Lucca Comics and Games 2025 — Two Parts Italy

After a couple of weeks away from Lucca, I arrived back just in time for the 2025 edition of Lucca Comics and Games (Comics for short). The event is massive – Lucca’s narrow medieval streets, and every piazza, are packed full of people. It is a little hard to imagine what 100,000 people look like when shoehorned into a small medieval city. Trust me, it is wall to wall crowds. The thought of hurrying to get anywhere is laughable. Going with the flow is the only choice. While I do grumble (often and loudly) about the crowds, somehow I find myself darting through them to take photographs.

This year’s theme was French Kiss, a nod to the influence of France in art, pop culture, and comics. The organizers further described the theme as Liberty, Creativity, and Diversity. All three of those values were on display, especially in the fantastic costumes. The French theme showed up in various ways, berets and all.

I missed one photo opportunity that passed by too quickly – men in black shirts that read “Louvre Security”. They carried bags of jewels - a last minute but creative and theme-appropriate costume.

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The first two days of the event were very rainy, but days 3 - 5 saw better weather. Still overcast, but dry and 60+ degrees, it was perfect Comics weather and a nice Halloween treat. It also meant that the costumes came out from under jackets and raincoats, filling the streets with all sorts of characters.

It was entertaining wandering through Lucca taking photos. The costumes ranged from simple to elaborate, from scary to fantastical, from prim and proper to sexy. There were super heroes and princesses, monsters and angels, gaming figures and fairytale characters, steampunk cosplayers (my personal favorite), knights and ladies, cowgirls, ninjas, and men in drag. There were even a few creatures that I could not begin to identify, though many had the same pointy ears.