As the day began and the sun rose over the walled city of Lucca in Tuscany, the streets were already heaving with activity. Queues had already started forming around the multitude of exhibitions and displays scattered throughout the city. If someone is planning to come to LC&G, they need to bring some comfortable trainers for plenty of walking. The city is small enough that you can walk from one end to the other in 30 mins easily however with the countless alleys and streets, all styled in a similar fashion, it’s not hard getting lost. Thank heavens for Google Maps.
Our first talk of the day began with a press conference with John Romita Jr., comic book artist extraordinaire whose work with Marvel expanded over forty years. The world of Marvel today has been shaped by the Romita family more or less since the beginning, with his father John Romita Sr. being of the biggest names in Marvel artwork history.
In his talk, John was keen to express how the balance of a character between the real and the fantastical was key for success and had to be steeped in reality and primarily taken from first hand experiences. “Super-man was perfect – not real! Spider-Man was a kid from queens, he got beat up, his costume shrunk in the laundry, his aunt would scold him, the way we were as children.
He paraphrased Stan Lee “If you balance the real and the fantasy just right, you have a spectacular story, and that’s what Spider-Man is.
One of my dear friends, was a boxer, very handsome man but his face became that of a boxer, that to me was The Punisher because it was real. Too many fights, broken nose, cheeks. He got beat up, his face suffered. I wanted him (my version of The Punisher) to be real.
Moving from the Comics aspects of Lucca, the press team were escorted to the Piazza San Romano, where Riot Games had occupied a huge building within the square. Fan of the games developers will adore their space at Lucca. Inside the square of their Palazzo, fans of both League of Legends and Valorant were able to enjoy interactive experiences, games and of course, the chance to buy exclusive merchandise. Riot Games also offer serious gamers the opportunity to see if they have what it takes to go pro in their Open Tournaments.
Leaving Riot Games HQ, we were escorted to the Esports Cathedral. We were shocked to discover a 700-year-old church, fully equipped for Esports tournaments. Although surprised that the locals were not up in arms about a building being used for a such a purpose, however the Cathedral is no longer consecrated and had been used as an auditorium for the last 18 years following its restoration. Throughout the convention, huge tournaments dedicated to League of Legends, Pokémon, Valorant and Fortnite will all take place in a most surreal but incredibly beautiful environment.
As evening began, Lucca celebrated the launch of its ‘CommunityVerse’, a new feature to the convention which promises to bring together new technologies such as Metaverse, NFT, SBT, blockchain, web3, AI, generative art and crypto into Lucca’s fold. The new CommunityVerse celebration launched last night including a DJ set from Catherine Poulain.
The day concluded with the truly special concert of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Tales from the Continent, conducted by the brilliant and award-winning conductor/composer Eimear Noone.
Alongside The Witcher, Noone is responsible for music across Video Games franchises such as Zelda, World of Warcraft among many others. Joining her on stage was the Orchestra Giovanile Italiana (the Italian Youth Orchestra) and the Polish folk band, Percival Schuttenbach. Together they provided a wonderful collaboration, with Percival’s traditional Polish music perfectly adding to the orchestra’s composition and allowing the audiences to be transported back into the game. Following an hour-long concert, audiences were then treated to back-to-back from Puccini, famously from Lucca and then excerpts from The Witcher – Heart of Stone. The finale saw Noone leave the stage to be joined by none other that the composer of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Polish music hero, Marcin Przybyłowicz, who concluded proceedings. A truly special night and a perfect way to celebrate CD Projekt Red’s 20th Anniversary.
With day one wrapped up, it’ll be interesting to see what Day Two brings.
