Papini
“Can the flapping of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil cause a tornado in Texas?”. It is the famous “Butterfly Effect“, whereby a small change can lead to big consequences and was chosen by Lucca Comics & Games as the key expression of the 2024 edition between science and opera. Yes, because the Lucca festival also pays homage to Giacomo Puccini in a journey in three acts punctuated by as many posters created by the great Japanese illustrator Yoshitaka Amano. The appointment with Lucca Comics & Games, the great festival of comics, games, illustration, TV series and much more, is from 30 October to 3 November, but yesterday at the Giunti Odeon in Florence the director of the festival Emanuele Vietina partially revealed themes, previews and (some) guests.
As in previous years, the Editoriale Nazionale newspapers (Quotidiano Nazionale, La Nazione, Il Giorno, Il Resto del Carlino and Luce!) are media partners and will cover the event with special pages and dedicated online sections.
Vietina started from Ouverture (a sensual embrace, between physicality and fantasy), the first of three illustrations by Yoshitaka Amano, dedicated to Tosca. The other two (Madama Butterfly and Turandot) will be revealed in September and at the beginning of the festival. “A way to pay homage to a great Lucca native like Giacomo Puccini who, let’s face it, if he were with us today he would compose music for video games or be a great show runner (creative director, ed.) of the most successful TV series”, says Vietina. To celebrate the Japanese artist, Lucca Comics & Games leaves its walls and organizes a large exhibition in Milan (Fabbrica del Vapore) with over 100 original works from 13 November 2024 to 1 March 2025.
As always, the panorama of events is vast, including the exhibition dedicated to the Tour de France starting tomorrow in Florence in Piazza del Duomo in homage to the historic departure from the Tuscan capital. But let’s return to the autumn program starting from one of the most anticipated TV series of the year: Netflix will land in Lucca Comics & Games on October 31st with Squid Game 2. The creator and director Hwang Dong-hyuk and the protagonists Lee Jung-jae and Wi Ha- Jun will meet the fans and reveal some new features of the highly anticipated second season, which will be available on the platform by the end of 2024. For comics, among the various initiatives, an exhibition dedicated to Francesca Ghermandi, an artist ready to fascinate the public with an exhibition that will highlight all the best of his production: The Intergalactic Planet. Then the homage to the 50th anniversary of the legendary Humanoids publishing house, “Les Humanoïdes associés” (for everyone simply Les Humanos) created in 1974 to publish Métal Hurlant, a milestone in the history of comics. Publishing house founded by the critic and screenwriter Jean-Pierre Dionnet (who will be in Lucca), by the authors Jean “Moebius” Giraud and Philippe Druillet, and by Bernard Farkas. A story told in the stand and in the exhibition at Palazzo Ducale: Jubilee Hurlant.
Palazzo Ducale will be the heart of the exploration of other shores of the Mediterranean with their distinctive voices, through the exhibition Kalimatuna, our words of freedom: Takoua Ben Mohamed, Zainab Fasiki, Deena Mohamed, three authors who are spokespeople for the changes that are taking place in their countries of origin (Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt). Winner of the prestigious Eisner Award (named after the great Will Eisner, absolute master of comics), the author Peach Momoko (her real name remains a mystery) will be the protagonist of the festival. She has signed numerous covers for some of the best-selling Marvel magazines. At the beginning of 2024, Peach Momoko will be the godfather of the Ultimate X-Men series for Marvel, which recounts the origins of the famous group of heroes in a Japanese key.
Also at Lucca Comics & Games is Gou Tanabe, known to the general public for dedicating his career for twenty years to transposing HP’s works into manga
Lovecraft. While Robert Lawrence Stine, born as an author of comic novels (under the pseudonym Jovial Bob Stine), but who became famous for the acclaimed series of novels for girls and boys Little Brividi, arrives in Italy for the first time to meet his fans .
