Napoli Comicon


COMICON – International Pop Culture Festival, also commonly known as Napoli Comicon, is an annual comic book convention and pop culture festival held in Naples, Italy. Established in 1998, the event takes place each spring and is one of the largest and most influential comics and pop culture festivals in Europe.

History

Napoli Comicon is an international cultural festival focused on comics and multi-genre entertainment. It takes place annually in Naples, Italy, over four days, usually in late April or early May.
The festival is hosted at the Mostra d'Oltremare exhibition and convention center.
The first edition was held in 1998. In the 2010 and 2011 editions, the event took place across two venues: Castel Sant'Elmo and Mostra d'Oltremare.
In 2001, comics journalist and Disney expert Luca Boschi became the Cultural Director of the event, overseeing the comics program until 2016. In 2006, the same organization launched, a gaming convention, also held in Naples.
After the success of the 2009 edition, which attracted far more visitors than expected, the event was moved to the larger and more spacious Mostra d'Oltremare convention center.
In January 2010, the organizers decided to divide Comicon into two venues for that year's edition: one focused primarily on comics and cinema/TV content, and the other on video games, tabletop games, and cosplay. The traditional festival venue, Castel Sant'Elmo, hosted publishers, screenings, talks, awards, the Imago contest, and comics-related exhibitions. Meanwhile, the trade show venue, Mostra d'Oltremare, featured cosplay contests, booths for game and video game publishers, as well as comic book stores, game stores, and distributors.
This merging of Comicon and Gamecon resulted in a single multi-genre convention covering a wide range of entertainment, including comics, cinema, TV series, video games, board games, animation, and cosplay. Since that year, the winner of the cosplay competition has also been selected to compete in an international contest. In 2010, for example, the winner qualified for the finals of the EuroCosplay Championship in London.
From 2011 to 2015, a spin-off event, Salerno Comicon, was held in Salerno, Italy. In 2012, Comicon moved the entire event to the Mostra d'Oltremare convention center. This decision was based on a survey conducted by the organizers through the festival's official Facebook page. Also introduced in the 2012 edition was the "Asian Village" area, a dedicated space within the festival focused entirely on anime, manga, and Asian culture.
In 2014, the same company launched VideoGameShow, an "innovative" convention focused on gaming, creators, and digital entertainment, co-organized with ESL Italia. The event lasted for five editions, held in both Naples and Milan, Italy.
In late 2018, comics expert and media scholar Matteo Stefanelli was appointed Comicon's first artistic director. Comicon Naples was canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, a smaller-scale "Comicon Extra" program, featuring both offline and online events, was held during both years. The main festival returned in 2022.
In 2023, Comicon expanded with a second edition in Bergamo, held from June 23 to 25 as part of the Bergamo–Brescia Italian Capitals of Culture 2023 initiative. The first edition of Comicon Bergamo took place in the pavilions of the Fiera di Bergamo.

Features

The festival offers panels, workshops with authors and professionals, screenings, previews of upcoming feature films and TV series, meet-and-greet opportunities with creators and actors, portfolio review sessions with top comics publishers, and the COMICON/Micheluzzi Awards ceremony.
Like most comics and pop culture festivals, COMICON features a large exhibition space, both indoor and outdoor, an autograph area, and a dedicated Small Press Area for fanzines and self-published comic books.
Exhibitors at the festival include:
  • Comics publishers, retailers, and distributors
  • Video game publishers and retailers
  • Esports organizers and teams
  • Toy, RPG, and collectible merchants
  • Anime and manga publishers, retailers, and distributors
  • Movie and TV companies, including streaming services
Over the years, numerous artists from the comics industry, both national and international, have attended as guests, including Milo Manara, Frank Miller, Sergio Toppi, David Lloyd, Jim Lee, and Gō Nagai.
In addition to the main event, exhibitions were introduced that could be visited on the days preceding and/or following the festival. Additionally, other exhibitions and events, part of the "COMICOFF" program, were held at various urban locations outside the main venue, such as cultural institutes, museums, stores, and galleries.

