with beautiful drawings, fan fictions, anything to your liking!
Go for it guys!

Also I introduce you: the polls!!! Yeah yeah! Neat toys, aren't they? I love polls. I was thinking it would be fun to see what you think about the characters right now and if the results will change with time! (for instance I put Josh in the list but we haven't seen much of him, yet).
In the future we'll have: my favorite pairing is...

Now a message to the visitors of this blog!

You might be curious to know numbers and statistics, soooo... our top ten visitors are:

1. Italy
2. United States
3. Netherlands
4. Kuwait
5. Australia
6. Canada
7. Poland
8. Brazil
9. Russia
10. United Kingdom

You are fantastic, I love you!

To my Italian friends: grazie per tutto il sostegno! Siete grandi!
To my American friends: you almost beat up the Italian visitors! Wohoooo! Go for it!
To my friend from the Netherlands: you know, if I manage to get this thing going the way I want to you'll see the son of the Second Pirate Balthasar (Wilson Kane is the 5th)... who was Dutch! Of course I was inspired by the most famous Ducth Pirate to ever sail on the Barbary Coast: Simon The Dancer/ Simon Rei's!

Anyway, I don't want to be partial so: I thank you all very much for following my blabbers all the time.

Stick around I'll post Cat's paper doll in the afternoon! ;)

Cassiopea Dress Up Doll

You know... posting my drawings after a fan art always makes me feel shy... They are so nice!

For me it's like this... my drawings are not at the level they could be and I'm always afraid I might disappoint people a bit.

I often think "if I could do nothing but this, it would come out so much better"... who doesn't right? Ahahahaha! Everybody would love to live and draw and do nothing else (or sing or paint or create, in general).

Unfortunately I have bills to pay and a loan coming up and so I work for a living and do this on my spare time.

So forgive me if my drawings are not really nice, particularly recently with the muscle problem.

I reaaaally cannot draw hahahaha - I hope the chapter turns out well anyway!

Oh but good news is I finished drawing the chapter and I can start the clean up - except first I have to check my students' homework!

Fan art 3!

If you click on the above title (Fan art 3!) it will take you to the wonderful artist's DA page!

So... I have a little surprise for you, today:

Fan Art n. 3!

Our favorite supervillain, boys-in-love, has decided to paint the Papadopulos sisters.

I have to admit that their spirit was captured in a marvelous way! I was shocked when I saw this! I thought: it's them! It's truly them!

Actually no, I was left speechless for about 15 minutes when I first saw this drawing, then I started thinking! LOL

I had to share it with you!

So what do you think? Isn't it amazing?

I love fan arts, I hope to get more and more! *_X/ ahr!

Pifo Dress Up Doll

Following request, yes, it was a request, here's Pifo in all his mighty splendor!

You can have him with or without facial, of course... and who knows, one day we might have more outfit for him, like a pirate outfit! And a Princess like outfit! *ç*

How am I doing in the meantime? I drew 8 pages out of the 12 that make the first part of chapter 4. The cover will be up officially on saturday and hopefully I will have my clean up started too, otherwise I am going to die over this chapter.

Unfortunately I have a lot of work to deal with, this week, since I was sick and now I have to recover all that was left behind.

Undress your favorite doctor

I have another paper doll, for you, today!

Here comes Westley with his purple outfit! He is so purple! *_*

I hope you are having fun with these, because I have fun making them but it takes me a while to make them LOL. Still when I see the final result *ç* I am happy!

Pirate Movies

Okay, how about we talk about pirate movies today?

This is going to be a long post and that is because it took me many days to put it together... so you might want to read it in many days as well, muahahahar ahr ahr! ^_X/

If you click on the above title you'll get to visit the wikipedia page listing all the pirate movies ever made by year.

I never managed to see the ones from the early 1900... so the first one I'll talk about, on the list will be:

The Black Pirate - 1926

with Douglas Fairbanks.

I don't remember much of the movie, except I found it at Blockbuster, thought it was amusing... I remember making up dialogues for it and I really don't remember a girl being in it or doing much. What is stuck to my head is this image of Douglas Fairbanks climbing on the poop castle of the ship, much like Castalia and Cassandra do at the beginning of our story. It was a fantastic scene that left me pondering if they were using a Batman trick (that is, the façade of the castle was actually horizontal) or speeding up the film, or both, or neither and Douglas Fairbanks is a fantastic climber instead! And now you know why Castalia and Cassandra did climb on the poop castle!

