Lucca Comics

Lucca Comics & Games is an annual comic book and gaming convention in Lucca, Italy, traditionally held at the end of October, in conjunction with All Saints' Day. It is the largest comics festival in Europe, and the second biggest in the world after the Comiket.

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, 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, Best Artist-Writer
** Milo Manara
** Carlos Trillo, for Best International Author
*1980:
** Didier Comès, for Best Foreign Artist
** Jean Giraud, for Best Foreign Author
** Frank Margerin
* 1982: Art Spiegelman, for Best Foreign Author
* 1983:
** Gilbert Hernandez
** Jaime Hernandez
* 1984: Strip Art Features, for Best Foreign Comics Publisher
* 1986: Bill Sienkiewicz, for "bridging the gap between American and European artistic sensibilities"
* 1990:
** Neil Gaiman
** 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
** Frank Thomas
** Ollie Johnston
* 1998: Paul Gillon
* 1999: Jeff Smith, Best Author

Gran Guinigi recipients

* 1969: Hugo Pratt, for ''Una ballata del mare salato''
* 1975: Dan O'Neill for ''The Penny-Ante Republican''
* 1978: Carlos Trillo
* 1986: Bill Sienkiewicz
* 1990: Massimo Rotundo
* 2001: Aldo Di Gennaro
* 2005: Grazia Nidasio
* 2006: Gino D'Antonio
* 2007: Sergio Toppi

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