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EVENT: FESTIVAL LUCCA COMICS AND GAMES
COSPLAY TIME
Lucca becomes
even more
picturesque
during Comics
and Games.
Get Me to the Geeks Tuscan
confab draws Hollywood majors
to medieval mecca By Nick Vivarelli
WELCOME TO THE Western
world’s biggest geek
meet.
Some 254,000 ticket-buying
fans descended
last year upon Lucca Comics & Games,
for comics fans with a European twist
held within the medieval
Tipsheet
WHAT:
walls of the Tuscan town
Lucca Intl. of Lucca, which Henry
James once described
Festival of
Comics,
Animation, as “overflowing with
Illustration and everything.”
Games
Numerically the fourday
Lucca fest/con-
WHEN:
Oct. 29-Nov. 1
WHERE: vention dedicated to
Lucca, Italy fandom, cosplay, role-
WEB:
luccacomics playing games, and the
andgames.com whole cross-media universe
of comics — comprising movies,
TV and music — is the second-largest
geek culture event after Tokyo’s Comiket,
which boasts 550,000 fans. That’s almost
twice as many as Comic-Com in San
Diego, though access to both is limited.
Just like Comic-Con, Lucca Comics
started decades ago as a comic book convention.
And somewhat similarly it’s now
become an integral part of the Hollywood
studios’ promotional push in Europe,
including Disney’s “Star Wars: The Force
Awakens,” Fox’s “The Peanuts Movie” and
Lionsgate’s “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay
— Part 2,” which Universal Pictures
Intl. Italy is distribbing in the country.
“Five years ago we approached Lucca
to start the film section and from the start
the Hollywood majors have been very
responsive, bringing strong content,” says
Giovanni Cova, topper of Milan-based
entertainment marketing company QMI.
Italian distributors and TV broadcasters
also attend in full force.
That said, Japanese manga mania
dominates in the Renaissance-era gem, a
town known for its pink-hued churches
and 16th-century walls, where a dedicated
quarter turns into Japan Town during the
shindig. But aside from the various geek
cultures at play, what really defines Lucca
Comics is the venue.
“Lucca has a soul,” says Renato Genovese,
the event’s topper. “It’s a unique pop
universe where everyone comes to share
an experience in the streets, the gardens
and piazzas, the cafes, the pizzerias, all
within the walls of a medieval city which
is like an island.”
Among its plethora of events and initiatives
Genovese is particularly proud
of the fact that Lucca Comics recently
launched a crowdfunding portal for
projects with comic world ties and that
spawned standout Italian content such as
“Getalive” a Web series spoofing role-playing
gamers.
Highlights
A major exhibition titled
“The Fantastic World
of Peanuts” will celebrate
the 65th anniversary
of Charlie Brown,
Snoopy and other
Charles Schultz characters.
Besides original
drawings and strips,
grouped both chronologically
and thematically,
it will have a multimedia
component.
Oct. 29
2 p.m. Japan Town
stage: Filmmaker
Mamoru Oshii and his
producer Mitsuhisa Ishikawa
will meet fans
during an onstage conversation
and also a
master class.
Oct. 30
6:30 p.m. Astra Movie
Theatre: “Doctor Who”
showrunner Steven Moffat
and scribe Jamie
Mathieson will be on
hand for a Q&A following
the Italo preem of
the show’s “The Magician’s
Apprentice” episode
that opens the
ninth series.
ITALY’S GENRE FEAST MIXES IN ASIAN FLAVOR
Though
Hollywood
content plays
prominently at Lucca
Comics & Games, Asian
pop culture is a deeply
entrenched aspect of
the unique immersive
experience sought by
the thousands of fans
who flock to the event.
Accordingly,
Japanese anime
and manga director
Mamoru Oshii will
make the trek to
Lucca to screen his
live action/CG effects
hybrid “Garm Wars:
The Last Druid,” hold
a master class and
receive a prize, with his
producer and longtime
collaborator Mitsuhisa
Ishikawa in tow.
Ishikawa is cofounder
and CEO
of Tokyo-based
anime production
powerhouse
Production I.G., which,
like Lucca Comics,
is also involved in
television series, video
games and music.
Known for
philosophical
storytelling, Oshii is
among the world’s
most respected animeauteurs.
He is the only
one to have made the
cut for competition
at Cannes with
“Ghost in the Shell 2:
Innocence,” his sequel
of sorts to seminal
cyberpunk pic “Ghost
in the Shell,” about a
cyborg desperately
seeking the meaning
of existence.
The search for
meaning is also a
theme in Oshii’s “Garm
Wars,” about a war
fought by three tribes
of clones (“Garms”)
during which a
female clone leaves
the battlefield
to undertake an
existential journey.
— Nick Vivarelli
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