After only 2 months I came here to report the BIG event of 2013, the Lucca Comics and Games convention of 2013. In these days an official report by organisation gave the real numbers of the fair. They sold 217646 tickets. You have to add all the people that worked in the fair, as vendors for over 700 stands, volunteers that managed the masses of people, all the people involved in spectacles and events, press and all kinds of operators, citizens of Lucca and neighbouring. 40000 square metres of exposition area. To complete the numbers I can add that you could not find a room to sleep on all north-west Tuscany. During the 4 days I was in my area but I found some time early in the morning to watch the fair. Well, I reached to see all stands only one time, and no show, spectacle, event, film or exhibit. It was impossible, I could reach places only because I had a staff pass. In the next year they are thinking to expand the fair area because of the blocked streets of the city even for walkers and the long queues to enter in pavilions. So more Lucca C&G for 2014!

And now my report. I have over 100 photos to post. It is difficult to manage all this so it will be a little jumble. To start, a couple of photos about Doctor Who. Tonight will we watch the end of the 11th Doctor. Those days we were waiting for the 50th anniversary. A cosplayer meeting based on this saga was held. Huge numbers I heard.

While I’m packing my miniatures for the next event, the DBA tournament in Terni, I wish to let you know about something of Lucca convention. Well, we were more that 200000 people… I still need some sleep, I have a lot of work to do, so I will publish photos and reports as soon as possible to me. In the meantime a video overview from Lucca C&G official channel.

This morning I’m leaving for Terni. Then, in the afternoon, I and Andrea will go to Lucca. Tomorrow is the great day, the start of Lucca Comics and Games, the event of the year. 4 days of madness among a fair/convention for 200000 people that destroy life in a city with a population of 87500 people. We will be present in the “Autori 3D” area. I’m bringing with me the last copies of Zen Garden and a draft copy of Ferrum et Gloria with my new smaller arena. Andrea will run demo versions of OGAM, Samurai Robots Battle Royale, BattleSworn and Non Andare nel Bosco d’Inverno (a roleplay game). Andrea has won the Conan 2013 award as best Italian wargame personality. He will draw his prize in a public ceremony this Thursday.

Praise to Iuppiter Pluvius to have good weather!

If I survive I will post a full report of the event. 😉

This Fall I have a very busy season about conventions, tournament and fairs. I play in tournaments or I run some demonstration games. In 3 months a total of 14 full days of wargames. You must add the necessary days for preparation, journey, rest. And remember that I have two real life jobs too. Well, this is like a third job, but without monetary earnings. This is the calendar:
7-8 Sep – Narnia Fumetto
21 Sep – DBA Rome
13 Oct – DBA Arezzo
31 Oct / 3 Nov – Lucca C&G
10 Nov – DBA Terni
16-17 Nov – GiocaPerugia
29 Nov / 1 Dec – Ludica Roma

Some news about OGAM. Andrea sent to people the pre-ordered books, signed with his autograph and seal. He started a little promotional tour together with 2 tournaments. The first will be played the 16th of November in GiocaPerugia, the latter the 30th of November in Ludica Roma. I have ready lots of miniatures for Greek and Norse armies, but more armies are on arrival as Irish Celts and Egyptians, and I have plans for Sea People and Sumerian armies. At the moment we don’t know how the book is selling, but if we receive the green light from Osprey, new official armies will be developed. I’m thinking to a Roman army too, because there is a difference between Zeus and Iuppiter. However we will support the game. And now is available an official XLS spreadsheet for Of Gods and Mortals to build the armies that are in the book.

In the meantime, a work in progress image from the illustrations inside Ferrum et Gloria. Too many events these days and too much work. So I haven’t the right attention to examine the text after the first editing. I have to add some paragraphs too. I’m working on the second book yet. My father is involved with the building of a small arena and two vessels for gladiatorial naval fights. On these pages you will follow the development of these things.

Post number 15 on Lucca Comics & Games (& Cosplay). The final post. I showed to you some of the highlights about this annual event. I hope you enjoyed them as I enjoyed my days spent in this beautiful fair. Here some photos about the evening of the last day, while the ephemeral structures of the fair were dismantled. The emptiness, some trash on the floor, package almost done, vendors on the way to home. It’s strange to walk in pavilions finding so much space, thinking that distances are briefer than you experienced during the day due to the crowd. Andrea saw for the first time some parts of the fair because he was tied to his stand.

