LEO ORTOLANI is the new Magister

COMICON NAPLES XXVI INTERNATIONAL POP CULTURE FESTIVAL APRIL 30 - MAY 3

The 2026 edition's POSTER is designed by AURÉLIEN PREDAL, artistic director of masterpieces from Pixar, Sony Pictures Animation, Dreamworks, and Illumination.

For the first time in Italy, Kazuhiko Torishima, legendary Shonen Jump director and Dragon Ball editor, and Koji Igarashi, video game creator known for Castlevania, are coming to COMICON.
One of the greatest Disney authors of all time, Don Rosa, returns to COMICON after a decade.

From the world of American video games, stars Troy Baker, Austin Wintory, and Andrea Pessino, while from Japan, Castlevania and Metal Gear Solid composer and sound director Tomoyuki Tanaka is coming.

And also, Japanese comic book artists Shintaro Kago and Satoshi Shiki, Marvel authors Alex Maleev and David Mack, and DJ and founder of "Tokyo Dance Music Week" Naz Chris

As part of the extensive program of OFF events spread across the city in collaboration with the City of Naples, this spring sees the arrival of an exhibition dedicated to one of the most influential comic book artists of all time: maestro Robert Crumb.

Online ticket offices for COMICON Napoli 2026 are open today!

The road to COMICON Napoli 2026 begins today. The festival will take place from April 30th to May 3rd at the Mostra d’Oltremare and, as usual, will be accompanied by a long and packed calendar of events spread across the city. It kicks off with the announcement of the Magister, the unveiling of the poster for the 26th edition, the first international guests, the major Robert Crumb exhibition, and the inevitable opening of online ticket offices.

"After celebrating its 25th edition, the festival begins unveiling its 2026 program, starting with several international guests united by a subtle common thread: the courage to redefine creative languages ​​by challenging editorial contexts," says Matteo Stefanelli, Artistic Director of COMICON. "For this reason, I would first like to thank the poster's creator, Aurélien Predal, and Magister Leo Ortolani, for agreeing to join us. And I am particularly happy to welcome Kazuhiko Torishima and Koji Igarashi, true architects of the contemporary imagination, to Italy for the first time."

THE POSTER SIGNED BY AURÉLIEN PREDAL
The COMICON Napoli 2026 poster was designed by Aurélien Predal, one of the most influential and creative figures in the international animation scene. With nearly twenty years of experience as an art director, concept artist, and character designer, and an Annie Award nomination, Predal has collaborated with Pixar, Sony Pictures Animation, DreamWorks, Illumination, and Aardman—helping define the aesthetics of franchises that have captured the hearts of global audiences. His unmistakable touch has shaped the visual identity of groundbreaking works and blockbusters, from the stylized worlds of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse to the emotional power of Inside Out 2, including the iconic Despicable Me saga (1 and 4) and the Hotel Transylvania universe (2 and 3). His artistic influence also extends from the auteur science fiction of Star Wars: Visions Volume 2 to the groundbreaking Ron: A Friend in Disarray, and European productions such as Mune: The Guardian of the Moon and Asterix and the Duel of the Bosses.

"For this year's poster, I imagined COMICON as a colorful jungle: vibrant, lush, and teeming with playful shapes and characters. A world to lose yourself in, where light, color, and graphic forms overlap like foliage. The characters are explorers from distant horizons: curious, messy, and joyful. I wanted the artwork to echo the spirit of the festival: dense, luminous, and full of discovery for anyone who wants to venture out," said Predal.

Predal's work will be the focus of an exhibition of his major projects and a special Masterclass. Furthermore, the artist will be present throughout the festival in the Artists' Hall, where he will be available for signing sessions and commissions from the public.

lic.    

LEO ORTOLANI - MAGISTER COMICON 2026
Leo Ortolani will be the Magister of the 26th edition.
Born in Pisa in 1967, he moved to Parma, the city that adopted him permanently and where he has been drawing and inventing stories ever since. His first meaningful comic book story was titled "The Rapture," a two-page mystery, created when he was seven and unfortunately lost. Among his more recent comic books is "Tapum! The History of Weapons," a monumental work on human war madness published by Feltrinelli Comics, created a few years older and significantly longer than two pages.

