Catanzaro – “This is the beginning of a journey, I don’t know where we will arrive, but we start from here, with the stands, with the smiles of the kids, with the joy that comics bring. We wanted to give an important space to Japanese comics which attract young people so much. At the same time we remained within our territory, with a memory of Gianni De Luca, who left Gagliato to become one of the major interpreters of Italian comics. We must enjoy these three days trying to involve as many people as possible, because it is truly a beautiful initiative for our city”. This is what the mayor of Catanzaro declared Nicola Fiorita on the sidelines of the inauguration of “Nuvola”, the first comics, gaming and art festival which will animate the monumental complex of San Giovanni until Sunday 16 June.
Yesterday morning, June 14, after a brief institutional greeting – from the mayor Fiorita, the councilor for culture Donatella Monteverdiby the CEO of the Politeama foundation Aldo Costa and the artistic director of Nuvola, Emiliano Lamanna – the exhibition opened with the inauguration of the Nuvola Expo, the exhibition divided into five sections plus a tribute to Mimmo Rotella hosted in the museum area. The event continued in the cloister, the talk area of the monumental complex, with the presentation of “Bulloni”, the series of illustrated narratives created by Giacomo Pucci for Round Robin Editrice now in its sixth volume. In front of an audience made up of over 50 students from the city’s schools, the author Pucci and the speakers Davide Lamanna and Vincenzo Merante addressed topics that were anything but simple, such as bullying, racism and disability, with professionalism and the right amount of light-heartedness. The Bulloni series, in fact, was designed to bring baby readers closer to books, making them have fun, but at the same time, learn to understand the reality that surrounds them. In the afternoon in Nuvola it was the turn of the presentation of the acclaimed Graphic Novel by the Catanzaro journalist Luciana Cimino “Nellie Bly”, published by Tunué in 2019 with a preface by David Randall and drawings by Sergio Algozzino. The work reached the United States for Abrams in 2020, reaching the top ten of public libraries in 2021, and was translated in France in 2019, Russia in 2022 and Spain in 2023. The author spoke with journalists Maria Rita Galati and Terri Boemi addressing issues relating to the role of women in the world of work and in journalism in particular. Next, again in the cloister where a 4×2 LED wall was installed, was the turn Vincenzo Filosa, master among the major popularizers of Manga and alternative Japanese comics in Italy. Filosa presented his latest work “Il Saraceno”, nominated in the “Best Screenplay” category at the Micheluzzi Awards. The first day of the festival ended with the game of the Merchant in Fiera Calabrese. The deck, the series of 40 illustrated cards created by Luca Viapianawas projected on the LED wall but to obtain one or more cards and hope to win the final prizes, the participants were asked to solve the riddles written by the poet Achille Curcio and praised by the actor from Catanzaro Enzo Colacinoin the guise of the merchant.
Nuvola comics will continue today at 10am when the workshop is scheduled Chiara Abastanotti “At comic school”. Teacher of Comics at the International School of Comics in Brescia and with numerous awards and collaborations with renowned international publishing houses and magazines to his credit, Abastanotti combines drawing, theatre, music and activism in his works. followed by the presentation of the graphic novel published by Beccogiallo “Pertini tra le clouds” at 11.30 with the presence of the authors Elettra Stamboulis and Gianluca Costantini. The work describes a versatile and quotative Sandro Pertini, sitting on a cloud in a close dialogue with Andrea Pazienza: it is the pop expedient to retrace the life and political commitment of an unforgettable man, politician, partisan. Dialogues with the authors will be Don Giacomo Panizza, founder of the southern project community, the journalist Andrea Mazzotta and the historian Salvatore Bullotta. At 4pm, however, there will be a presentation of 38th parallel, the editorial project by the students of the Academy of Fine Arts. At 6pm the program includes a meeting dedicated to the graphic novel “Lea Garofalo, a mother against the ‘Ndrangheta” with the author Chiara Abastanotti. The meeting will be moderated by the journalist Giulia Veltri and will see the participation of Elvira Iaccino (Libera Catanzaro) and Deborah Cartisano (Libera Locride). The second day of the Nuvola will close with the presentation of “Wind of Freedom” the graphic novel by Lelio Bonaccorso which tells a family saga full of love, pride, desire for revenge and freedom in a medieval Sicily tested by Angevin domination.
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