gaming convention
A gaming convention is a gathering centered on role-playing games, collectible card games, miniatures wargames, board games, video games, or other types of games. These conventions are typically two or three days long, and often held at either a u ...
in Lucca, Italy, traditionally held at the end of October, in conjunction with All Saints' Day. It is the largest
comics
a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...
festival in Europe, and the second biggest in the world after the
Comiket
, more commonly known as or , is a semiannual ''doujinshi'' convention in Tokyo, Japan. A grassroots market focused on the sale of '' doujin'' (self-published) works, Comiket is a not-for-profit fan convention administered by the volunteer-ru ...
.
History
The Salone Internazionale del Comics ("International Congress of Comics") was launched by a Franco-Italian partnership, consisting of Italians Rinaldo Traini and Romano Calisi and Frenchman (forming the International Congress of Cartoonists and Animators) in 1965 in Bordighera.
In 1966, it moved to a small piazza in the center of Lucca, and grew in size and importance over the years.
Funding issues reduced the frequency of the festival to every two years, beginning in 1977. In the 1980s, the festival was moved to a sports center outside the city walls, where it remained until 1992, when it was moved to another city. (Funding issues also forced the cancellation of the 1988 festival.)
After the Salone internazionale del Comics ended in Lucca, city leaders launched a new convention called simply Lucca Comics that was a reprise of the old one. In 1996, it changed its name to Lucca Comics & Games. The festival attracted 50,000 attendees in 2002.
Meanwhile, the Salone internazionale del Comics was held in Rome from 1995 to 2005. In 2006, for the festival's 40th anniversary, the Salone merged with Lucca Comics & Games and moved back to Lucca's city center, with numerous tents and pavilions arranged in different squares within and outside the walls of the medieval city.
In 2022 the festival sold 319,926 tickets, beating the record established in 2016 when it had attracted 270,000 attendees.
Awards
Comics awards
From 1970 to 2005, the festival presented the — named in honor of Richard F. Outcault's seminal comic strip character The Yellow Kid — in such categories as Best Cartoonist, Best Illustrator, Best Newcomer, Best Foreign Artist, and Lifetime Achievement. Yellow Kid Awards were also presented to publishers, both domestic and foreign.
The festival also (since 1967) presents a special award called the (named after Lucca's Guinigi Tower).
In 2020, as the festival redubbed itself Lucca Changes amidst a shift to virtual programming during the COVID-19 pandemic, the awards shifted to a new system under the umbrella term Lucca Comics Awards, consisting of 9 categories (3 Yellow Kids, 5 Gran Guinigis, and one Stefano Beani Award named for a former festival director), "regardless of nationality, editorial format or distribution method."
Yellow Kid Award recipients
* 1970: Johnny Hart, for Best Cartoonist of the Year — first time this award was given to an American cartoonist
* 1971: Mauricio de Sousa, for Best Cartoonist of the Year. His work, the first edition of Monica's Gang, also won Best Publication.
* 1972:
** Hergé, for "una vita per il cartooning" (lifetime award)
** '' Tintin'' magazine, for Best Publication
* 1973:
Guido Buzzelli
Guido Buzzelli (27 July 1927 – 25 January 1992) was an Italian comic book artist, writer, illustrator and painter.
Biography
Buzzelli was born in Rome into a family in which his grandfather had been a decorator, his father a painter, and his ...
, for Best Illustrator and Author
* 1974: Vaughn Bodé
* 1975:
** Jean Giraud, for Best Foreign Artist
** Dan O'Neill
** Frank Hampson, declared ''Prestigioso Maestro'' and the best writer and artist of strip cartoons since the end of the Second World War
* 1977: Fred
* 1978:
**
Bobby London
Robert "Bobby" London (born June 29, 1950) is an American underground comix and mainstream comics artist. His style evokes the work of early American cartoonists like George Herriman and Elzie Crisler Segar.
Biography
As a child, London was "pen ...
Carlos Trillo
Carlos Trillo (May 1, 1943 – May 8, 2011) was an Argentine comic book writer, best known for writing the ''Cybersix'' comics.
Biography
Born in Buenos Aires, Trillo began a prolific career as writer at the age of 20, penning his first story for ...
, for Best International Author
*1980:
**
Didier Comès
Didier Comès (11 December 1942 – 7 March 2013) was a Belgian comics artist, best known for his graphic novels published in the magazine ''(À Suivre)''.
Biography
Didier Comès was born as Dieter Hermann Comès in Sourbrodt in 1942.De ...
Strip Art Features
Strip Art Features (SAF) is a comic-book publishing house and rights agent currently based in Celje, Slovenia. SAF was founded by comic book author and publisher Ervin Rustemagić in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1972. The company is known t ...
