Sam Spade Sam Spade Sam Spade is a fictional private detective and the protagonist of Dashiell Hammett's 1930 novel, "The Maltese Falcon". Spade also appeared in four lesser-known short stories by Hammett. "The Maltese Falcon", first published as a serial in the pulp magazine "Black Mask", is the only full-length novel in which Spade appears. The character, however, is widely cited as a crystallizing figure in the development of hard-boiled private detective fiction—Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe, for instance, was strongly influenced by Spade. Spade was a departure from Hammett's nameless and less-than-glamorous detective, The Continental Op. Spade combined several features of previous
Corto Maltese (DC Comics) the book "Under a Yellow Sun", which featured the fictional character David Guthrie who took a job on Corto Maltese working for a corrupt businessman. Batman and Superman battled zombies, vampires and werewolves on the island of Corto Maltese. The villainous Professor Combs escaped Arkham Asylum and travelled to Corto Maltese, where he bribed the island's leader so he could use a voodoo curse to raise the undead. Corto Maltese appears in Frank Miller's graphic novel "" as an island off the coast of South America. It is in a state of rebellion, and an armed uprising against the government