setting up for the festival
Lucca is not the most likely spot to host an international comics and games festival. After all it is the birthpace of one of Italy’s most famous composers – Giacomo Puccini. Lucca is like an elegant lady – a place that is steeped in history and tradition.
But… for four days at the end of October and the beginning of November over a long weekend the city is transformed as thousands flock to an international festival dedicated to the art and history of comics. Stretching over 16,000 sq m the Lucca Comics & Games Festival attracts some 85,000 visitors a year and over 360 exhibitors from all over Italy.
The festival is a part of Italian life most tourists will never see. Not only for the sheer enormity of Italian comics in one spot, but also for the parade of comic fanatics, the true believers who attend in fancy dress. Never mind Gucci and Prada – this is more like Rocky Horror at its creative best.
Now in its 44th edition, Lucca Comics has grown over the decades and includes contemporary forms of comics such as video games and swop cards. The market for swop cards is especially good in Italy for as one observer said “Italians just love design” And we know they love wearing it too.
The Blue Family in Lucca
Fumetto the Italian word for comics actually means speech balloon. It was first used in 1942 and stems from the shape of the bubble resembling a cloud of smoke (fumo in Italian)