Copyright Variety
The numbers say it all. Despite last year’s event falling providentially on a long public holiday, this year has seen even more attendees at Lucca Comics and Games, Europe’s answer to Comic-Con. Over 280,000 tickets were sold and 17,000 professionals, comic-book artists and creators participated and 30,000 cosplayers. There were exhibitions by leading Manga artists, Netflix promoted their last season of “Stranger Things,” and Hideo Kojima was on hand for a panel, talking to the public about his new game “Death Stranding 2,” along with actors Luca Marinelli and Alissa Jung. “We’ve had a 3% rise of attendees compared to last year, which is great considering we didn’t have the public holiday to help us,” Emanuele Vietina, the head or as he prefers the Dungeon Master of the festival, tells Variety. What has been his best memory of the week? “There are so many memories from this event. When I came into the Santa Annunziata church, I saw the original ‘Fist of the North Star,’ the most beloved Manga book of my life. I grew up with it. I was almost crying basically. We do this for the community. The second moment, of course, was cheering with the crowd of 8,000 people in San Michael’s square and introducing Hideo Kojima to Italy and his Italian fans. And last but not least, showing Manlio Castagna’s documentary ‘I Love Lucca Comics & Games’ and the audience came out of the movie theater and they were telling me thank you this really represents us and what we do, I felt like my life was complete.” The narrow streets of the walled medieval city are crammed with a human confetti of cultural references. A large group of teenagers from Livorno gather in a small square out of the main onrush in order to adjust and perfect their makeup and costumes. Filippo and Isabella are dressed as Nightmare Foxy and Nightmare Bonnie from “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” and their friend Falelou is dressed as Miles from “Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse.” “We come from Livorno and this is our sixth Comics and Games,” Filippo says. “We come every year.” Leonardo hasn’t prepared very well this year and has shamefacedly bought a mask from a vendor on the way in: “Next year I’ll do better,” he promises. Mustafa is dressed as Ichigo from the Manga “Bleach,” and Giorgio is dressed as Simon “Ghost” Riley from “Call of Duty.” Nicola wears an inflatable dinosaur costume with a sign reading “Don’t put my brother’s bones in your museums.” “You have to have a sense of humor,” he says. From further afield in Piedmont and in their thirties, Alessio and Sara are completely blue with colored contact lenses representing their characters from James Cameron’s Avatar. This is Sara’s first time at the event but she assures me it won’t be her last. From Modena, Ariana is dressed as Cruella from “101 Dalmations” – “because I like the character and she represents me” – and Alberto is dressed as Pongo, her dog. “I like being surrounded by people who are a little bit similar to me.” In their fifties and hailing from Rome, Indiana Jones and Marion Ravenwood, are huge fans of the film series but also of Lucca as an experience: “It’s so joyful and festive.” This year the 59th edition took its inspiration from France, with a poster “French Kiss” drawn by the celebrated illustrator Rébecca Dautremer. Next year, however, there is a bigger anniversary on the horizon. Vietina promises: “We want to break the barrier between high brow and low brow art. Today, Mr. Tetsuo Hara, with a delegation from Lucca Comics and Games will have his Manga art included in the Uffizi collection in Florence. It’s the first time ever. We want to improve the show and cultural part. We have a big plan of creating a new museum with the Ministry of Culture. But in terms of the 60th anniversary we will also have to celebrate some historical art publishing houses.”