In between and at the end, he has created a universe. Most notably, there's the series titled Rat-Man, which ran on newsstands for twenty years with Panini Comics, but also popular science comics for Comics & Science, a successful book on Dinosaurs published by Laterza, and three books for the ASI (Italian Space Agency) titled C'è spazio per tutti, Luna 2069, and Blu Tramonto. Not content with that, he created a Tarot deck and miniseries that have been on newsstands for years, from Star Rats to Nightman, including a spaghetti western, Matana, and successful graphic novels like Cinzia.

Unable to stop drawing and writing, when he's not working on a book, he devotes himself to online film reviews (which he then compiles into books, because, you know, paper...), where no blockbuster is safe from his pencil. He has created a recognizable humorous language, capable of uniting different generations, ranging from pop parody to social satire.
Eclectic by nature, he has performed on stage with Stefano Bollani, written a play for Arturo Brachetti, scripted a film with Lillo, and made TikToks with his daughter Lucy.
Leo Ortolani is also a geologist, but he doesn't often mention it because he doesn't remember crystallography.
Ortolani will be the subject of an exhibition retracing the key stages of his career and will be the focus of talks, meetings, and special initiatives.

FIRST INTERNATIONAL GUESTS
The audience of Italian and international guests will be increasingly numerous and diverse. Among the first international artists at COMICON Napoli 2026, coming to Italy for the first time are Kazuhiko Torishima—the most influential editor in the modern history of manga, the man who discovered and shaped the careers of masters like Akira Toriyama, Masakazu Katsura, and Koji Inada, pushing them beyond their limits to create cultural phenomena like Dr. Slump and Dragon Ball—and Koji “IGA” Igarashi, one of the most influential Japanese video game creators and the father of the “Metroidvania” genre, known for revolutionizing the Castlevania series and creating the Bloodstained series.

After ten years, Don Rosa, one of the most influential and beloved Disney comic book authors worldwide, returns to COMICON Naples. He redefined the Duckburg epic with "The Saga of Scrooge McDuck," an epic constructed by weaving together every biographical reference to the world's richest duck in Carl Barks's work, winner of multiple Harvey and Eisner Awards.

A slew of video game aces will be featured in talks and meetings with the public: actor and voice actor Troy Baker, legendary voice for video games The Last of Us I and II, Death Stranding I and II, Call of Duty, Fortnite, Bioshock, and the recent Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, as well as for the Emmy Award-winning series Love, Death & Robots; Three-time Grammy-nominated and two-time BAFTA-winning composer Austin Wintory, known for the PS3 game Journey and his work on Assassin's Creed Syndicate, The Banner Saga trilogy, ABZU, The Pathless, Aliens: Fireteam Elite, LEGO Fortnite, and the recent Sword of the Sea and Hades II; Andrea Pessino, co-founder of the video game development studio Ready At Dawn®, a collaborator at Blizzard Entertainment, where he created the underlying technologies for several blockbusters in the WarCraft video game series, and winner of numerous industry awards, including PC Magazine's "Graphics Software of the Year"; composer and sound director Tomoyuki Tanaka, an artist who has worked on the soundtracks for iconic video game series such as Castlevania, Metal Gear Solid, and Yakuza, and collaborated with visionaries such as Koji Igarashi and Hideo Kojima.

Also from Japan, comic book artists Shintaro Kago and Satoshi Shiki.
A master of the Ero-Guro grotesque genre and known in the West for his style called "Fashionable Paranoia," Shintaro Kago blends grotesque satire and extreme visual experimentation. He achieved global fame collaborating with Flying Lotus (on the album You’re Dead!) and creating the concepts for the Netflix film In the Tall Grass. Winner of the 2014 Premio Gran Guinigi, he is currently creating the dystopian and visionary series Parasitic City. Known for his action-packed works, Satoshi Shiki has won the hearts of fans worldwide with his most famous works: RIOT, KAMIKAZE, Daphne in the Brilliant Blue, and XBLADE. He achieved widespread recognition as the lead artist for Attack on Titan: Before the Fall and for Dororo and Hyakkimaru: The Legend, a modern adaptation of Osamu Tezuka's classic Dororo.