Treasure Island in black and white - 1934

I love movies from the 30's! *_* This one was adventurous and honestly I didn't even hate Jim that much!

Captain Blood - 1935

Aaah Peter Peter! *_* How elegant you are, how refined, with you hair nicely combed even when you sweat, are beaten or are taken into slavery! What is you secret, darling Peter!

My friends, you ought to watch Peter Blood in action with Arabella, against Levasseur (my poor, dear Basil Rathbone was always killed with a smile by most beautiful Errol Flynn) and judge for yourself if he is not the most romantic figure of pirate ever! A doctor and a captain, a friend and a fierce enemy, loved by women but in love with only one! MUAHAHAHA! Ideal....

The Sea Hawk - 1940

Is another wonderful Errol Flynn movie. Here we have Elizabethian pirates and Wolfingham acts as a bastard and a traitor. The love story is right at the beginning, then off our hero goes into adventure, to return to the darling of his heart - and gets married - at the end.

Fun fact: it took me years to watch the whole thing. It always shows up on national tv around 3pm and 30 minutes into the movies somebody would show up and tell me: we have to go to the dentist! =_=

The black Swan - 1942

Is a movie with Tyron Power... you know the one with "oooh Jamie boy". Girls get often mistreated here and I don't like when women get slapped for comical purpose, it's not funny.

We then reach the 50's with some more interesting movies. There's a Treasure Island by Disney, you know the one with Bobby Driscoll as Jim (he looks creepy for he looks like a miniature man).

The we return to Errol Flynn and Maureen O'hara with Against all Flags which is funny and adventurous but Flynn is starting to look old - she is a cutie though.

The Crimsom Pirate - 1952

What I remember about this movie... with the most complex plot ever - it was so hard to follow I could spend hours thinking how odd Burt Lancaster's pants looked - was this guy like the Wizard of Oz (a professor) and Burt Lancaster half naked!

Actually some scene were very entertaining and if I am talking about this movie is because Burt Lancaster looks delicious... no... it's because his pants look so weird! Now honestly... they are either too short or look like Obelix's underpants!

Anyways there's action, adventure, some comedy, lot's of stunts and a love story and the main protagonist is naked most of the time! Sounds go to me.

In the 60's there's a bunch of random Adventures of Mary Read, Henry Morgan and the Pirates of Tortuga.... and it's all fuzzy and not so cool, till you get to the Disney movie: Blackbeard's Ghost. Okay, this is not a pirate movie, per say... but you have to admit that Peter Ustinov is fantastic! It's dated 1968.

The 70's open on a Pippi Longstocking movie - pretty funny if you ask me.

We finally get back to a Salgari cult:

The Black Corsair 1976

Yes, it's Kabir Bedi, the guy who did Sandokan and looks all emo and sad with flowy black hair!

The story follows the book and ends with him crying, of course... poor, poor, Emilio.

Anyways... Kabir Bedi in black with flowy hair is something you want to see.

This Black Corsair is not to be mixed up with the Bud Spencer and Terence Hill movie, that's another one!

In fact it is from 1976 too... but it abused the Salgari title and the two famous actors to tell a serious story!

Nothing to do with Emilio, no no... here we have a Captain Blakie, instead, who wants to set free this lady he likes - although she is married - and kills her husband in a duel.

All I remember from this movie was: it wasn't funny and Bud Spencer dies... which turned the whole thing into a big "no no" to me!

Nobody kills Bud Spencer!

Now the 80's were slightly better, when it comes to pirates, as some of my favorite movies came out when I was a kid, lucky me!

Pirates of Penzance 1983

Kevin Kline as the King of Pirates is simply marvelous. Now I'll probably write a long blabber, one day, about this Opera.... and you might want to skip that altogether or decide to fangirl with me over some cool music and libretto.

It is a sort of Musical/Operetta... well it's a Savoy Opera. Let's face it: Gilbert and Sullivan were the Mel Brooks of Opera!

Now you know why I have a king of pirates called Gilbert Sullivan. This movie is hilarious, the story is hilarious, the songs are hilarious... in short!

This is what cracks me up the most recently and it's the kind of sense of humor I prefer and apply to my stories - except with no music, else you'd hate me.

The Goonies 1986

I saw this at the movies when I was 13... and my love for pirates started burning up again.

I don't have to tell how incredibly awesome and funny this movie is. The story is compelling, the jokes are fantastic, the adventure is adventurous!

