Comicon is meant to make people discover and appreciate the ability and the good results achieved by some of the most important Italian and international comic-strip writers, contributing in this way to the reduction of the gap between the so-called major arts and comics, which are considered as the 9th form of art. To make the festival's aim even more evident, the Comicon is held in Castel Sant?Elmo, a medieval castle adapted as museum and home to several art exhibitions, and in an art city like Naples, which is becoming an important centre for contemporary art and which, also in virtue of this, attracts many tourists, who take advantage of the travel deals for Naples. For over 10 years (the first edition dates back to 1998), the comics festival has pursued its cultural end concentrating above all on quality and going thoroughly into the matter, through carefully-organised and elaborated exhibitions, but also through a variety of events (debates, screenings, previews, seminars, competitions and exhibitions of young talents? works), which are meant to highlight that comics must be considered as a form of art.

The Comicon's programme is always very rich and interesting: spending a weekend in Naples you will not only have the possibility to visit the festival's stalls and to buy some comics and gadgets, but also to immerse yourself in this fantastic world meeting, for example, your favourite artists: some of the most awaited comic-strip writers are Tanino Liberatore, who has realised the festival's poster and to whom an exhibition will be dedicated, Alan Davis, a universally known artist that has also worked with important magazines like Warrior and 2000 AD, and Massimo Carnevale, who is working for Dylan Dog and to whom, like Liberatore, an exhibition will be dedicated. To make people enter the world of comics, the Comicon hosts every year L'Ufficio scuola Napoli Comicon, a workshop hold by an artist, a cartoonist or a scriptwriter that makes visitors (over 20.000 people a year, many of them staying in a cheap bed and breakfasts of Naples), take part in the event in an active way.

Besides supporting the 9th art, the comics festival is also intended to praise the best of this field, and during the Comicon, indeed, a jury of experts including cartoonists, artists, musicians and professors will award the Attilio Micheluzzi prizes to the best comics, the best cartoonist, the best scriptwriter, the best realistic comic series, the best humorous comic series, the best international comics and so on. Furthermore, people can take part in the Imago competition: participants are asked to realise works about the theme We all live in a yellow submarine let's renew energy!, while the Comicon Cosplay Challenge awards prizes to the best cosplays? costumes and performances.

To make the programme even richer, the Comic(on)off includes a series of events that will take place outside Castel Sant?Elmo, like the exhibition and the meeting with the comic-strip writer Isabel Kreitz at the Goethe- Institut and the exhibition on ?ngel de la Calle at the Instituto Cervantes.

Date: 24th ? 26th April 2009

Dove: Castel Sant?Elmo, Naples, Itay