Lucca Comics pays homage to Giacomo Puccini in the year of the centenary of the death of the great composer from Lucca: from 30 October to 3 November the comics event will be presented as a real operatic composition, entitled “The Butterfly Effect”. For the occasion, the Japanese designer Yoshitaka Amano signs the posters of the most anticipated community event in Europe, a triptych inspired by Puccini.
Among the previews made known today, Netflix will also be at Lucca Comics to present a preview of “Squid Game 2”; Asmodee with the world premiere of “Twilight of the Republic”, the third set of “Star Wars: Unlimited”; the unique celebrations for the 50th anniversary of D&D, the 40th anniversary of Tetris and the 20th anniversary of the Music stage in Lucca.
In addition to a clear reference to Puccini’s masterpiece, the title “The Butterfly Effect” refers to the well-known “Butterfly Effect”, a corollary of Chaos Theory which studies the way in which small changes can lead to large consequences. For “The Butterfly Effect,” Amano created not just one image, but three, each representing “an act of this extraordinary work.” The first act, “Ouverture”, marks the beginning of the dances with today’s press conference, June 26th: this inaugural moment is represented by the work that Amano dedicated to Puccini’s Tosca. An embrace between two characters, between physicality and imagination, which captures all the exuberant energy of the festival and the thousand colors of its audience of ‘butterflies’.
In September, the second act of the festival will arrive in Milan, which in a crescendo of news and announcements will populate its stage with the most beloved characters from the world of comics, fantasy and gaming. The image that will accompany this second phase will be dedicated to Madama Butterfly, to evoke the enthusiasm and anticipation that characterize the period preceding the festival.
The wait will culminate on October 30th, in the third act, the festival itself, which will be represented with a third work by maestro Amano, this time linked to his immortal princess Turandot, to reflect the apotheosis of creativity and passion that is Lucca Comics & Games.
Between 2024 and 2025 Lucca Comics will literally leave the urban walls of the Tuscan city and land at the Fabbrica del Vapore in Milan with the exhibition “Amano Corpus Animæ”, dedicated precisely to Yoshitaka Amano. The exhibition will offer a complete overview of his work, highlighting his extraordinary ability to merge anime, video games and contemporary art into a single, inimitable artistic vision. More than 100 original works to tell the history of animation and world entertainment; the epic images that have consecrated the “boy from Shizuoka” in the Olympus of contemporary artists will range from Tatsunoko to Final Fantasy, passing through Vogue. From November 13th to March 1st “Amano Corpus Animae” will be the first retrospective to celebrate the 50-year career of the visionary Japanese master.
And in the wake of the enthusiasm and news that leave their mark, Netflix returns to Lucca Comics with “Squid Game 2”: on Thursday 31 October the creator, writer and director Hwang Dong-hyuk and the protagonists Lee Jung-jae and Wi Ha-Jun will meet fans to reveal to the whole world some new features of the highly anticipated second season.
Lucca Comics will dedicate two unique tributes to the Dungeons & Dragons world. For the first time the Koder Collection will be exhibited, with original masterpieces by Larry Elmore, Jeff Easley, Clyde Caldwell, Keith Parkinson, Brom, Todd Lockwood, in a unique exhibition in the world: “Gateway to Adventure: 50 Years of D&D Art”. It will be edited by Jon Peterson, one of the most important historians of the game, author among other things of Dungeons and Dragons – Art & Arcana and of the extraordinary collection of rare documents The Making of Original Dungeons & Dragons 1970-1977, recently published by Wizards of the Coast, and by Jessica Lee Patterson, an art historian who has been working on cataloging the collection since 2022. The exhibition will be hosted by the extraordinary and sacred Church of the Servi, already used in the past for the display of original tables, but redesigned to accommodate an editorial and artistic path that also leaves great space for experience and the games played.
