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Lucca Comics & Games is an annual
comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...
and
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 business days long, and often held at ...
in
Lucca Città di Lucca ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the Serchio River, in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. The city has a population of about 89,000, while its Province of Lucca, province has a population of 383,9 ...
, Italy, traditionally held at the end of October, in conjunction with
All Saints' Day All Saints' Day, also known as All Hallows' Day, the Feast of All Saints, the Feast of All Hallows, the Solemnity of All Saints, and Hallowmas, is a Christian solemnity celebrated in honour of all the saints of the Church, whether they are know ...
. It is the largest
comics a Media (communication), medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of Panel (comics), panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, Glo ...
festival in Europe, and the second biggest in the world after the
Comiket , more commonly known as or , is a semiannual Doujinshi convention, ''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 ...
.


History


Salone Internazionale dei Comics

The Salone Internazionale dei Comics ("International Congress of Comics") was launched by a Franco-Italian partnership, consisting of Italians and Romano Calisi and Frenchman (forming the International Congress of Cartoonists and Animators), and was first held 21–22 February 1965 in
Bordighera Bordighera (; , locally ) is a town and ''comune'' in the Province of Imperia, Liguria (Italy). Geography Bordighera is located from the land border between Italy and France, the French coast is visible from the town. Having the Capo Sant'Ampel ...
,
Imperia Imperia (; or ) is a coastal city and ''comune'' in the Regions of Italy, region of Liguria, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Imperia, and historically it was capital of the ''Intemelia'' district of Liguria. Benito Mussolini create ...
. On September 24–25, 1966, the Salone was held in
Lucca Città di Lucca ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the Serchio River, in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. The city has a population of about 89,000, while its Province of Lucca, province has a population of 383,9 ...
for the first time, in the Piazza Napoleone in the center of town; it grew in size and importance over the years. The 1968 edition, held November 16–17, also saw the birth of Immagine, the Center for Iconographic Studies, is born, a private cultural organization sponsored by the University of Rome that became responsible for producing the festival. Beginning in 1969, Traini became festival director, holding onto that position through the last Lucca salon, held in 1992. "Lucca 8," held October 29 – November 4, 1972, saw the festival expand to seven days, with the first three days dedicated to animation and the final three to comics. "Lucca 12," held October 30 – November 4, 1976, witnessed the participation of 32 countries and 15 international delegations, including
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
,
UNICEF UNICEF ( ), originally the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, officially United Nations Children's Fund since 1953, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Development a ...
, the International Council of Design, and the
International Animated Film Association The International Animated Film Association (French: ''Association Internationale du Film d'Animation'', ASIFA) is an international non-profit organization founded in 1960 in Annecy, France by well-known animation artists including Canadian an ...
. Funding issues reduced the frequency of the festival to every two years, beginning in 1977. From 1982 the festival was moved to the Palazzo dello Sport, a sports center outside the city walls, where it remained until 1992. The period between the 17th (October 26 – November 2, 1986) and 18th editions (October 28 – November 4, 1990) was marked by a financial and political crisis that nearly ended the Salon. A power struggle between Immagine and the Municipality of Lucca culminated in a temporary suspension of the event — no salon was held in 1988. Ultimately, a formal structure was created for shared governance and continuity of the festival. Despite tensions over commercialization (especially making the festival a ticketed event for the first time), "Lucca '90" successfully relaunched the event, blending prestige and public appeal. The 19th edition of the festival, held October 25 to November 1, 1992, was the final Salone Internazionale del Comics held in Lucca.


Birth of Lucca Comics

In 1993, after the Salone Internazionale dei Comics left Lucca, city leaders launched a new convention called simply Lucca Comics that was a reprise of the old one. In 1995, it changed its name to Lucca Comics & Games. The festival attracted 50,000 attendees in 2002. Meanwhile, Salone Internazionale dei Comics co-founder Rinaldo Traini continued the festival in Rome as part of his new venture Expocartoon, held from 1995 to 2005.