I had my sister look everywhere for a Uniqlo store in London so that I could get The Goonies t-shirt!

If you don't like the Goonies, you are no friend of mine.

Just kidding, I am not that drastic...

Then again... seriously, no, you have at least know the movie and then I'll grant you access to my heart.

Alright, you guys, we are definitely getting back to the good stuff.

Pirates 1986 by Roman Polanski

This is the most pirateish pirate movie ever!

Pirates like you've never seen them before. Pirates for real!

Walter Matthau as Captain Red is the absolute, perfect compendium of piracy and picaresque spirit!

It has a great sense of humor, it has fantastic scenes and dialogues (I think the part where Red and the Froggy boy were sharing the rat was one of the funniest and most clever thing I have ever seen)

It has a bit of romance, but this is the tough reality so... you have to cope with it, love stories don't always end well when gold is the final prize. It can even get in the way!

An absolute must watch.

For some reasons Wikipedia does not list Princess Bride.

The Princess Bride 1987

I mentioned this title before, in the post about books.

Again, if the book was awesome you cannot imagine how incredibly nice the movie is.

And I am not just saying that Cary Elwes was, back in the days, a very nice sight to see (especially in the front view, not so much in 3/4 view XD)... but this is a story of love and revenge and so many other interesting things. Is this a kissing story? It is!

There's many good reasons to watch this movie, including Billy Crystal as Miracle Max and Peter Cook as the Clergyman. Did I mention the fact that the soundtrack is by Mark Knopfler?

Now, if it were for me I would totally skip the 90's... particularly Cutthroat Island and Hook... if it weren't for the fact that I MUST absolutely mention the Muppet movie.

One should never go without a good dose of Muppet in his/her life.

Did you know? The Muppet Treasure Island and Christmas Carol are most impossible to find in dvd in Italy? If any of you knows of available copies of these two movies, please let me know. I must show them to my sister's kids.

Oh it's 2000 and something already. Yeah, let's skip Treasure Planet and pretend that never happened... and go directly to Pirates of the Caribbean and stop at the first movie (2 and 3 is sci fi).

I've heard, from rumors, that On stranger tides answers to all my prayers... gets rid of Nilly Willy and Elizabeth the Silly and finally focuses on the only 2 cool characters in the story: Sparrow and Barbossa! Apparently we'll see Teach in this movie and Penelope Cruz as his daughter (please don't spoil Jack for me - plus I know people who was hoping for some Yaoi XDD Not me, I want him single!)

In the end, this was shorter than I thought. Probably there are not as many good pirates movies as I thought LOL.

Something silly

Forgive me, this is something silly and unrelated, but since yesterday was my day off I decided to take advantage of the facts that museums were for free.

I went to visit the Museum or Roman Civilization, amongst other things, and found a few models of ancient Roman ships.

This one was built based on the frescoes found in Pompeii!

This is a Roman system for hoisting sails

(some things never do change! O_o Amazing!)

And this is a mercantile ship:

It was particularly interesting to see the sail rigged through the canvas. Also going aloft was done through the rigging positioned in front of the mast. The ship also seemed to have additional steering to the front.

On both sides... and I am wondering if this is due to the fact we have lots of sand banks along our coastline.

Anyways... apparently they didn't know how to swim either - like most sailors - and one of the proof is the fact that swimming pools in public baths were pretty shallow and they could always touch the bottom XD.

The forecastle is small and cute and the ship is pretty razed. Merchant were really wealthy! Look how nice the decorations are (and I saw some decorations in another museums once and they were made of copper and iron and were really rich looking).

Callista Dress Up Doll

Hello,
I am currently in Rome... visiting monuments and this is my automated away message, LOl!
I did secretly uploaded a drawing before I left so that I could post something over the week-end, while I was away having fun. Am I nice or what?

Here's the second twin for our paper doll project. I am planning something really really cute, for when this paper doll thingy is over... it's about famous fairy tales/books and famous illustrators XD
Am I ambitious? I am... and hopefully my arm will be back to normal soon, so I can draw again!

Of course this is done on the spare time of the spare time - after I work on the comic - but I still hope freebies are appreciated and that you consider them fun! I think it's important to be able to interact with everything concerning a story and have fun outside the comic itself ^_^ (<--- big fan of gadgets and merchandising LOL)

Undress your favorite pirate.

Hello, guys, I should follow doctor's orders and rest! But since my doctor is not Westley.... I drew another doll. (and two more are coming up).