, for Best Foreign Comics Publisher
* 1986: Bill Sienkiewicz, for "bridging the gap between American and European artistic sensibilities"
* 1990:
**
Neil Gaiman
Neil Richard MacKinnon GaimanBorn as Neil Richard Gaiman, with "MacKinnon" added on the occasion of his marriage to Amanda Palmer. ; ( Neil Richard Gaiman; born 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, gr ...
** Massimo Rotundo, for Best Italian Comics Artist
** Leonardo Ortolani, for Best Newcomer
* 1993:
** John ByrneOriga, Graziano. "Lucca Exhibition is Un Grande Successo: Yellow Kid Awards for John Byrne, François Boucq, Frank Thomas, and Ollie Johnston", ''The Comics Journal'' #156 (Feb. 1993), p. 41.
**
François Boucq
François Boucq (; born 28 November 1955 in Lille), is a French comic book artist. He is most famous for his Surrealism, surreal comics revolving around the main character .
Career
Boucq published cartoons in magazines like ''Le Point'' or ''L'E ...
Paul Gillon
Paul Gillon (11 May 1926 – 21 May 2011) was a French comics artist. He won the 1982 Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême.
Born in Paris, he considered fashion, theater and cinema, and only by accident made a career as a comics author. In the maga ...
* 1969: Hugo Pratt, for ''Una ballata del mare salato''
* 1975: Dan O'Neill for ''The Penny-Ante Republican''
* 1978:
Carlos Trillo
Carlos Trillo (May 1, 1943 – May 8, 2011) was an Argentine comic book writer, best known for writing the ''Cybersix'' comics.
Biography
Born in Buenos Aires, Trillo began a prolific career as writer at the age of 20, penning his first story for ...
Aldo Di Gennaro
Aldo may refer to:
* Aldo (given name), male given name
** Aldo (footballer, born 1977)
** Aldo (footballer, born 1988)
* Aldo Group, a worldwide chain of shoe stores
* Aldosterone in shorthand
* Aldo Bonzi
Aldo Bonzi is a town in La Mata ...
* 2005:
Grazia Nidasio
Grazia Nidasio (9 February 1931 – 25 December 2018) was an Italian comic artist and illustrator.
Life and career
Born in Milan, Nidasio graduated from the Liceo scientifico in her hometown and later from the Brera Academy. In the 1950s she sta ...
* 2006:
Gino D'Antonio
Gino may refer to:
* Gino (given name)
* Gino (surname)
* ''Gino'' (film), a 1993 Australian film
* ''Gino the Chicken'', Italian TV series
See also
*
*Geno (disambiguation)
*Gino's (disambiguation), various restaurants and fast-food chains
*Gi ...
Jirō Taniguchi
was a Japanese manga writer/artist. His works belong to the gekiga, or "dramatic pictures", genre of manga. In France he was knighted a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2011.
Career
Taniguchi began his career as an assista ...
Chris Claremont
Christopher S. Claremont (; born November 25, 1950) is a British-born American comic book writer and novelist, known for his 17-year stint on ''Uncanny X-Men'' from 1975 to 1991, far longer than that of any other writer,Claremont, Chris. ''Marvel ...
Games awards
* 1999:
Murat CELEBI Murat may refer to:
Places Australia
* Murat Bay, a bay in South Australia
* Murat Marine Park, a marine protected area
France
* Murat, Allier, a commune in the department of Allier
* Murat, Cantal, a commune in the department of Cantal
Elsewhe ...
's kirmish miniature game ''[CONFRONTATION', for Best of Show.
* 2002: Emiliano Sciarra">ONFRONTATION.html" ;"title="kirmish miniature game ''[CONFRONTATION">kirmish miniature game ''[CONFRONTATION', for Best of Show.
* 2002: Emiliano Sciarra's Wild West-themed card game ''Bang! (card game), Bang!'', for Best of Show
* 2003: ''Sine Requie'', for Best Italian Game
* 2004: Helena Bulaja's ''Priče iz davnine'' ("''Croatian Tales of Long Ago''"), for Best Multimedia Award
* 2010:
** '' 7 Wonders'', for Best Card Game
** ''Eden: the Deceit'', Side Award for Best Game Mechanics
* 2011:
**
Vincent Baker
David Vincent Baker is a designer of tabletop role playing games and the owner of Lumpley Games which also hosts the archives of The Forge. His most notable games are ''Dogs in the Vineyard'' and '' Apocalypse World''.
''Dogs in the Vineyard' ...
's ''
Apocalypse World
''Apocalypse World'' is a post-apocalyptic roleplaying game by D. Vincent Baker and Meguey Baker, published in 2010 with only an implied setting that is fleshed out by the players in the course of character creation. It was the game for which th ...
'', for RPG of the Year
** '' Twilight Struggle'', for Best of Show in Boardgame for Experts