Lucca report - part 4

It's great to travel around visiting conventions. You get to see new places, learn something about them, get stuffed with thousands of comic books, eating and drinking, promoting your work ...
But for me, the best part is - meeting people.
Meeting again with old (or not so old, but nevertheless dear) friends, meeting for the first time new people, who will become old (or not so old, but nevertheless dear) friends and being introduced to some of the giants of comic art, who often appear as quite nice human beings. In such situations usually I feel like I'm a teenager again, desperately trying not to get all nerdy and geeky. Sometimes I succeed. : )
Anyway, here are some pics. Of course I didn't remember to shoot all of them.

Eddie Campbell, a real gentleman.

Marco Rizzo was one of the stuff at Edizioni BD, but as I've heard he's also a great journalist, writer and translator! I don't speak Italian, so I can't confirm this, but I know for sure he's a great guy ! : )

Can't remember his name, but the Japanese guy was also a guest of Edizioni BD. He doesn't speak English, so I had no comunication with him.

Davide Cooler-then-cool Gianfellice. Yes, it would be nice if all those people in the background would be waiting for his signature, while he's taking his time to pose for me, but they are waiting for that Japanese guy. : )

Legendary Giuseppe Camuncolli - Cammo!

Massimo Carnevale and me getting all nerdy and geeky.

Max Bunker, do I need to introduce him?

Simone Bianchi, a rock star! : )

Great Riccardo Burchielli on the left, Cristiano Cucina on the right. My appologies to the guy in the middle for forgeting his name.

Riccardo, wonderfull Andrea Red Mutti and Giacomo Panda Bevilacqua.

Eduardo Riso, one of the best artists out there and one of the warmest persons I've ever met. I know for sure that my beloved comic festival Mafest next year will be fantastic with him hanging around!

And last but not least - pure genius, man I fell in love with, the one and only Francesco Ausonia Ciampi!
I met lots of other extraordinaire artists. I don't have their pictures, but I have to pay my respects to Francesco Ripoli , Maurizio Rosenzweig , Lee Bermejo and Werther Dell'Edera.
And a special shout out to Adriano Barone!

So, yeah all these photos were taken at the convention during the day. What was happening in the evening and during the night I would not dare to display publicly!
Use your imagination! : )

Lucca report - part 3

Whether you like them or not, cosplayers became unavoidable part of the comic shows.
Some of them took a lot of effort making their costumes ...

... or just spent lots of money and bought them?

Some are funny ...

... some pretty ...

...some weird ...

... some inspired by Manga ...

... or just plain hot!

Scarry ...

...and realistic! : )

If you love cosplayers, or just love to hate them - here's a huge gallery from Lucca festival collected by relentless Ty Buttars. 200 pics, not one cosplayer shot twice!
And some more, general pics here.

Next part - CELEBRITIES !!!

Lucca Report - part 2

Ok, I should've said "in a week or two..." : )
As I've said before, I was in Lucca as a guest of Edizoni BD, promoting Italian edition of Outlaw Nation, so every day I spent some hours signing and sketching at their booth.
The guys from Edizioni are great! Marco Schiavone (on the right) is the Boss. Alberto, his brother on the left.

No, that's not Johnny. That's Andrea. As you can see I had to compete for the customers with books like Bachus or Mark Evanier's "Kirby - King of Comics" for which Marco got the award.

But the worse was Panda. Girls loooove Panda! Girls scream when they see him! Girls throw money on Panda! And their bras!
I love Panda too, though I'm not a girl. You will love it too. Check it out online here.

Giacomo Bevilaqua is the creator of Panda. He'll be shamelessly famous one day. Keep in mind that I was the first one to introduce you to him! : )


Big or small, every Italian publisher have their booths at the festival. I was told that some (smaller) publishers make 60% of their yearly sales in that four days.

Bonelli, never short of visitors, of course.

Coconino Press. Small publisher with some beauuuutiful and wierd books! : )

Coniglio Editore, too.

And Panini Comics.
There are lots of others (like Planeta de Agostini that publishes my Vertigo books in Italy) but most of the time I was able just to take a pictures of people's backs. : (

Next part (in an hour or two) COSPLAYERS!!! : )

Lucca report - part 1

OK, here's the first part of report from Lucca. Starting with general stuff.
Lucca is a beautiful city whose ancient walls around the old center is still preserved. Most of the convention is held there.



During the festival whole city is entangled with comics items, exhibitions and whatnots.




On the squares barrack-like tents are raised with rows of booths inside.

Along them lots of cafes and restaurants.

Except comics lots of other stuff are offered too ...

Kid's stuff ...

... and fashion items.


Sellouts are always welcome. : )

More coming soon, in a day or two.

10 years without Eddy

Today is the 10th anniversary since Eddy left us. I've been remembering him on this blog more then once, so I've got nothing new to say. Just go and dig up once more his books you have, or if you don't, go on the net or to your local store and get everything you can and bask in the light of his talent and passion for comics.

Pusherman

OK, I've been quite diligent lately. Should be even more in weeks (khm, months) to come. I just love working during Christmas time!
No ... really. That's my way of fighting shopping frenzy! >:)
Here's a fresh page ...

At the backseat

It's been awhile since I've posted any real work, huh?
Here's a small panel I kinda like. : )

Giants Of Florence

Obviously, it's gonna take some time to post proper report from Lucca, so here's a set of pics from Florence, in the meantime.
First of all Riccardo Burchielli, il grande cicerone! : )

Then, some other ... : )

Funny Show

Well, another International Funny Comics Show has come and gone. Didn't feel like a festival at all. I guess it's different when it's just around the corner and you don't have to travel to another city or country. Most (and best) of the time we were just hanging around and drinking with buddies! : )

Photo by Bob.

Party never stops

Today 12th International Funny Comics Show starts in Zagreb. It has some beautiful posters done by Zoran Janjetov and Danijel Zezelj.

They'll, of course, be the guests of festival, along with Zeljko Pahek, Zoran Smiljanic and Jean-Pierre Pecau. Also, there'll be a big commemorate exhibition of Edvin Biukovic's original pages.

Post Lucca

I'm back. It was wonderful! At the end of it I caught a bad cold. I guess it's a price you have to pay and it was worth it. I'll have some extensive reports next week.
For now here's one of dozens of sketches I did during the festival.

I have this one with me because I didn't get to meet again with Roberto Zaghi.

Italian job

Today, I'll be leaving to Italy. First to Florence, to visit dear friend Riccardo Burchielli and then we head together to Lucca Comics and Games Festival, held from 29th of October 'till 1st of November. I've been invited there by Edizioni BD, who will publish "Outlaw Nation" in Italy.

I've borrowed fully funcitoning camera from Mrva, so there'll be tons of pics and a proper report when I get back next week.

Zayin and Gimmel

An ad for jeans. : )

Grand theft

Just to stay in the same mood; a reconstruction of the theft of some legal papers that were evidence for some bigger complot. Eddy Biukovic did the layouts which I've embellished and Bob did the lettering. Done for the weekly newspaper Nacional, twelve years ago. In the lower left corner it says that Eddy and me are working for American publisher, which at the time wasn't really true about me, but Bob was - lettering Eddy's "Human Target".

Crime without punishment

Found this today.

Thirteen years ago, as a young struggling artist who would take any job with the slightest promise of being paid, I started working for daily newspaper Vecernji list. They needed illustrations for the articles about crimes (how do you say "Crna kronika" in English?) when they couldn't get the proper photos. It lasted shortly though, because very soon new editorial staff came in and ditched the idea. Can't remember if I got paid.