From 15 to 21 July 2024, Cartoon Club, the International Festival of Animated Cinema, Comics and Games, now in its 40th edition, returns to Rimini, which as always will fill the city with numerous events, exhibitions, workshops, masterclasses, shows and much more.
A week of screenings, animated short film competitions, exhibitions, meetings and events, which will stop in the most beautiful and evocative locations from Rimini, from the historic center to the seaside area: Piazza Malatesta, Corte degli Agostiniani, Arena Francesca da Rimini, the “Gambalunga” Library, the city’s museums, but also Piazzale Fellini, the Palazzo del Turismo and many other places.
This 40th “XL edition” is an important anniversary that places the Rimini event among the longest-running events not only in Italy but also in Europe. Every year Cartoon Club sees many authors and characters as protagonists, but also children and teenagers, historical places of the city and evocative environments, theater of round tables and workshops, comic workshops and concerts, competitions and meetings.
Vittorio Giardino, author of the 2024 manifesto
On the occasion of its 40th anniversary, Cartoon Club asked a recognized master of international comics to create the illustration of the poster: Vittorio Giardino. The great designer decided to portray one of his charming girls intent on reading a comic book while sunbathing on a pedal boat, with the Rimini seafront in the background, where the city’s architectural icons stand majestic: the Ferris wheel and the Grand Hotel.
“The scene conveys a sense of relaxation and fun, with the gentle rocking of the waves accompanying the leisurely reading and evokes a summery and joyful atmosphere, inviting viewers to immerse themselves in the beauty of our Adriatic coast,” says Cartoon Club’s artistic director, Sabrina Zanetti. “We were very happy that Vittorio Giardino accepted our invitation and understood so well the essence of the Festival, its close connection with the territory from which it was born and the desire to create relationships also through comics, cinema and pop culture”.
A solo exhibition will be dedicated to Giardino with a wide selection of original plates that will retrace his luminous career. The exhibition will be set up at the Augeo Art Space gallery (Corso d’Augusto 217) and can be visited with free admission from 15 July to 18 August. The inauguration open to the public, scheduled for the evening of Monday 15 July, will be attended by the Author, who will also participate in some public meetings the following weekend.
As has been a tradition for over ten years, in fact, the Cartoon Club festival from Thursday 18 to Sunday 21 July will also host the 27th edition of Riminicomix. The market exhibition and cosplay convention will animate the Federico Fellini park for four days, thanks also to meetings with authors and show business personalities, concerts and the most famous cosplay contest of the summer, thanks to the collaboration with Epicos, Ochacaffè and Crossover Universo Nerd. The collaboration with the Ludo Labo association is also renewed, which organizes Play – Festival del Gioco, an area dedicated to board and role-playing games.
The author of the manifesto: Vittorio Giardino
Born in Bologna in 1946, Vittorio Giardino abandoned his profession as an electronic engineer at the age of 31 to devote himself entirely to comics. After making his debut in 1978 on some fanzines, in 1979 he published in Il Mago the first story of Sam Pezzo, a hard-boiled private detective, the protagonist of his first book, published shortly afterwards also in France.
In 1981, he created for the magazine Orient Express a more elaborate and complex character, both in terms of drawing and writing: the former French secret service agent Max Fridman, whose first adventure Hungarian Rhapsody was collected in a book the following year and procured its author international consecration with the first important awards, such as the Yellow Kid at Lucca Comics and the Prix Saint-Michel at the Festival de BD in Brussels.
After three more volumes of Sam Pezzo, in 1984 he changed register with Little Ego, an ironically erotic reinterpretation of Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo, while working on The Gateway to the East, Max Fridman’s second adventure, published in 1986.
Since that year, Giardino has created several short stories of the everyday environment (later collected in 3 volumes of Vacanze fatali) and centered on the theme of lies, eros and deception, for newspapers such as Il Messaggero and la Repubblica and current affairs periodicals such as L’Espresso and numerous others, as well as continuous incursions into the field of illustration (for Vogue, Je bouquine, Mosquito, Viaggi and other magazines) and posters (creating lithographs and serigraphs).
In 1991 it was the turn of the new character Jonas Fink, who was born for the magazine Il Grifo. Set in communist Prague from the early 1950s and planned for 3 volumes (the last published in 2018), it gave Giardino the Alph’Art prize at the prestigious Angoulême Festival (1995) and a Harvey Award at San Diego Comic-Con. (1998).
In 1999 he returned to Max Fridman with No pasarán, a story about the Spanish Civil War in 3 volumes, as well as the curious Eva Miranda (2005), a comic soap-opera complete with commercials on a subject by Giovanni Barbieri.
In 2008 Giardino was awarded the “Grand Master of Comics” award at the Lucca Comics & Games festival and in 2010 he published L’avventuriero prudente, fragments of Max Fridman’s biography in the form of an illustrated novel.
His books have been published in France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Poland, Czech Republic, Croatia, Greece, China, Japan, USA, Argentina, Brazil.
Among the most important comic books available in Italy are the recent Rizzoli Lizard editions: Sam Pezzo – A detective, a city, No pasarán, Jonas Fink, The double life of Max Fridman, to which are added the dreamlike Travels, dreams and secrets, the “philological” recoveries of scattered stories, made over forty years Tratti in salvo and the intriguing Il sorriso dell’Eros.
PRESS OFFICE – New Novacom Group Communication
Laura Ravasio 348 9330574 – ravasio@nuovacomunicazione.com
Barbara Bastianelli 335 1386454 – barbara@nuovacomunicazione.com