Here's Wilson Kane in shorts or briefs... well let's say he should not have those short undies but if it were August and you were to be on the Mediterranean sea... you'd cut your underwear too!

Btw I already set the countdown for the next installment and I hope to make it, with my arm like this, it is even difficult to type.

The next chapter will have 37 pages.

The first batch consists of 12 pages... in which we'll see a terrible predator of the sea - and I don't mean sharks, we've seen that already!

Then we are off to Spring Cleaning ahahahhaha.

We'll I am going to see monuments today, hopefully the Roman Bath will give me inspiration for the thermal episode I wanted to write.

Fan art 2!

Here's the other surprise I was talking about earlier today:

A Fan Art of Westley.

Our friend elianthos truly spoils us: he is... so.... purple! *_*

I hope she gets in the mood of more of these, they are nice to look at! *ç* Muahahahahha.

He's got a tattoo "For Deda" on the arm too... should have said: I only love Deda è_é though...

I guess I'll never get that from her, since she is an hardcore Westley fan!

I think I will put a poll up, in about 2 months, to see which one is your favorite character - right now is too soon, right?

Cassandra Dress Up Doll

I have a little surprise, for you, today... it's a Cassandra dress up doll.

I mentioned somewhere, can't remember where, that I would do this for all the characters: dress up your favorite twin and undress your favorite pirate! LOL

So here's the first one!

Click on the title of this post to have access to the actual file with transparencies (she is meant to be a computer doll, in fact she has not tabs - like paper dolls usually do - nor dielines).

I have another surprise for you but I will post it later on today as Elianthos - our official fan artist - has sent me a delicious picture of Westley (drawn in the spur of a moment... spurs that she should have more often, definitely)!

Have fun dressing up my grumpy Kes.

Capitolo 3 - in italiano!

Eccoci qui, nella sua interezza, il terzo capitolo de Il Pirata Baldassarre.
Come termina questa lunga Prima Notte a bordo della Alidivento? E' quello che scoprirete leggendo questo capitolo... ancora un capitolo in tempo reale e poi si parte con lo slice of life!

Come sempre vi costringo a rileggerlo dall'inizio, oppure cliccate sul titolo del posto precedente per andare su SmackJeeves.

Chapter 3 is now complete!

Finally, the last 8 pages are ready! As usual you can click on the link above and go read the comic on SmackJeeves or access the file via Issuu.
With this the First Night on the ship is finally over. One more chapter in real time and then we start with our slice of life!




The Italian version is coming up next!

Today is the day!

The chapter is done and is getting spell-checked.

You might find the rendering a bit odd, if you notice that's too much let me know XDD (I'll fix it when I get better).

I thought my brush was broken - in photoshop - turns out I am the broken one. I should not even be sitting at the computer right now, as my right side is in pain and I need to be resting and relaxing. Something's weird with my muscles... from the pectorals to the back of my scapula passing through my side and armpit (my lymph node is... thermonuclear at the moment, it burns so much it's like having a Supernova shining in my fossa!)

Thank Neptune I went to see two doctors and they both prescribed anti inflammatory drugs, muscles relaxants and pain killers. Then Vitamins B6 and B12.

So it wasn't because of the brush but it's because of my arm that I could not apply the right pressure on the wacom! XDDD Silly me. Anyways, just a few more hours to go.

Tic tac tic tac tic tac

Okay I am not panicking now... I have rendered 4 pages out of 8 and due date is in 2 days. I can do it! Muahahahha. (^_x)/
The problem is... my brush isn't working properly so the first two pages might look slightly different even though I tried to match the previous style. I wonder if it shows to much!

And sorry about yesterday, I am trying to see how I manage with ads on my blog but I didn't set the "family friendly" content and when I got back home they had activated a Viagra Banner???? O_O What the heck? (I have nothing against Viagra except they pester me in my in-box with spams even though I am a girl!!! è_é and should not be my problem getting some!).

I am just trying to find alternative solutions to adsense - they are so snob against Italians! - and I just want to see if the blog can earn enough money to pay for a full domain and server, it would be neat!

Books about Pirates!

I have been asked if I could suggest any good books about pirates! - aside from history books and non fictional book, of course.
Wikipedia lists these - but for some reason it lists The Count of Montecristo as a pirate book (which is not, although it is one of the coolest adventures ever written, my co-author, Giorgia, agrees with me that Edmond Dantes... is absolutely to be jumped on)!