Themed Editions

Some editions of COMICON have featured one or more guest countries, with a portion of the event's program dedicated to them. This has included several exhibitions, screenings, lectures, and meetings focused on artists and works of comics and animation from those countries.
Since the 2007 edition, the central theme of the event has shifted from focusing on a specific country to a color chosen from the five basic colors of letterpress printing: cyan, magenta, yellow, green, and black. Each of these colors is associated with various references and symbolism, serving as a common thread for the different initiatives presented.
Starting in 2011, COMICON inaugurated a new four-year cycle aimed at linking comics, understood as the "Ninth Art," with other forms of art, showcasing their interactions and mutual influences. Each year, one art form took the spotlight in a specific way. In 2011, the focus was on Music, while in 2012, the relationship between Comics and Literature was explored, replacing the initially planned theme of Architecture, which became the focus of the 2013 edition. In 2014, the main theme, which concluded the cycle exploring the interaction of comics with other arts, was Comics and Cinema.

Awards

A characteristic feature of the event is the Micheluzzi Award, which is awarded annually in various categories to the authors and publishers of contemporary comics. Since the 2005 edition, the COMICON Cosplay Challenge has taken place in the auditorium on the last day of the fair.
Other regular activities at the event include the Imago competition, a drawing contest with a social theme, reserved for elementary and junior high school students. The winners of the various categories are selected by visitors through a secret ballot.

Editions

  • First edition held at Castel Sant'Elmo.
  • Second edition held at Villa Pignatelli.
  • Third edition held at Castel Sant'Elmo – Guest countries: Spain and Latin America.
  • Fourth edition held in Castel Sant'Elmo – Guest countries: Italy.
  • Fifth edition held in Castel Sant'Elmo – Guest countries: United States of America and Canada.
  • Sixth edition held in Castel Sant'Elmo – Guest countries: France and Belgium.
  • Seventh edition held in Castel Sant'Elmo – Guest countries: South Korea and Japan.
  • Eighth edition held in Castel Sant'Elmo – Guest countries: Great Britain and Germany.
  • Ninth edition held in Castel Sant'Elmo – Colour: Cyan/Blue.
  • Tenth edition held in Castel Sant'Elmo – Colour: Magenta/Red – Tickets sold: 27,000.
  • Eleventh edition held in Castel Sant'Elmo – Colour: Yellow – Tickets sold: 26,000.
  • Twelfth edition held at both Castel Sant'Elmo and Mostra d'Oltremare – Colour: Black – Tickets sold: 32,000.
  • Thirteenth edition held both at Castel Sant'Elmo and at Mostra d'Oltremare – Theme: Comics and Music – Tickets sold: 35,000.
  • Fourteenth edition held at the Mostra d'Oltremare – Theme: Comics and Literature – Tickets sold: 50,000.
  • Fifteenth edition held at the Mostra d'Oltremare – Theme: Comics and Architecture – Tickets sold: 60,000.
  • Sixteenth edition held at the Mostra d'Oltremare – Theme: Comics and Cinema. – Tickets sold: 60,000 in the first 3 days alone.
  • Seventeenth edition held at the Mostra d'Oltremare – Theme: Comics and Media. – Tickets sold: 100,000. Visitors: 160,000.
  • Eighteenth edition held at the Mostra d'Oltremare – Theme: Comics and Audiovisual Image.
  • Nineteenth edition held at the Mostra d'Oltremare – Theme: Comics and the impact of the web on our cultural landscape.
  • 20th edition held at the Mostra d'Oltremare – Theme: 1998–2018: twenty years of Italian comics. Tickets sold: 150,000.
  • Twenty-first edition staged at the Mostra d'Oltremare – Theme: A new beginning. Tickets sold: 160,000.
  • Twenty-second edition : staged at the Mostra d'Oltremare. Visitors: 135,000.
  • Twenty-third edition : staged at the Mostra d'Oltremare.
In 2020 and 2021, the convention was not held due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, a series of events, primarily online, called 'Comicon Extra' were organized.
A second edition of Comicon will also be held from 23 to 25 June 2023, in Bergamo, which, along with Brescia, will be the Italian Capital of Culture.

Guests

1st–10th Edition


11st–20th Edition


21st–