43°48′N10°30′E / 43.8°N 10.5°E /43.8; 10.5
| Lucca Comics & Games | |
|---|---|
 A Lucca Comics pavilion, near theSan Michele in Forobasilica, in 2007 | |
| Status | Active |
| Location(s) | Lucca,Tuscany |
| Country | Italy |
| Inaugurated | 1965 |
| Attendance | 319,926 in 2022[1][2] |
| Organized by | Comune of Lucca, through the limited company Lucca CreaS.r.l.,[3] in which flew the previous Lucca Comics & Games and Lucca Polo Fiere e Congressi[4] |
| Website | luccacomicsandgames.com |
Lucca Comics & Games is an annualcomic book andgaming convention inLucca, Italy, traditionally held at the end of October, in conjunction withAll Saints' Day. It is the largestcomics festival in Europe, and the second biggest in the world after theComiket.
TheSalone Internazionale del Comics ("International Congress of Comics") was launched by a Franco-Italian partnership, consisting of Italians Rinaldo Traini and Romano Calisi and FrenchmanClaude Moliterni [fr] (forming the International Congress of Cartoonists and Animators) in 1965 inBordighera.[5][6]In 1966, it moved to a smallpiazza 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 simplyLucca 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.
For the first time, the 2024 edition will see the poster of the fair designed by the famous Japanese artistYoshitaka Amano, the illustrator of theFinal Fantasy series.The three event posters created byYoshitaka Amano are inspired by the works ofGiacomo Puccini, the centenary of whose death occurs this year.
From 1970 to 1992, the festival presented theYellow Kid Award — named in honor ofRichard F. Outcault's seminal comic strip characterThe 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. Before taking on the name "Yellow Kid", the Lucca prize was known as the "Gran Guinigis" (named after Lucca'sGuinigi Tower).
The Yellow Kid Awards were presented at the Salone Internazionale del 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.[citation needed]
In 2020, as the festival redubbed itself "Lucca Changes" amidst a shift to virtual programming during theCOVID-19 pandemic,[7] the awards shifted to a new system under the umbrella termLucca 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".[8]
In 2024, a special mention was awarded in an emotional moment toMahasen Al-Khateeb, Palestinan illustrator and character designer killed in anIsraeli bombardment in her home town ofGaza.[9][10]
From 2006.
List of multigenre conventions in Europe | |
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| Czech Republic | |
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| Italy | |
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Authority control databases: National |
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