Well, it might surprise you that I don't have that many novels about pirates in my bookshelf on anobii, that is because I borrowed most part of the things I've read when I lived in San Francisco from the very wonderful San Francisco Public Library (included the now difficult to find "Piracy was business"). Plus I read mostly history books.


<--- Long John Silver, by N.C. Wyeth (this is exactly how I've always imagined this fella).



Let's start with a classic:

Treasure Island (L'isola del Tesoro) by R. L. Stevenson
If I could recommend a version it would be the one illustrated by the amazing N.C. Wyeth.
We all know the story about a boy hunting for a treasure and being tricked by the evil Long John Silver...
Evil?
Oooh, come on, who doesn't love Long John Silver!
I do, I do, hurray for Barbecue!
Enough with the silly stuff. Treasure Island is a great classic, never gets old and is pretty adventurous, plus the relationship amongst characters is amazing!

Captain Blood by Raphael Sabatini

It says here the book is no longer under copyright... that means that you can be a total pirate about it and read it for free here. (God, do I love the project Gutenberg's website it lists something like 3211 pages of books on pirates).
Now, you may know that Peter Blood is like my favorite pirate, lol. I think I mentioned this before.
This is a story of a poor British doctor who's unjustly accused of being a traitor and sent to work as a slave in the colonies' plantations. Once there, Peter is recognized as a talented doctor and is left free to roam around the city of Puerto Royal, for a series of fortunate events (I don't want to spoil this to you) he manages to escape and become a pirate, not without leaving a little bit of his heart behind - for he manages to fall in love with Arabella in the meantime, great gal by the way! - but never leaving behind his sense of justice. A must.

Raphael Sabatini also wrote plenty of other books about pirates. He is a cool author with very compelling stories and characters you can sympathize with. Of course he is very traditional and some things might feel old/odd as the sense of justice was - a few years ago - pretty much different from what we have today.

• Captain Blood (1922) (also known as Captain Blood His Odyssey)
• Captain Blood Returns (also known as The Chronicles of Captain Blood ,1931)
• The Fortunes of Captain Blood (1936)

and:

• The Sea Hawk (1915), a tale of the Spanish Armada and the pirates of the Barbary Coast;

A General History of the Pyrates (Vite di Pirati) by Daniel Defoe











Yes, it's an essay but a very loose one. How do I say this: this man also wrote The King of Pirates and other stories about piracy and he was very fond of Captain Avery, you might want to check his books out to figure out what I keep saying: the pirates of the Caribbean was a short, yet noisy, phase of piracy made famous by Disney and others... most of THE COOL STUFF happened before or after that. I go on and suggest everything by the author here because this man wrote a lot and there are controversies about the fact he did indeed write this or that. Plus, and language is always a plus, his writing is absolutely stunning.

For the same reason it is fun to read The Pirate book by Howard Pyle (the author of the illustrations on the top left cover - I think he is the inventor of Hook's look as Disney was mostly inspired by his red pirates). You need information to understand a phenomenon like piracy and be able to put in a context the novels you read.

The Princess Bride (La Storia Fantastica) by William Goldman
This is not set on the sea and they made a movie out of it - the movie is partially better for it skip some of the useless part and had better ellipses in the story, still Fezzik's story is better in the book.
This is a story of True Love between Westley and Buttercup and how he gets killed by pirates and she ends up engaged to an ugly Prince... until she is kidnapped by Vizzini and his men and rescued by the Dread Pirate Roberts, a masked pirate wearing black, very cultured and very good at sword-fighting. Yup, Westley is Deda's n.2 in her beloved pirate list!
I always recommend this for the sheer brilliancy of the author's sense of humor!


The Black Corsair Saga - La saga de "I pirati delle Antille"

The Black Corsair (Il Corsaro Nero) by the wonderful EMILIO SALGARI (who wrote like a gazillion of stories without ever leaving home and made them feel so real!)

Ah-ha... you thought I was not going to mention my beloved Black Corsair? Hell, no.
You are lucky pirates only show up here and there in Verne's books The Mysterious Island especially - they do show up in Tom Sawyer as well, did you know? (only Wodehouse, I think, left me pirateless).
Well, you better imagine Emilio with Kabir Bedi's face too, while you read this! LOL
This is a story of revenge and passion that meet, in the end, tearing our protagonist's heart into pieces and forcing him to choose one over the other. How romantic!
Halfway to the book Salgari writes his take on piracy, which is really really cute, plus... you gotta love this guy for naming the cool protagonists after himself all the time. Emilio di Ventimiglia is the Black Corsair (if you were to read the Italian Robinsons the cool guy is named Emilio too! XD)
This book has 2 sequels: The Queen of the Caribbean, Yolanda, Daughter of The Black Corsair. Revenge takes very long. There is also The Son of the Red Corsair - now this one meets Pirates of the Caribbean and is a separate story from the previous ones.
Emilio Salgari also wrote other saga about pirates:

Tigers of Malaysia series

Sandokaaaan!!!! Yes!