Merger

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. The 2023 edition, held November 1–5, which featured posters by Israeli artists Tomer Hanuka and Asaf Hanuka, was riven by debate surrounding
Hamas The Islamic Resistance Movement, abbreviated Hamas (the Arabic acronym from ), is a Palestinian nationalist Sunni Islam, Sunni Islamism, Islamist political organisation with a military wing, the Qassam Brigades. It has Gaza Strip under Hama ...
'
October 7 attacks On October 7, 2023, Hamas and several other Palestinian militant groups launched coordinated armed incursions from the Gaza Strip into the Gaza envelope of southern Israel, the first invasion of Israeli territory since the 1948 Arab–Israeli ...
and the resulting
Gaza war The Gaza war is an armed conflict in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel fought since 7 October 2023. A part of the unresolved Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Israeli–Palestinian and Gaza–Israel conflict, Gaza–Israel conflicts dating ...
. Many creators cancelled their scheduled appearances at the show; despite this, 314,220 tickets were sold. The 2024 edition fair's poster was designed by Japanese artist
Yoshitaka Amano is a Japanese visual artist, character designer, illustrator, a scenic designer for theatre and film, and a costume designer. He began his career in 1967 at Tatsunoko Production working on anime such as '' Speed Racer'' and later became the c ...
, the illustrator of the Final Fantasy series. The three event posters created by Amano were inspired by the works of
Giacomo Puccini Giacomo Puccini (22 December 1858 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for List of compositions by Giacomo Puccini#Operas, his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he ...
(the centenary of whose death was in 2024): * The first poster, Ouverture, was inspired by Puccini's opera ''
Tosca ''Tosca'' is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900. The work, based on Victorien Sardou's 1 ...
'' * The second poster, Crescendo, was inspired by ''
Madama Butterfly ''Madama Butterfly'' (; ''Madame Butterfly'') is an opera in three acts (originally two) by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It is based on the short story " Madame Butterfly" (1898) by John Lu ...
'' * The third final poster, Finale Fantastico, was an unpublished work by Amano that was created during the event


Awards


Comics awards

From 1970 to 1992, the festival presented the
Yellow Kid Award The Yellow Kid Awards (Italian: ''Premio Yellow Kid'') are comic book awards presented in Italy from 1970 to 1992 at Salone Internazionale dei Comics in Lucca, then from 1994 to 2005 at the Salone Internazionale dei Comics in Rome. The Yellow Kid ...
— named in honor of
Richard F. Outcault Richard Felton Outcault (; January 14, 1863 – September 25, 1928) was an American cartoonist. He was the creator of the series ''The Yellow Kid'' and ''Buster Brown'' and is considered a key pioneer of the modern comic strip. Life and career ...
's seminal comic strip character
The Yellow Kid The Yellow Kid (Mickey Dugan) is an American comic-strip character that appeared from 1895 to 1898 in Joseph Pulitzer's ''New York World'', and later William Randolph Hearst's ''New York Journal''. Created and drawn by Richard F. Outcault in t ...
— 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. Before taking on the name "Yellow Kid", the Lucca prize was known as the "Gran Guinigis" (named after Lucca's
Guinigi Tower File:Torre Guinigi from Torre Torre dell'Orologio.jpg, Guinigi Tower seen from the Torre delle Ore File:Torre Guinigi, Guinigi Tower, Lucca.jpg, Hanging garden on the roof of the Torre Guinigi The Torre Guinigi is a tower in Lucca in the region ...
). The Yellow Kid Awards were presented at the Salone Internazionale dei Comics (International Comics and Cartooning Exhibition) in Rome from 1994 to 2005, at which point the Yellow Kid Awards were retired. In 2006, Lucca Comics & Games brought back the Gran Guinigi as a career accomplishment award. In 2020, as the festival redubbed itself "Lucca Changes" amidst a shift to virtual programming during the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, the awards shifted to a new system under the umbrella term Lucca Comics Awards, consisting of nine categories (three Yellow Kids, five Gran Guinigis, and one Stefano Beani Award named for a former festival director), "regardless of nationality, editorial format or distribution method". In 2024, a special mention was awarded in an emotional moment to Mahasen Al-Khateeb, Palestinian illustrator and character designer killed in an Israeli bombardment in her home town of Gaza.


