Lucca Comics & Games 2022

From October 28th to November 1st, I visited a large comics and games convention in Lucca, a city in Tuscany. Lucca has a perfectly preserved Renaissance era city wall running around the historical town, and the Lucca Comics&Games took place mostly inside that wall. The streets were immensely crowded from day one (the number of daily visitors surpassed the town’s population several times over), so I gave up trying to have a look at local landmarks very soon. I feel the town would be great to see on a normal weekend. There are many old churches to explore, and Torre Guinigi - a 45m tall tower with trees growing on top, for example. So, I don’t have much to show and tell in that department, but I did bring a few interesting volumes back with me, and I’ll focus on them.

The reason I was there in the first place was to promote the new Boneforest game released by Hollow Press. Wilhelminiatures and Moritz Krebs were there as well, the former being the game’s world co-creator and miniature sculptor, and the latter illustrator. We were signing books, doing a little drawing/sculpting/painting demo, and a panel. Thanks everyone who came to visit me and say hi!

Boneforest looks really rad, now that I got to see it as a finished product. Big sturdy box, more than thirty resin minis, printed board, item cards, tokens, tiles, dice. The rulebook is hard cover, in full colour, with a bunch of illustrations by Krebs. A hobby guide is included as a separate pamphlet in a pocket at the back of the book. All physical components of the game look well put together, so well done Hollow Press! And it’s in English, thankfully. Now, what is it like to play? It’s basically a two player skirmish where the battlefield is a square tiled board, so no tape measure involved. Each player makes their own list, with the leader (Chosen) being customizable with artefacts and abilites. There are points costs and other limitations for list building, as is common in tabletop games. There are various scenarios included in the book, but overall the gameplay is more competitive than narrative oriented.

Check out the Boneforest Instagram for more pictures of the game, and future news about its imminent online release.

Vermis I by Plastiboo

RPG book with no rules. Inspired by oldschool dungeon crawl games, the visuals are almost exactly like what I imagine when listening to dungeon synth. I had a chance to speak with the author, and this is not a coincidence. Knights, creepy monsters, abandoned places, dark and melancholy atmosphere, and pleasant vintage art style - Vermis I has so many elements I enjoy, so it makes sense I would love it so much. It’s not a game, more like guide through a game. It contains descriptions and artistic depictions of player classes, NPCs, monsters, maps, places and items, all organized as a journey through a bleak world. The book could easily be used as a sourcebook for adventuring with a pen&paper RPG system. Mork Borg comes to mind first, as it’s so close in its themes and atmosphere. It’s cca 130 pages for 15€, absolutely worth picking up if you dig this kind of mood and visuals.

Voodoo Forest by John Blanche

Art book by John Blanche, containing personal drawings created over the past decade. No text; a visual journey through a strange gothic world of Voodoo Forest. If you want to get extra immersed, there’s an ambient Vooodoo Forest soundtrack that released independently earlier this year; a collab of Blanche and music artist Jan Warnke.

I picked up the book with a limited signed print. That version is rather pricey, but the book on its own is not. It will appear at the Hollow Press webstore in a couple weeks.

During the Lucca Comics&Games, there was an exhibition of Blanche’s originals in the Games pavillion - mostly works included in Voodoo Forest, but not exclusively.

De Profundis - Italian Religious Ossuaries

Mors Pretiosa - The Fontanelle Cemetery of Naples

The Eternal Vigil - Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo

As massive as the convention is, vast majority of visitors are from Italy, and most publications found there are in Italian only. Still, I managed to come across something nice in a language I can read. Three books about human remains written by Ivan Cenzi, just the kind of stuff I like for reference and inspiration. The photographs by Carlo Vannini look fantastic in print, crisp and well done. I’ve seen all three of these topics covered in Paul Koudonaris’ The Empire of Death, but it’s great to have extra insight and more beautiful photos. The text is in both Italian and English. You can find them online, there will be a link at bizzarrobazar.com.

Aquitrinus

This is a book I got as a gift from one of our hosts. It contains eerie illustrations by Denis Riva and very short stories by Marco Taddei, of 88 bizzarre Beasts. The text accompanying the images is in Italian, but there is English translation of it all at the end of the book.

Now I’m back home and recovered from the sickness that caught me right at the end of the trip. Returning to normal work schedule. Coming next: the verdigris painting tutorial as voted by my lovely patrons on Patreon.