There are festivals that age, and festivals that, as they age, learn to stay young. Lucca Comics & Gamesbelongs to the latter category. From Wednesday, October 28th to Sunday, November 1st, the historic center, surrounded by the Walls, will once again fill with cosplayers, authors, gamers, and families for the 60th edition, a milestone that dates back to 1966, when the event was born as the International Comics Fair. The chosen theme is Legacy: the legacy that is received, transformed, and passed on to those who come after. An idea that permeates every corner of the program, from the comics pavilions to the gaming rooms, and which is measured in impressive numbers: over 400 guestsfrom all over the world, more than 80 publishers, and a cap of 80,000 admissions per day. It’s not just a birthday party, but a way of asking what remains of sixty years of imagination.
A poster that passes the pencil
Claudio Castellini‘s poster , the first ” meta-poster” in the festival’s history. The image features characters from historic posters: Zerocalcare ‘s golden heroine Lu, Don Maitz’s Sandokan, Phil Hale’s gorilla with his robot, Ted Nasmith’s Lady Hope, and Ciruelo’s dragon. In the center, a superhero holds the Yellow Kid, who raises her pencil. That pencil has a real recipient: Louise Stéphant, a young talent awarded the Petit Fauve at the Angoulême Festival, has designed the variant cover, which will be unveiled at the inauguration on October 28 at the Teatro del Giglio Giacomo Puccini. The passing of the baton between generations is, after all, what the visitAutori audiencehas been doing for six decades: receiving an imaginary world and rewriting it, making it their own.
Palazzo Guinigi, a memory you can play with
To tell its story, Lucca has chosen not to set up an archive. On the second floor of Palazzo Guinigi ,the exhibition Lucca Legacy: a comics and games story, created with POLI.design of the Milan Polytechnic, is a journey through nine spaces that the public can modify and mark, as happens with legacy games. The festival’s stories are browsed like vinyl records, historic posters scroll by like in a time machine, and in the Hall of Games you can sit down to play live. The finale is The Vault, a vault where everyone can deposit a fond object linked to Lucca: those objects could become new stories or enter the nascent Comics Museum. Visitors are guided by mascots Luke and Clea, also the protagonists of the free pixel game Luke & Clea – A Quest for Legacy, while Rai5 is dedicating the documentary 60 volte Lucca to the anniversary. It’s a choice consistent with the spirit of the festival: memory isn’t viewed from behind glass, it’s passed through, touched, and left as a legacy.
Nagai, Miller and the giants of comics
The heart of the Comics Areaspeaks many languages. The most anticipated event is Go Nagai, creator of Mazinger Z, Grendizer, and Devilman, who will be present from October 28th to 30th with the exhibition ” Sun, Heart, and Steel”at the Fondazione Banca del Monte and a live drawing session. From the United States , Frank Milleris also honored by the Movie Area with the documentary ” Frank Miller: American Genius,” along with Jonathan Hickman, Brian Michael Bendis, and Tillie Walden, to whom an exhibition is being dedicated for the first time in Italy. The exhibits recount different eras: Crepax’s Valentinaand Milan over three decades, Lucky Luke ‘s 80th birthday, the Spokonsand their sport of sacrifice and tears. Asia also achieved a record number of entries, with 15 Japanese, 5 Taiwanese, 2 Chinese, and 2 Korean artists, including Paru Itagaki, author of Beastars. Zerocalcare, who lends his character in the poster, also returns to the Movie Area: he created the concept for the animated sequences in Dear Cruel World, the film by Niccolò Falsetti. A mosaic that confirms Lucca as one of the world’s leading showcases of the Ninth Art.
From the gaming table to the sacred monsters of pixel art
The Carducci Pavilionremains the heart of the gaming offering. Joe Manganiellocurates the program dedicated to Dungeons & Dragons, with Tracy and Laura Hickmanand the great return of Dragonlance, while Paolo Morihas been chosen as Board Game Designer of the Year 2026.On the video game front, Yoshinori Kitase, producer of Final Fantasy VII, stands out, who will receive a place on the festival’s Walk of Fame; with him Hideki Kamiya, mastermind of Devil May Cryand Ōkami, and CD Projekt Redwith a panel on Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2.In the Community Village, collectors will find Pokémon, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary in the recently renovated Bigfoot Gym, and a 300-square-meter LEGO Plaza dedicated to the Legacy theme. Among world premieres such as Defenders of Hogwartsby MinaLima, tournaments, LARP and miniatures, the Games Caféremains open in the evenings, while the Lucca Games awards crown the Game of the Year.
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Voices, notes and parades
The soundtrack is by Yoko Kanno, composer of Cowboy Bebopand Ghost in the Shell, who will perform in a concert at the Teatro del Giglio, while I Cavalieri del Recelebrate half a century of theme songs and Finleybring back the pop-punk of Tutto è possibile. Saturday in Piazzale Verdi turns to the power metal of the Grailknights, while on Sunday the Nineties Giga Partycloses the festival at the Giardino degli Osservanti. The night moves to the Foro Boario, with clubbing and Blaster Serata. The streets belong to cosplay: 60 communities and more than 80 events, with a 60th anniversary parade involving all the Italian communities on October 30th and the monster parade for Dylan Dog ‘s 40th anniversary. The Movie Area brings previews such as Percy Jackson & the Olympians, the new film by Hirokazu Kore-eda, Look Back, and Shaun the Sheep Movie, while on October 31st Alberto Angela comes to Lucca for the first time.
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How to arrive prepared
A ticket isn’t enough: to enter the paid areas, you’ll need a bracelet, which can be picked up at one of the five welcome desks, open from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Admission is free for children under 10accompanied by an adult, while the LuccaCG Assistant apphelps you navigate the map, events, and reservations. That’s why it’s best to arrive with a plan, and a willingness to get lost a little. For five days, Lucca will once again be a place where everyone can feel like a hero, and where sixty years of history can be explored—and rewritten—by anyone who enters the Walls.
