Lucca Comics, comics protagonists in the all-round entertainment fair

The core business may seem forgotten but it always exists. Lucca Comics and Games, from today to November 1st within the city walls has been the all-round entertainment fair for many years: from movies to cartoons, from TV series to video games, to the inevitable cosplayers (who dresses such as characters from movies, comics and TV series). But there are still comics. And in huge numbers: all the main publishing houses in the sector are present and bring the (many) news to Lucca.

This is a forcedly short guide to some of the most interesting comics in our (unquestionable) opinion in this Lucca Comics. But there are many more, let’s let you discover them.

Only in Lucca

Thirty years ago, in the days of Jordan, Magic and Larry Bird at the Olympics and McEnroe, Agassi, Sampras and Courier in the Davis Cup, they would have talked about Dream Team.

But that’s what the designer Nik Guerra assembled for his volume “13”: thirteen exceptional screenwriters for as many stories he designed (of six tables each), all starring more or less fatal women: from the creator of Martin Mystère Alfredo Castelli to the editor and author of Diabolik Mario Gomboli, from established professionals such as Moreno Burattini (Zagor) and Pasquale Ruju (Tex) to designers who write stories of their characters but this time do not draw them (like Jordi Bernet with an adventure by his Chiara di Notte) to fiction writers (such as Cristiana Astori who brings her Susanna Marino to confront the classic erotic horror of 1971 «Vampyros lesbos»).

Bonelli goes with everyone

Sergio Bonelli Editore, which until a decade ago in Lucca limited itself to bringing its designers without even selling the comics in recent years has been unleashed and has become multimedia: this Lucca presents many special releases (even the Tex in simplified Chinese) , the Dampyr movie, the Dragonero animated series and three so-called team-ups. There are the hardcover version of the meeting (expected for decades by fans) between Tex and Zagor (released on newsstands last year), the one between the investigator of the future Nathan Never and the Justice League of the American DC Comics (supergroup with characters like Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman) and even the number zero (prelude to a future miniseries) of Conan / Dragonero. While both are fantasy heroes, Robert Erwin Howard’s rude barbarian is a very different character from the more staid Bonellian hero Dragonero.

«It will be a classic team-up – says the curator of Dragonero Luca Barbieri. – Dragonero and Conan, despite their mutual differences, must ally themselves in view of a common goal ».

They called it comic strip (and still is)

The concept of “author’s comics” was quite limiting a bit like now that of “graphic novel” (which is simply a comic book), as if the serial comics had no authors. “Author comics”, for example, was considered that of Hugo Pratt, a cartoonist (as he liked to call himself) who was actually cultured, but also popular and, in a certain way, also serial.

Pratt died in 1995 but for some years the Spaniards Juan Diaz Canales (texts) and Rubèn Pellejero (drawings) have been carrying on the adventures of his Corto Maltese. ‹‹ Berlin night ›› (Rizzoli Lizard) sees the romantic sailor in Berlin in the early 1920s, amidst communist spies and far-right secret societies. The story can be compared with “Favola di Venezia” (1977) by Hugo Pratt where Corto clashed with the fascists: although very good (perhaps even superior as drawings, at the time the Venetian author already had a rather concise sign ) lacks a bit of that charming mix of romanticism, cynicism and ambiguity typical of Pratt.

The new comic novel by Manuele Fior, “Hypericon” (Coconino Press Fandango) between (in fact) the Berlin of the late nineties (in which there is the love story between Teresa and Ruben) is also partly set in Berlin. and Howard Carter’s discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922.

Those of Fior are authentic, poetic “comic novels”, inspired primarily by the medium of the novel, not cinema, TV series, short genre fiction, other comics, like many of his colleagues.

An adaptation of an authentic novel is instead “Private Venus” (Oblomov La Nave di Teseo) by Paolo Bacilieri from the 1966 novel by Giorgio Scerbanenco.

The Ukrainian-Milanese author is a master of noir and in this first investigation of Duca Lamberti (his most famous character) he revealed the dark side of Italy’s economic boom. He excellent the version of Bacilieri, master (also) of comic noir.

If we consider “author comics” that which seeks to explore the medium reaching new expressive boundaries in a certain sense it still exists. The American Chris Ware is a guest in Lucca to present the Italian edition of his masterpiece «Building Stories» (published by Coconino Press – Fandango), a truly unique graphic novel, between comics and design objects.

It is a box that contains a story (about the daily life of a young American woman) narrated in fourteen comic books of various types and formats, from the hardcover volume to the poster, from the strip to the tabloid newspaper to the comic book (the albo comic book).

In a certain sense, what Ware does is also done by the “badly drawn comics” of which Daw (aka Davide Berardi) is one of the main exponents. His caustic and hilarious spirit and talent for black humor can be found in ” A guide for evil aliens on how to pretend to be a human being all your life and get away with it ›› (Feltrinelli Comics). at the major he enjoyed making drawings in which he tortured one of his previous editors.

Gorgeous sixties

One is a superhero who flits from skyscraper to skyscraper thanks to his web, the other is an elusive thief. Both born cartoonistically in 1962, Spider-Man and Diabolik celebrate their birthday in Lucca. Among the guests there is one of its main designers, John Romita Jr., and the volume “Spider-Man 60 amazing years” edited by Fabio Licari and Marco Rizzo has been published by his Italian publisher Panini Comics.

Diabolik is the protagonist of an exhibition curated by Mauro Bruni and Lo Scarabeo. Lo Scarabeo also publishes “Diabolik, who are you ?, an interesting remake of a classic story from the Sixties, in which the” king of terror “revealed his origins. Unlike the remake of number one, made in 2002 by Alfredo Castelli (texts) and Giuseppe Palumbo (drawings), this is not a rewriting of the original story, but a fascinating reinterpretation of only graphics, by one of the great interpreters of comics. Italian like Corrado Roi, well known to the readers of Dylan Dog who lends his horror blacks to the “black” hero par excellence.