But it doesn’t end here, it’s time for the role-playing game to leave a permanent trace in the city of gaming par excellence: the municipal administration of Lucca will name the basement of the San Paolino bastion, definitively, after Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, creators of Dungeons & Dragons. This is the culmination of a journey started 15 years ago, with Larry Elmore, Tracy and Laura Hickman, which has finally found its definitive approval by the city. Jeremy Crawford, lead rules designer of Dungeons & Dragons and lead designer of the new 2024 Player’s Handbook, will then be present in Lucca.
At the event there will also be space for the game of the year at the latest The Game Awards, praised by enthusiastic reviews globally and capable of exceeding 10 million copies sold in less than a year, Baldur’s Gate III by Larian Studios, which redefined the canons of the modern role-playing game. Lucca Comics will host some of the main creative minds behind this incredible success. Jason Latino, cinematic director, Joachim Vleminckx, art director, and Borislav Slavov, music composer, guests of the festival, will share with the people of Lucca behind the scenes, curiosities and insights into the birth and development of one of the most popular titles of recent years.
Having entered the hearts of millions of players thanks to Broken Sword, Charles Cecil will be in Lucca to retrace together with the fans some of the fundamental stages that led to the birth of the graphic adventure par excellence, capable of fascinating the collective imagination even today. Originally published in 1996 and since then acclaimed as one of the greatest point-and-click works of all time, Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars returns in style with the Reforged Collector’s Edition, ready to relive never-forgotten emotions.
Tetris will celebrate its 40th anniversary at Lucca Comics with the participation of the creator and the game and the co-founder of The Tetris Company. World premiere for “Star Wars: Unlimited,” the fast-paced, easy-to-learn trading card game in which players explore a galaxy of infinite possibilities as they engage in thrilling head-to-head battles filled with the most famous characters from the Star Wars universe. Star Wars. All over the world the pre-release events of set 3, “Il Crepuscolo della Repubblica”, will take place on Friday 1 November, but in Lucca Comics they will start as early as Wednesday 30 October, with two days of exclusive pre-release.
PlayNook, the AudioGame app that sees Roan Johnson, director of films and TV series including “I delitti del Barlume” and “Monterossi”, as its editorial curator, and that allows you to experience adventures completely similar to those of gamebooks but in a totally audio version, will be the protagonist at Lucca Comics. In fact, PlayNook, in addition to having a stand at the Carducci pavilion, where you can discover all the features of this futuristic app for the world of gaming, will present a story dedicated to Lucca Comics & Games. Road to Lucca, this is the code name by which this story is known for the moment, will be narrated by Stefano Fresi, one of the most beloved faces of the series “I delitti del Barlume”.
Born as an author of comic novels, under the pseudonym Jovial Bob Stine (his first novel was titled How to Be Funny, 1978), Robert Lawrence Stine is today synonymous with ‘chills’. The author of the acclaimed series of novels for girls and boys “Piccoli Brividi” arrives in Italy for the first time to meet his fans, from young readers to the most knowledgeable ones who grew up with his series. Passing through the media, from the TV series (the latest release in 2023) to the board game (1995) to the films (2015 and 2018), the prolific horror saga has raised (and scared!) entire generations of fans.
Also keeping readers in suspense will be Stuart Turton, acclaimed author of “The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle” and “The Devil and the Dark Water”, which also released a board game presented at Lucca Changes. The author will be at Lucca Comics and in bookstores, with the new thriller novel “The Last Murder” at the End of the World, coming out in October 2024 with Neri Pozza Editore. Curator of the cultural program dedicated to horror and thriller fiction, as well as an established author for adults and for girls and boys, Paola Barbato will be at Lucca Comics as an exceptional moderator, as well as to present her new novels The Ivory Tower (Neri Pozza) and Horror Game (Piemme Edizioni). The first two guest authors of the program dedicated to romantasy will be the American Ava Reid (Il Castoro OFF) and the Italian Felicia Kingsley (Newton Compton).
