| Rapalloonia — International Cartoonists Exhibition | |
| Native Name: | Mostra Internazionale dei Cartoonists di Rapallo |
| Status: | Active |
| Frequency: | Annual |
| Genre: | Comics |
| Venue: | Villa Queirolo |
| Location: | Rapallo |
| Country: | Italy |
| Years Active: | 1972–present |
| Last: | Sept. 30, 2023 to Oct. 8, 2023[1] |
| Founder Name: | Carlo Chendi, Luciano Bottaro, Giorgio Rebuffi |
| Leader Name: | Daniele Busnelli |
| Organizer: | Associazione Culturale Rapalloonia |
The International Cartoonists Exhibition, known familiarly as Rapalloonia, is an annual comics festival held in Rapallo, Liguria, Italy.
Founded in 1972, Rapalloonia is one of the oldest Italian exhibitions devoted to comics. Conceived in order to popularize and increase the importance of work done by comic authors, it was the first exhibition of its kind to display original artwork. It is one of the few comics festivals to have been founded and always directed by professional authors of the field — Carlo Chendi, Luciano Bottaro, and Giorgio Rebuffi. Other collaborators include the restaurateur Fausto Oneto, the artistic director Giovanni Nahmias and the association president Daniele Busnelli Since 1993, the festival has awarded U Giancu's Prize, given to a selection of accomplished comics creators.
Rapalloonia has not only been held in Rapallo, having traveled over the years and collaborated with other comics festivals in other places. The exhibition has twice moved to the site of Lucca Comics & Games and has collaborated with Strisce d'Africa ("Comic Strips of Africa"), dedicated to the European and American cartoons stories set in Africa and to those created by indigenous authors. The show has also collaborated in Venice with Venezia nel Fumetto ("Venice in comics").
For each exhibition, Rapalloonia produces catalogs/monographic publications based on that year's theme. The catalogs are between 70 and 120 pages in length, with large pages, either in color or black-and-white.
Associazione Culturale Rapalloonia is a cultural association which pursues the promotion of comics, cartoons and related art forms, through channels of information and culture. The arms of Rapalloonia! were designed by the musician and actor Luigi Maio. Carlo Chendi, one of the association's founders, became honorary president in 2014, succeeded as president by Davide Caci. Rapalloonia! works with partners to promote comics as a form of expression and means of communication. Some of these non-profit organizations include Comune di Rapallo, Regione Liguria, Provincia di Genova and UNICEF.
The International Cartoonists Exhibition was formed by Carlo Chendi (1933–2021), an Italian cartoonist and Disney Italy screenwriter, and the cartoonists Luciano Bottaro (1931–2006) and Giorgio Rebuffi (1928–2014), who founded Studio Bierreci. It was originally dedicated to two main categories: cartoonists and readers. The aim of the festival was to show how a comic page is born, illuminating the processes by which pictures are drawn by hand before being photographed and downsized, ready for print. The first exhibition, in 1972, showed the work of cartoonists from eight different countries.[2] As with the 1973 show, no particular theme was selected for exhibition.
The 1974 exhibition, however, was given to the subject of women in comics, both as main characters and as authors. This show was an enormous success, drawing attention from the mass media. Special guests Oriana Fallaci and Natalia Aspesi wrote articles in their respective newspapers, and RAI (Italy's national public broadcasting company) reported on the exhibition on national television.
Later shows continued similarly, with various themes being chosen for the exhibition. One was dedicated to Corriere dei Piccoli; two to publishing house (Edizioni Alpe and Edizioni Bianconi), two to Cristoforo Colombo; three to comic schools: the Connecticut School (Mort Walker, Dik Browne and many others) and to Italian schools Strisce di Terra ("Strips of Earth") and Strisce di Mare ("Strips of the Sea"); one to the cartoon heroes of the western world; one to satire; one to the topic of Christmas, made in Milan and Rapallo, connected to fundraising for the charity Francesca Rava N.P.H. that helps children of Haiti and of other Caribbean countries; five dedicated to famous characters: Martin Mystère, Ken Parker, Paperinik, Julia, and Dylan Dog; two to the sea: Nuvole d’acqua salata ("Clouds of saltwater") and Mare a strisce ("Sea of comic strips"); one to Magie e Incantesimi ("Spells and Enchantments"); one to W.I.T.C.H.; and one to the music, with the title Note a fumetti (loosely "music to comics"). Finally, six shows were dedicated to different authors: Luciano Bottaro, Ivo Milazzo, Silver, Ro Marcenaro, and Carl Barks. For the first time, one was dedicated to Idee e Creatività ("ideas and creativity"), to demonstrate that without an idea, story, or screenplay, cartoons cannot exist: the four writers celebrated were Tiziano Sclavi, Giancarlo Berardi, Carlo Chendi, and François Corteggiani.