Here the official photographic report of the fair:
1 November
2 November
3 November
4 November

Praise to Macaluso, the pagan fat devoutness. Praise to the resurrected and glorified victim of the hunt, a ritual made by fair staff after the closure. They want to give auspices to the realisation of the next fair with this hunt/passion/death/rebirth ritual.

After the dinner we moved toward Terni. We arrived after the 3 of the night, finding Andrea’s house almost flooded. But this is another story…

Next: Ludica Roma, Pabogel and more! I am so late with the schedule but there are too many things to post.

The translation of the sign is “Up with boobs”. After a lot of posts about Lucca Comics & Games we are almost at the end. And now is “the best of show” moment. In the past I spent words about exhibitionism. No more words, only photos. They are young, they are comic & anime fans, they are gorgeous, they want to show their beauty to the world. Thank you.

These photos are not mine. I’m not a professional photographer and I take photos for this blog only with my mobile phone camera. So, to offer to you a more complete view of what is the cosplay in Lucca, I took some photos from Flickr. My images are intentionally small, view the entire photographic report on:
https://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=lucca+cosplay+2012&m=text#page=1

In Lucca Games there was the Miniature Island. Yes, we were on an island in the sea of Lucca Comics & Games (and Cosplay, remember). We were only an island in Lucca Games pavilion too. Boardgames had a larger space and importance because in Italy we have various publishers on the market. This means that more money is involved in this sector than wargames one. Roleplay games are another sector and it has a respectable market. Live roleplay is an obscure sector to me and it was located in another pavilion. But the videogames market rules upon us all.

To celebrate the release of the new chapter of the Assassin’s Creed saga, the third one, an entire pavilion was dedicated to it. A polite statement to say that Ubisoft bought it. They have got the money to do it.

Around the city you could see some projections of this videogame advertisements on the walls. More revealing was the reenactment event of the Saturday, the simulation of Bunker Hill battle (1775). Almost 200 reenactors and lots of gunpowder were involved. We play wargame battles with miniatures, videogame industries play wargame battles with real men. Money makes a difference.

Another money matter. Videogame stands were huge and customised. I forgot to take a picture of the new Nintendo console and its gorgeous girls stand assistants. Among these game giants I took a photo of a wrestling videogame with the straight edge wrestler guy. Weird. Minor Threat – the band who came up in the eighties with the “straight edge” term – didn’t think about this evolution.

Just Dance is the exhibitionists videogame of the fair. Every year a new edition, every year wild girls try to hypnotise men with their rhythmic movements controlled by a game console with video camera. Some stand assistants lead the game. Here at the end of a day. I saw them in the morning, before the open of the gates, dancing without public: they were so crazy for dance to do it for fun! After 4 days in Lucca I was dead tired. And these girls?

An alternative way to utilise your old CRT computer screen: using it as a stage for miniatures.

In Lucca there is always a little modding section. This one was kitsch for sure, a gun with inside and outside various bad taste things, as Smurfs and model cars. Ugly looking.

Something better. But not so practical with that finger-eat fan. Glamorous but too much “open” to be a computer case.

A great machine! Water cooled case. Clean design, neon lights, blue-black-white colours. What can I say? It is sexy.

Paolo from Switzerland came to Lucca by train. Here while he is wearing his new computer headphones. Saturday night we walk together to a place outside Lucca where were relegated the computer geeks. They organised an all night long videogames lan party. Someone fell asleep on the floor, indeed. Instead Paolo, our hero, killed millions of aliens and took the train the morning after at 7 to the watches country.

Diabolik is an Italian comic anti-hero that now celebrates 50 years life. He is a thief who steal for no real reason: it is his nature. He is even an assassin, a cold man that utilise technology in his jobs. He is a spiritual heir of Fantômas.

A couple of Diabolik exhibitions were in Lucca, one inside the Comics Museum and the other one inside an ancient church! It was weird to see the king of the thieves with his dagger in this context!

This comic was very anti-conformist when it was published in that years. Bigoted people and authorities saw in this character a dangerous menace to moral. In 1967 this cover with a girl who wears only a bikini was sequestrated as a porn publication.

Some years after, some bank coined small gold ingots with Diabolik covers as an economical investment…

After a psychotronic film directed by Bava and a childish tv cartoon series, now is the time for a glamorous video series. Sign of the times, during a long 50 years story.