R: Lucca question

[Luca Boschi]

Hi, Vainio and all!

> Can you tell us more about the Lucca Con in general - what programs &
> exhibitions they had and were there many cartoonists present?

Well, first of all, the convention that yesterday was concluded was NOT the
"normal" Lucca Comics.
The Ente Max M. Garnier, owner of the Lucca logo and of all the things
connected with it, didn't organize it, because the Mayor of Lucca, dr.
Pietro Fazzi, decided that he wished to "control" the most important
convention of the Lucca area. In different ways, avoiding to respect the
laws of the Ente Garnier, he gave the role of coordinating a DIFFERENT BUT
SIMILAR exhibition and convention (Lucca Comics&Games 2000) to another guy,
Renato Genovese, who accepted, and to the (former?) secretary of Garnier,
Alessandra Palamidesi.
It was a mess, like I always said and wrote.
It's really a long story to describe HOW all this could happen. I was
fighting for some months to avoid this very, very bad situation, and with me
some Garnier's members, but, at least, the Mayor's wish was (quite)
fulfilled by Genovese and his staff, made even by some of our (former)
collaborators.

With a very bad mood among the former Lucca staff, with a lot of money we
still wait to be paid, and withe the promise to Genovese to get 40 millions
lire by the organizing of this year's Con. Incidentally, we still wait the
few money we should have get from the "true" Lucca Con and we didn't see a
coin from 1998 or even before...
The Lucca Common didn't give usa a penny for the last 1999 Lucca Comics
edition. We got all the money necessary to organize it from the stand's
landing and from the tickets.

The "general" public didn't know what happened, and in the two first days of
the convention they come to visit this "Lucca Con", that was very crowded.
Some of the publishers were there (not all: not Diabolik, Disney, Play
Press, Star Comics, Mare Nero and so on). And there was a very, very small
number of cartoonists, story men and artists. Very few hosts from foreign
countries, contacted moer by some publishers than by the "organization",
coming from Argentina (Robin Wood, Gomez, Juan Zanotto, Horacio Altuna) and
from Japan (two or three animators contacted by Yamato). Then, there were
some Bonelli's artists and story men, hosted by Bonelli Publisher.
Very, very few meetings with people, no international educational panels
(like in the past) and, most of all, NOT ANY AWARDS, becaouse noone was able
to organize a commitee ar/and an international jury.

So, even if the local press wrote a lot of "good" reviews on the Con (but
some of 'em, written by the "so called" columnist Massimo Mannari, in the
"Il Tirreno" newspaper, were really partial, they 'd to be considered "the
Con's voice", and so mostly fake and untrue), in the two following day the
Fair was empty. The same official sources were compelled to admit that there
were 2.000 visitors a day (but some retailers told me that there were maybe
few hundreds).
So, no Disney artists from Italy or/and from foreign countries, no comic
book and comic strips Masters like last years. Very few columnists and only
local TVs involved.
A very, very bad page in the italian comicdom page. Not totally resolved,
because now some courts shall decide about what happened.

Ciao! We hope something better (and the respect of the laws) in the future,
but... with this Mayor I think it shall be really difficolt.

Luca