The 2022 edition celebrated the 50th anniversary of Rapalloonia.[3] The 2023 edition, held 30 September to 8 October 2023, celebrated 30 years of the U Giancu Prize.
Exhibitions over the years have had different themes: below are the most appreciated and remembered editions:
In his career, Bonelli inherited Tex from his father, started Dylan Dog, and created two characters: Zagor and Mister No. Zagor is similar to Tarzan, featuring elements such as the West, mysterious forests, Indians, and wilderness; while Mister No shares Bonelli's traits as an avid traveler and dreamer, a Yankee who said no to war and progress, siding with the weak.
Moreover, November 30 was a special day: Carlo Chendi worked as a professor for a day. The exhibition and the teachers of the Chiavari School of Cartoons collaborated on a challenging and interesting project. In local secondary schools, students were paired with some of Italy's most popular artists to explain how a comics story is created, from its initial idea to publication. For example, Egle Bartolini, the designer of Titti and Silvestro, participated. All these events aimed to continue the tradition in Rapallo, which is considered the capital of cartoons.
The annual awarding of U Giancu's Prize is closely tied to the International Cartoonists Exhibition, taking place on the same day as the exhibition's opening, though in a different location (the U Giancu restaurant). Cartoonists, authors, comedians, editors, actors, and fans gather for a big dinner at U Giancu, which resembles a cartoon museum. Every year, they eat, drink, laugh, draw, and chat late into the night, celebrating the U Giancu Prize.
U Giancu's Prize was created in the autumn of 1992. The name "U Giancu" comes from the restaurant where several people had gathered that night: Fausto Oneto, the owner of the restaurant U Giancu; his wife; Italian comics creator Luciano Bottaro; Bottaro's friend Piero Campana, who had historically assisted at the restaurant; and Claudio Bertieri. During their gathering, Bertieri proposed the idea of celebrating their mutual friend, the cartoonist Antonio Canale, who had died a few months earlier. They contacted Emanuele Luzzati, an Italian animator and illustrator, and asked him to create a small statue. Luzzati created The White Pulcinella, which became the symbol of the prize. (The term "U Giancu" is Genoese dialect for "the white.") To complete the work, Oneto decided to have the statue placed in an elegant olive wooden box.[9]
In the beginning, the prize was given only to a realistic/adventure artist and to a humor artist: the first prize-winners were Aurelio Galleppini and Francesco Tullio Altan. When Chendi returned to Rapallo in 1996, he asked Oneto to associate the Prize with the exhibition, to move the famous cartoonists dinner from Wednesday to Saturday, and to also award a prize to a scriptwriter. As a result, in 1996, the first writer to win the prize was Sergio Bonelli for his stories of Zagor, Mister No, and Tex Willer. As a result, from 1996 to 2014, the U Giancu Prize was awarded annually to three individuals: a comic cartoonist, a writer, and an realistic/adventure cartoonist.
Special U Giancu's Prizes awarded in 2005 (to Umberto Virri), 2006 (to Paul Karasik), 2007 (to Maurizio Mantero and Valentina De Poli), 2008 (to Stefano Goria), 2009 (to Roberto Genovesi), and 2012 (to Alfredo Castelli). In 2015, U Giancu's Prize was revised to reflect four categories: Writer, Humor Artist, Lifetime Achievement, and Promising Italian Talent (the last one known as the PaChenTo Prize).[10]
There were no U Giancu's Prizes awarded in 2019, 2020, or 2021.
The 2023 Rapalloonia festival saw a celebration of 30 years of U Giancu's Prize.[11]
| YEAR | Writer | Realistic/Adventure artist | Humor artist | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | N/A | Francesco Tullio Altan | ||
| 1994 | N/A | Guillermo Mordillo | ||
| 1995 | N/A | Luciano Bottaro | ||
| 1996 | ||||
| 1997 | Paolo Eleuteri Serpieri | Quino | ||
| 1998 | Silver | |||
| 1999 | Giorgio Cavazzano | |||
| 2000 | ||||
| 2001 | Leonardo Ortolani | |||
| 2002 | Corrado Mastantuono | |||
| 2003 | Ro Marcenaro | |||
| 2004 | Sergio Staino | |||
| 2005 | Don Rosa | |||
| 2006 | Enrico Macchiavello | |||
| 2007 | Massimo Bonfatti | |||
| 2008 | Donald Soffritti | |||
| 2009 | ||||
| 2010 | ||||
| 2011 | Bruno Bozzetto | |||
| 2012 | Paolo Bacilieri | |||
| 2013 | Andrea Freccero | |||
| 2014 |
| YEAR | Writer | Humor Artist | Lifetime Achievement | Promising Italian Talent | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Sio | ||||
| 2016 | Luigi Cavenago[12] | Daniele Caluri[13] | Matteo De Longis | ||
| 2017 | Greta Xella | ||||
| 2018 | Stefano Zanchi | ||||
| 2022 | Eli 2B | ||||
| 2023 | Yi Yang |