• The Mystery of the Black Jungle (I Misteri della Jungla Nera, 1895)
• The Tigers of Mompracem (Le tigri di Mompracem, 1900)
• The Pirates of Malaysia (I pirati della Malesia, 1896)
• The Two Tigers (Le due Tigri, 1904)
• The King of the Sea (Il re del mare, 1906)
• Quest for a Throne (Alla conquista di un impero, 1907)
• Sandokan Fights Back (Sandokan alla riscossa, 1907)
• Return to Mompracem (La riconquista di Mompracem, 1908)
• The False Brahman (Il Bramino dell’Assam, 1911)
• An Empire Crumbles (La caduta di un impero, 1911)
• Yanez’ Revenge (La rivincita di Yanez, 1913)

The last two titles were published posthumously.

The Pirates of Bermuda Series

• I corsari delle Bermude (1909)
• La crociera della Tuonante (1910)
• Straordinarie avventure di Testa di Pietra (1915)

See one of Baldassarre's ship is called Thundering - La tuonante! XD Isn't that a cool name for a pirate ship?

Capitan Tempesta

• Capitan Tempesta (1905)
• Il Leone di Damasco (1910)

This is if you want to read all of Salgari's book. I find him very entertaining, easy to understand and absolutely love him for his naivete. I am getting all of his books.

Long John Silver: the True and Eventful History of My Life of Liberty and Adventure As a Gentleman of Fortune and Enemy to Mankind by Bjorn Larson
This one was an interesting read. I am not too fond of fan-fictions especially when they turn the characters around to satisfy their fancies or help the plot. I have to confess that Larson did a nice job keeping Silver the way it was, just as Stevenson had imagined him. The first part of the book is very nice and interesting... I have to confess that the second part reminded me a lot of Captain's Blood slavery episode and the meeting with Defoe doesn't help speeding up the process of reading because he repeats what you have read in the Defoe's books with his own words. In the end the story is told in first person, it's a memoir, and Silver keeps on addressing different people in his storytelling, ending up writing directly to Jim. That might stress the reader a bit but you have to understand he is an old man and he is trying to put down on papers his memories. The ending is just glorious.
Except for the Defoe part, it's a very fast read and it's not too descriptive nor annoying about silly details.

Of course we have pirates in Peter Pan but I would not consider that a pirate book especially since the Pan is a pirate killer! (è_é)--> shame on you, Pan!

The Gold Bug by Edgar Alla Poe
is a short novel which I think inspired the Goonies.
It's the story of a treasure hunt and cryptograms. Pretty cool too as insanity of the protagonist is implied all the time.
The Corsair by Lord Byron
Yup, the Corsair himself wrote a poem about a man fighting against society's standards.
I don't know if you are into poems but Conrad is a true romantic hero. Many musicians were inspired by this poem included Verdi and Berlioz.

I am currently looking for The Pirate by Walter Scott. If I managed to read it and find it I'll let you know what I think about it.

Last but not least I think I ought to honor the very queen of Romance Novel: Georgette Heyer.

Beauvallet by Georgette Heyer
Oooh, we are talking Elizabethian pirates here! The ones who invented stuff and made ship-building advance and turned heavy and ugly ship into oceanic vessels.
Now, this is considered an Historical novel, rather than a romance novel, I have to say that Georgette Heyer's writing is a bit bulky for my taste - and I wonder if she was paid by words, still Dumas was paid by words and never used useless ones - so I haven't quite digested the book but its setting is very very interesting. Plus Nicholas does something very similar to Peter Blood: he is very chivalrous - to death - and would risk his life for the girl he loves.
So why do I suggest it? Because maybe you don't mind bulky writing - used to Harry Potter and Twilight (I consider those bulky too) - maybe you find her writing easier to digest, more than I do. And the book is pretty nice, not to mention that she does write nice comedy when she wants to (Devil's cub was really funny and it's about a kidnapping gone wrong).

I'll probably write about movies next, if you are interested.