This deluxe edition is a hardcover, an inch taller and wider than the trade (softcover) edition, and has 32 pages in color: the first 14 pages of the story and 16 pages of bonus material: Vives' first sketches and watercolors of Corto and the other characters.

Publisher Casterman has been trying to continue Hugo Pratt's Corto Maltese, publishing new stories set in the original continuity and now, venturing into new interpretations of the character in other time periods. This is what Corto Maltese Océan Noir is about. It is a story about Corto Maltese set in 2001, where much of what he is about remains, but updated for a new epoch.

Corto tries to solve the mystery of a Japanese Peruvian cult trying to dethrone Japan's emperor.

From the publisher:

Adventure has a face: Corto Maltese!

On the waters of the China Sea, the profile of a well-known sailor takes shape in the shadow of a pilot's cabin… Corto Maltese is back, boarding a luxury yacht. From the crowded streets of Tokyo to the peaks of the Andes, the gentleman of fortune pursues a mythical treasure, fought over by a nationalist secret society and unscrupulous narcos...

Bastien Vivès and Martin Quenehen seize Hugo Pratt's greatest character and bring him into our contemporary era.

Résumé

L'aventure a un visage : Corto Maltese !

Sur les eaux de la mer de Chine, le profil d'un pirate bien connu se dessine dans l'ombre d'une cabine de pilotage… Corto Maltese est de retour, à l'abordage d'un yacht de luxe. Des rues bondées de Tokyo jusqu'aux sommets des Andes, le gentilhomme de fortune poursuit un trésor mythique, disputé par une société secrète nationaliste et des narcos sans scrupules... Mais plus que jamais, ce sont les sentiments qui vont mener le célèbre marin romantique.

Bastien Vivès et Martin Quenehen s'emparent du mythique personnage d'Hugo Pratt pour le plonger dans notre époque contemporaine.