Yellow Kid Award recipients


Gran Guinigi recipients

From 2006. * 2006: Gino D'Antonio * 2007: Sergio Toppi * 2008:
Vittorio Giardino Vittorio Giardino (born December 24, 1946) is an Italian comic artist. Biography Giardino was born in Bologna, where he graduated in electrical engineering in 1969. At the age of 30, he decided to leave his job and devote himself to comics. Two ...
* 2009:
Robert Crumb Robert Dennis Crumb (; born August 30, 1943) is an American artist who often signs his work R. Crumb. His work displays a nostalgia for American folk culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and satire of contemporary American c ...
* 2010:
Jiro Taniguchi was a Japanese mangaka, 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 ...
* 2011: Enrique Breccia * 2012:
Hermann Huppen Hermann Huppen (born 17 July 1938) is a Belgian comic book creator. He is better known under his pen-name Hermann. He is most famous for his post-apocalyptic comic ''Jeremiah'' which was made into a television series. Biography Hermann was bor ...
* 2013:
Silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...
(Guido Silvestri) * 2014:
Gipi Gia Alfonso Pacinotti, better known by the pseudonym of Gipi, is an Italian cartoonist, filmmaker, and author. Biography Born in Pisa in 1963, he began his career illustrating for the publishing and advertising industries. He began illustrating ...
* 2015:
Alfredo Castelli Alfredo Castelli (26 June 1947 – 7 February 2024) was an Italian comic book artist and writer. Biography Born in Milan, Castelli began his comic book career at an early age, creating the strip '' Scheletrino'', a humor series for Italian comic ...
* 2016:
Albert Uderzo Alberto Aleandro Uderzo (; 25 April 1927 – 24 March 2020), better known as Albert Uderzo (), was a French comic book artist and scriptwriter. He is best known as the co-creator and illustrator of the '' Astérix'' series in collaboration wit ...
* 2017: José Muñoz * 2018:
Leiji Matsumoto was a Japanese manga artist, and creator of several anime and manga series. His widow Miyako Maki is also a manga artist. Matsumoto was famous for his works such as ''Space Battleship Yamato'' and ''Galaxy Express 999''. His style was chara ...
* 2019:
Chris Claremont Christopher S. Claremont (; born November 25, 1950) is an English-born American comic book writer and novelist. Claremont is best known for his 16-year stint on ''Uncanny X-Men'' from 1975 to 1991, far longer than that of any other writer,Clarem ...
* 2020: AkaB (Gabriele Di Benedetto) * 2021:
Lorenzo Mattotti Lorenzo Mattotti (born 24 January 1954) is an Italian comics artist and illustrator. His illustrations have been published in magazines such as ''Cosmopolitan (magazine), Cosmopolitan'', ''Vogue (magazine), Vogue'', ''The New Yorker'', ''Le Monde ...
* 2022:
Riyoko Ikeda is a Japanese manga artist and singer. She is included in the Year 24 Group by some critics, journalists, and academics, although her inclusion has been debated due to a focus more on epic stories than the internal psychology of those mangaka. ...
and
Milo Manara Maurilio Manara (; born 12 September 1945), known professionally as Milo Manara, is an Italian comic book writer and artist. Career After architecture and painting studies, he made his comics debut in 1969 drawing for ''Genius'', a fumetti neri ...
* 2023:
Frank Miller Frank Miller (born January 27, 1957) is an American comic book artist, comic book writer, and screenwriter known for his comic book stories and graphic novels such as his run on ''Daredevil'', for which he created the character Elektra, and ...


Games awards

* 1999: Murat CELEBI's kirmish miniature game ''[CONFRONTATION', for Best of Show. * 2002:
ONFRONTATION.html" ;"title="kirmish miniature game ''[CONFRONTATION">kirmish miniature game ''[CONFRONTATION', for Best of Show. * 2002: Wild West The American frontier, also known as the Old West, and popularly known as the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that bega ...
-themed card game '' Bang!'', for Best of Show * 2003: '' Bang! (card game)">Bang!'', for Best of Show * 2003: ''Sine Requie'', for Best Italian Game * 2004: Sine Requie">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: ** 7 Wonders (board game)">7 Wonders'', for Best Card Game ** ''Eden: the Deceit'', Side Award for Best Game Mechanics * 2011: ** Vincent Baker's ''Apocalypse World">Vincent Baker">7 Wonders (board game)">7 Wonders'', for Best Card Game ** ''Eden: the Deceit'', Side Award for Best Game Mechanics * 2011: ** Vincent Baker's ''Apocalypse World'', for RPG of the Year ** ''Twilight Struggle'', for Best of Show in Boardgame for Experts


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lucca Comics and Games 1965 establishments in Italy Comics conventions Gaming conventions Multigenre conventions Lucca Tourist attractions in Tuscany Recurring events established in 1965