International Cartoonists Exhibition

Rapalloonia! is a cultural association which pursues the promotion of comics, cartoons and related art forms, through channels of information and culture. The arms of Rapalloonia! were designed by the musician and actor Luigi Maio. Since 2014, the association's president has been Davide Caci, who became president after Carlo Chendi, one of the association's founders and current honorary president. Rapalloonia! works with partners to promote comics as a form of expression and means of communication. Some of these non-profit organizations include Comune di Rapallo, Regione Liguria, Provincia di Genova and UNICEF.[1]

The exhibition's organization was originally dedicated to two main categories: the cartoonists, and the readers. The aim of the exhibition was to show how a comic page is born, illuminating the processes by which pictures are drawn by hand before being photographed and downsized, ready for print. The first exhibition, in 1972, showed the work of cartoonists from eight different countries. As with the 1973 show, no particular theme was selected for exhibition. However, the 1974 exhibition was given the subject of women in comics, as main characters and as authors. This show was an enormous success, drawing attention from the mass media. Special guests Oriana Fallaci and Natalia Aspesi wrote articles in their respective newspapers, and RAI (Italy's national public broadcasting company) reported on the exhibition on national television.

Following shows have continued similarly, with various themes being chosen for exhibition. One was dedicated to Corriere dei Piccoli; two to publishing house (Edizioni Alpe and Edizioni Bianconi), two to Cristoforo Colombo; three to comic schools: the Connecticut school (Mort Walker, Dik Browne and many others) and to Italian schools Strisce di Terra ("Strips of Earth") and Strisce di Mare ("Strips of the Sea"); one to the cartoon heroes of the western world; one to satire; one to the topic of Christmas, made in Milan and Rapallo, connected to fundraising for the charity Francesca Rava N.P.H. that helps children of Haiti and of other Caribbean countries; five dedicated to famous characters: Martin Mystère, Ken Parker, Paperinik, Julia and Dylan Dog; two to the sea: Nuvole d’acqua salata ("Clouds of saltwater") and Mare a strisce ("Sea of comic strips"); one to Magie e Incantesimi ("Spells and Enchantments"); one to W.I.T.C.H; and one to the music with the title Note a fumetti (loosely "music to comics"). Finally, six shows were dedicated to different authors: Luciano Bottaro, Ivo Milazzo, Silver, Ro Marcenaro and Carl Barks. For the first time, one was dedicated to Idee e Creatività ("ideas and creativity"), to demonstrate that without an idea, story or screenplay, cartoons cannot exist: the four screenwriters are Tiziano Sclavi, Giancarlo Berardi, Carlo Chendi and François Corteggiani.

For every exhibition, the organisation has edited books (between 70–120 pages) with large-size pages, coloured or in black and white. They are catalogues and monographic publications based on the theme chosen for each exhibition. The cartoonists' exhibition has not only been held in Rapallo, having travelled over the years, and collaborated with other cartoonist events hosted in other places. The exhibition has twice moved to the site of Lucca Comics & Games, and has collaborated with Strisce d'Africa ("Comic Strips of Africa"), dedicated to the European and American cartoons stories set in Africa and to those created by indigenous authors. The show has also collaborated in Venice with Venezia nel fumetto ("Venice in comics").

In 1992, in an autumn night, the U giancu's prize was born. The name U giancu comes from the restaurant in which some people were gathered that night: there where the owner of the comic restaurant U giancu, Fausto Oneto, his wife, an Italian stage director Luciano Bottaro, his friend Piero Campana (his historical help at the restaurant) and finally Claudio Bertieri that all of a sudden spoke about the idea to celebrate their common friend, the cartoonist Antonio Canale who died few months before. For this reason they called immediately Emanuele Luzzati, an Italian animator and illustrator, and so they asked him to create a little statue. His invention was The White Pulcinella that became since then the symbol of the price, in fact the term u giancu is in the Genoese dialect and it means the white; Oneto to finish the work decided to put the statue in an elegant box of olive wood made by his carpenter.[10] At the beginning the prize was given only to a realist designer and to a comic designer: the first prizewinners were Aurelio Galleppini and Francesco Tullio Altan. When Chendi returned to Rapallo in 1996, he asked to Oneto for associating the prize with exhibition, for moving the famous dinner of Cartoonist from Wednesday to Saturday and for awarding the prize also to a screenplayer: for this reason in 1996, the first screenplayer who won the prize was Sergio Bonelli with his stories of Zagor, Mister No and Tex. From that moment, every year the U giancu's prize is given to three people: a comic cartoonist, a scriptwriter and a comic adventure cartoonist; this event is strictly related with the famous International Cartoonists exhibition, in fact it develops in the same day of the show opening, but not in the same place: cartoonists, authors, comedians, editors, actors in a big dinner and obviously many fans to have an autograph, wait and celebrate the U giancu's prize in the Oneto's restaurant, that is similar to a cartoon museum in which every year their eat, drink, laugh, draw and tattle until late at night.

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