Comics & Games was born 60 years ago today, and to mark the date, the full programme for its Diamond Anniversary has been unveiled. The festival runs from Wednesday 28 October to Sunday 1 November across the streets, squares and historic buildings of Lucca. This year’s theme is LEGACY: a look back over six decades of history and a passing of the baton – or rather, the pencil – to new generations. The official poster is by international comics master Claudio Castellini, celebrated with the exhibition Tocchi da Maestro (Masterstrokes) at Fondazione Banca del Monte di Lucca.
Claudio Castellini’s poster is the first meta-poster in the festival’s history, bringing together characters from historic Lucca posters – including Zerocalcare’s ‘Lu’, Don Maitz’s ‘Sandokan’ and Ciruelo’s dragon – around a giant superhero holding a little girl who raises her pencil. The girl to whom Castellini passes the pencil is Louise Stéphant, winner of the Petit Fauve at Angoulême, who has created the poster’s variant cover, to be unveiled on opening day at Teatro del Giglio Giacomo Puccini. It is a handover between generations that sums up the Legacy spirit and the festival’s community of visitAuthors.
Born in Italy in 1966, Lucca Comics & Games has become an international example of Made in Italy excellence, guided by the ideal of ‘united in diversity’ – the motto of the European Union, which supports this edition together with the European Parliament. This year’s festival will also feature more stands and pavilions than ever before.
60 YEARS OF HISTORY. THE LEGACY OF LUCCA COMICS & GAMES 2026
Celebrations for 60 years of history include the Legacy exhibition at Palazzo Guinigi, the new Luke & Clea video game and a RAI documentary made for the anniversary.
THE LEGACY EXHIBITION AT PALAZZO GUINIGI
On the second floor of Palazzo Guinigi, “Lucca Legacy: a comics and games story” is a Lucca Crea project in partnership with POLI.design at Politecnico di Milano, with scientific supervision from DISEGS at the “G. d’Annunzio” University of Chieti-Pescara, the participation of the Fondo Bono and cultural partner Rai Teche.
Conceived as a living space rather than an archive, the exhibition lets visitors interact and leave their own mark, just as in legacy games. Guided by Luke and Clea, characters created by Sergio Algozzino, visitors move through nine environments – from Cover Stories and the Time Machine of historic posters to the Hall of Games, where they can sit down and play – ending at The Vault, where anyone can deposit a treasured Lucca memento. The floor also previews the future Lucca Comics Museum, planned for the former Manifattura Tabacchi.
LUKE & CLEA – A QUEST FOR LEGACY
Luke & Clea – A Quest for Legacy is a 16-bit pixel game inspired by the 1980s, available free from today on iOS and Android. Siblings Luke and Clea are sucked into a pixel-art Lucca and must cross six levels set in the festival’s landmark locations, freeing historic mascots and recovering fragments of the shattered Diamond. Festival guests such as Licia Troisi, Cristina Scabbia and Karl Kopinski appear as NPCs, and the final level unlocks on opening day, 28 October.
RAI DOCUMENTARY: “60 VOLTE LUCCA”
Rai Cultura marks the anniversary with 60 Volte Lucca: L’avventura storia di Lucca Comics & Games, written and directed by Enrico Platania. Drawing on the Rai Teche archives, it traces the event’s journey from the 1966 “Salone Internazionale dei Comics” to today’s festival of comics, animation, illustration and games. It airs on Rai5 on the eve of the festival and will then be available on RaiPlay.