Last updated August 2026. COMICON is the largest comics and pop-culture festival in southern Italy — the counterpart to Lucca Comics & Games in the north, and unlike most events on this site it is a ticketed, gated, indoor-and-outdoor convention rather than a street festival. The 26th edition ran 30 April to 3 May 2026 at the Mostra d'Oltremare, with more than 480 guests and 650 scheduled events across four days.
Dates and Hours
The 26th edition ran Thursday 30 April to Sunday 3 May 2026, open to the public 10:00–19:00 each day. Later editions are not yet published; the recurrence pattern points to a four-day run spanning the turn of April into May, which is expected rather than confirmed. Check the festival's own site for the current edition.
That date placement is not incidental. 1 May is a national public holiday in Italy and 25 April is Liberation Day, so the festival deliberately sits inside a stretch when Italians are already travelling — which is good for atmosphere and bad for accommodation.
A Festival With More Than 25 Years Behind It
COMICON was founded in 1998, which makes it one of Europe's longest-running comics and pop-culture festivals rather than a recent arrival. The earliest editions were held at Castel Sant'Elmo, the hilltop fortress overlooking the city, and stayed there until growing attendance forced a move to the larger Mostra d'Oltremare in 2010 — the venue it has used every year since.
The pandemic is the one break in that run: COMICON was cancelled outright in 2020 and 2021, replaced by a scaled-back online-and-offline programme called Comicon Extra, before the full festival returned to the Mostra d'Oltremare in 2022. Since 2023 the organisers have also run a second, smaller edition in Bergamo, generally in June — a separate event on a separate ticket, not an extension of the Naples dates.
The Venue Is Half the Experience
The Mostra d'Oltremare is a large 1940s exhibition complex in the Fuorigrotta district, west of the centre — pavilions set among gardens, fountains and open avenues rather than a single indoor hall. That layout is why COMICON feels different from a convention held in one shed: a good part of the festival happens outdoors between pavilions, and in late April Naples has the weather for it.
It also means the site is large and you will walk a lot. Pavilions are themed and spread out, and moving between a signing in one and a panel in another is a real journey rather than a corridor.
Fuorigrotta is a 20-minute Metro ride from the historic centre, not a walk. Metro Line 2 serves Campi Flegrei and Line 6 runs to Mostra; both put you close. On peak days the trains and the approach fill, so travel outside the 10:00 opening surge if you can.
What Happens Inside the Pavilions
COMICON is not only autograph queues. Exhibitors span comics publishers and retailers, video game and esports companies, toy and collectible dealers, and anime and manga distributors, spread across themed pavilions rather than one trade-show floor. A dedicated Small Press Area gives space to self-published and independent comics, and the Asian Village pavilion is built entirely around anime, manga and wider Asian pop culture.
Two competitions run through the weekend. The COMICON/Micheluzzi Award, named after the Italian comics artist Attilio Micheluzzi, is the festival's own prize for contemporary comics and publishers. The Cosplay Challenge fills an outdoor stage at the Mostra d'Oltremare, and its winner has gone on to represent Italy at the EuroCosplay Championship. A separate drawing contest, Imago, is aimed specifically at primary and secondary school students.
Not everything happens inside the gates. A programme called COMIC(ON)OFF extends the festival into the city itself, with exhibitions and events at museums, cultural institutes and galleries around Naples in the days before and after the main dates — worth checking if you are in the city outside the four ticketed days.
The Guest List
COMICON's guest list is one of the largest of any comics festival in Europe, and it has drawn major international names since the 1990s — Milo Manara, Frank Miller, Jim Lee and David Lloyd among the comics artists who have attended over the festival's history, alongside leading Italian authors such as Leo Ortolani. Scale is part of the draw: the 2026 edition programmed more than 480 guests across four days.
The lineup mixes comics with games, film and television rather than staying comics-only. The confirmed 2026 roster included comics figures Don Rosa, David Mack and Sara Pichelli, video game composer Austin Wintory, and film and TV actors such as Crystal Reed and John C. McGinley — a reminder that COMICON's pop-culture billing is not just comics with an anime pavilion attached.
Guest lists change in the run-up to any edition, and some names only attend on specific days rather than the full four. Treat a published lineup as provisional until the festival's own site confirms who is attending and when, and check the daily schedule once you arrive rather than planning a day around a name announced months earlier.
Tickets
COMICON sells to the general public — it is not trade-gated like Milan's Salone del Mobile or Vinitaly. Day tickets and multi-day passes both exist, sold online in advance through the festival, and the ticket office opens well ahead of the event.
| Day | Crowd | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Thursday | Lightest | Signings and panels with short queues |
| Friday | Moderate | Full programme, manageable density |
| Saturday | Heaviest by a wide margin | Atmosphere and cosplay; expect long waits |
| Sunday | Busy but easing | A compromise if the weekend is your only option |
Two things to plan for. Buying in advance is meaningfully cheaper and faster than at the gate, and Saturday is the busiest day by a wide margin — if your dates are flexible, Thursday and Friday give you the same festival with materially shorter queues at signings and panels. Prices and the on-sale date change between editions, so take them from the official site rather than from last year's coverage.
Where to Stay
Do not stay in Fuorigrotta unless you specifically want to. It is a residential and stadium district with little going for it in the evening, and the festival closes at 19:00 — you want to be somewhere worth being afterwards.
The historic centre, Chiaia or the Vomero all put you 20–30 minutes from the site by Metro and in a city genuinely worth walking at night. Naples is large enough that COMICON does not distort its accommodation market the way Vinitaly distorts Verona's — but the late-April holiday cluster does, so book earlier than the festival alone would suggest.
What Else Is On That Week
Late April into early May is the densest stretch of the Neapolitan year, and COMICON is only part of it. Maggio dei Monumenti opens at the start of May, throwing open palaces, cloisters and churches across the city with more than two hundred mostly free events. The first Saturday of May is also one of the three San Gennaro liquefaction dates.
A trip built around the turn of the month can therefore take in a major convention, the city's biggest cultural programme and its most significant religious ceremony inside a week — which is a stronger case for early-May Naples than COMICON alone makes. The Naples festival calendar sets out the year.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is COMICON Napoli?
Four days spanning late April into early May. The 26th edition ran 30 April to 3 May 2026, open 10:00–19:00 daily. Later editions are expected in a similar window, computed from the recurrence pattern rather than confirmed — check the festival's site for current dates.
Where is COMICON held?
At the Mostra d'Oltremare in Fuorigrotta, west of central Naples — a large 1940s exhibition complex of pavilions set among gardens and open avenues, so a good part of the festival happens outdoors. Metro Line 2 to Campi Flegrei or Line 6 to Mostra, about 20 minutes from the centre.
Can anyone buy COMICON tickets?
Yes — it is a public festival, not trade-gated. Day tickets and multi-day passes are sold online in advance through the festival, which is cheaper and faster than buying at the gate. Saturday is by far the busiest day; Thursday and Friday give the same event with shorter queues.
How big is COMICON?
The 2026 edition programmed more than 650 events with over 480 guests across four days — the largest comics and pop-culture festival in southern Italy.
Where should you stay for COMICON?
Not Fuorigrotta, which is residential and quiet once the festival closes at 19:00. The historic centre, Chiaia or the Vomero are all 20–30 minutes away by Metro and far better in the evening. Book early — the late-April public holidays tighten accommodation more than the festival itself does.