Comic artists Alex Maleev and David Mack will fly from the United States to Naples. Bulgarian by birth and American by adoption, Alex Maleev has collaborated with Marvel Comics on numerous series, including the celebrated run of Daredevil alongside Brian Michael Bendis. He has illustrated titles such as Moon Knight, Spider-Woman, Scarlet Witch, and Iron Man, as well as projects for DC Comics and Dark Horse. He is also known for his ability to integrate photography and digital textures into his artwork, giving his comics a distinctive and modern visual look.
American writer, artist, director, and designer, David W. Mack has collaborated with US publishing giants (Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Image Comics). He is the creator of the acclaimed New York Times best-selling series KABUKI and the scriptwriter of Daredevil, where he created the character of Echo. Echo was the protagonist of the recent Disney+ miniseries Echo, for which Mack once again collaborated directly with Marvel Studios, creating the original illustrations for the end credits of each episode. Nominated for an Emmy and several Eisner Awards (for Cover with Brian M. Bendis, and for Tori Amos's project Little Earthquakes, The Graphic Album), Mack is also renowned for his film design: in addition to the titles for Captain America: The Winter Soldier (which won the Excellence in Titles Design Award), he has continued to work as a concept artist and cover artist for projects related to the world of Neil Gaiman (American Gods, Norse Mythology) and the Star Wars universe.
With a career that combines music and manga, producer, DJ, and founder of "Tokyo Dance Music Week" Naz Chris will be at COMICON Naples.

Host and co-creator of the popular radio show KosoKoso Broadcasting Station alongside legends such as Torishima and Yuji Horii, Naz Chris is also the voice of J-WAVE, and holds key roles in Geidankyo and the Japan Dance Music & DJ Association. 

COMING SOON: ROBERT CRUMB ON EXHIBITION IN NAPLES!
Among the major events with which the city of Naples is preparing to welcome the new edition of the festival, an upcoming exhibition dedicated to one of the most influential comic book artists of all time: the master Robert Crumb. One of the undisputed founding fathers and a central figure of the American underground comics scene of the 1960s and 1970s, Crumb is an artist whose work continues to offer a satirical and penetrating social commentary on modern society, and an innovator who pioneered autobiographical writing in comics, influencing generations of subsequent artists.
Thanks to the will of Mayor Gaetano Manfredi and the commitment of Contemporary Art Councilor Vincenzo Trione, for the first time Naples will offer one of its most prestigious spaces to a major exhibition dedicated to one of the protagonists of the Ninth Art. The exhibition will open in Naples in spring 2026 and will be the cornerstone of the COMIC(ON)OFF Napoli program, the city's off-festival program that continues to expand with dozens of events spread across all the municipalities of the Campania capital. Further details will be revealed in the coming weeks.COMICON NAPOLI

COMICON Naples - International Pop Culture Festival is among the top five European festivals in terms of size and cultural offering. In 2025, the 25th edition closed with a record 183,000 visitors (+4.6% compared to 2024) and staggering numbers: more than 600 events offered across over 30,000 square meters of indoor space, 50,000 square meters of outdoor space, an 850-seat indoor theater, meeting rooms for 20 to 400 people, stages for live performances, and a 6,000-seat outdoor arena.
It is Italy's leading cultural festival, a point of reference not only for the Campania region but for the entire peninsula (71% of the audience comes from outside Naples), with an extraordinarily positive impact on the entire Naples area: the economic impact—that is, the wealth generated by the festival for the various stakeholders in the supply chains involved, including accommodations, transportation, retail outlets, bars and restaurants, and so on—is constantly growing: €36 million in 2023 and €42 million in 2024.* Thanks to a rich program of content, COMICON Naples annually attracts fans of comics, cinema and TV series, video games, toys, and all aspects of pop culture, with an average age of under 25 (60%), confirming its status as "Naples, the city of young people" and a cultural hub attracting visitors from Italy and abroad.
 

COMICON Naples is an event sponsored by the Campania Region and the Municipality of Naples. COMICON Naples is supported by the Campania Region's General Directorate for Cultural Policies, while COMIC(ON)OFF is supported by the City of Naples' Department of Culture.

As every year, COMICON Naples confirms its eco-friendliness, focusing on the environment through partnerships with national consortia that focus on the recovery and recycling of aluminum packaging (CIAL), plastic (COREPLA), and steel (RICREA).

COMICON is an accessible festival: many of the scheduled events can also be followed in LIS - Sign Language.

TICKETS, SEASON TICKETS, AND THE EXCLUSIVE JUNGLE PASS
Daily admission: €20.00
4-day season ticket: €46.00
Reduced price for children 6-11 years: €10.00 (for all children born between April 29, 2014 and April 29, 2020)
Jungle Pass: €250.00 (more information at napoli.comicon.it)

For more information, people with disabilities and school groups interested in participating can write to accessibilita@comicon.it and ufficioscuola@comicon.it, respectively.

Tickets, season tickets, and the Jungle Pass are on sale at ticket.comicon.it.