Cinema from a cartoon perspective.
ShorTS IFF announces the ShorTS Comics Marathon jury.
Awards ceremony for best works scheduled for Thursday 4 July.
Cartoonists Lucia Biagi, Barbara Canepa, Fabio Pia Mancini, Lorenzo Palloni, and selector and programmer Luca Luisa are the members of the jury of the eighth ShorTS Comics Marathon, the comics contest organised by the ShorTS International Film Festival – this year in collaboration with the Trieste Science+Fiction Festival – that brings together aspiring cartoonists, graphic designers and illustrators to reinterpret some famous film titles through the art of comics.
The five jurors, whose profiles are totally heterogeneous and embrace all angles of the participants, will have the task of selecting the works most worthy of publication on paper, and will be involved in sessions of virtual interaction with the contestants, to talk about the progress of the works, give advice and reveal tricks of the trade.
In addition, this year the marathon returns onsite: The awards ceremony for the best entries is scheduled for Thursday 4 July in Trieste.
Lucia Biagi
Born in Pisa in 1980, she currently lives in Turin, where she runs the comics shop Belleville Comics. She has worked as an illustrator with various publishers including Mondadori and Feltrinelli Kids, as a cartoonist with many independent organisations and has published Pets (Kappa edizioni), Japanize me (Zandegù), Punto di fuga (Diabolo edizioni in Italy and Éditions çà et la in France) and Misdirection (Eris edizioni in Italy and Éditions çà et la in France). In 2022 she published in the anthology Fai rumore (Il castoro) and La Revue Dessinée Italia vol 2 and in 2023 her latest graphic novel The Cyan’s Anthem (Eris edizioni in Italy and Éditions çà et la in France).
Barbara Canepa
From Genoa, is the brains behind the W.I.T.C.H. (Walt Disney Company) phenomenon, creating with Alessandro Barbucci its concept, characters, background and graphic style. Widespread throughout the world and winner of numerous awards, W.I.T.C.H. has sold more than 80 million copies worldwide. In 1997, again with Barbucci, she created the science fiction saga Sky Doll, for the French Éditions Soleil, later published in more than 28 countries, and in 2003 she was the graphic designer of the series Monster Allergy, for Buena Vista (Disney), distributed in more than 32 countries. Since 2008, she has been the editorial director of two prestigious series: Métamorphose and Venusdea for Éditions Soleil (Group Delcourt), with currently more than 100 titles published.
In 2022, she created with Clotilde Vu and Jean-Luc Istin Les Éditions Oxymore, for which she edits the leporello Métamorphose, written in a partnership with Benjamin Lacombe and illustrated by the contemporary artist Marco Mazzoni. Also in the same year, she created the concept and universe of a new children’s series Au chant des grenouilles, for a total of 12 issues, which is to be drawn by 12 international artists. The first volume came out in February in France and will be published in Italy this autumn by Tunué Edizioni.
Fabio Pia Mancini
Born in the province of Rome in 1990, he studied in order to work in animation and from 2012 to 2014 he was props designer for Musicartoon. He later decided to change area and devote himself full time to illustration. Since then he has collaborated with many publishing houses: Mondadori (Black Beauty, La signora Frisby and il segreto di NIHM), DeAgostini (Alice in Wonderland, The Jungle Book, Greek Myths), Giunti, Panini, Titan Press, Clementoni and Ravensburger, among others.
He has participated as cartoonist in the anthologies of the independent comics label Attaccapanni Press Grimorio II (2018) and Melagrana (2017). Since 2021 he has illustrated the Che Mito! series published by Gallucci, working for them on thirteen volumes. In 2023 he published Unboxing Pandora, his first long comic book, for Bao Publishing.
Lorenzo Palloni
One of the founders of the Mammaiuto collective and the magazine La Revue Dessinée Italia. He has won Best Screenwriter awards, including the Attilio Micheluzzi Award at the last Naples COMICON, and teaches screenwriting and storytelling. His latest publications include Fortezza Volante (Minimum Fax), Ossario (Feltrinelli), L’Ignobile Shermann and Burn Baby Burn (Saldapress). He is working on Dylan Dog and comics for the French market.
Luca Luisa
Learned to read from the pages of Conan the Barbarian by Roy Thomas and John Buscema and gained an education from the novels of Chandler, Hammet and Spillane. EC Comics taught him the cult of beauty and Lovecraft that of wonder. Since 2006, among other things, he has curated the selection and programming of short films for the Trieste Science+Fiction Festival. He watches cartoons.
