Lucca rewards comics that push storytelling’s boundaries
Olivier Schrauwen’s Sunday is comic of the year, while Leo Ortolani receives the author award for Tapum.
The 2026 Lucca Comics & Games Awards place two very different approaches to visual storytelling at their centre. Olivier Schrauwen’s Sunday, published in Italy by Coconino Press in a translation by Olga Amagliani and Claudia Cozzi, won the Yellow Kid for comic of the year. Leo Ortolani received the author of the year prize for Tapum, published by Feltrinelli Comics. The jury considered thirty-three works before the ceremony at Lucca’s Teatro del Giglio. Career honours went to Go Nagai and Anna Brandoli. The results bring formal experimentation, popular storytelling and professional memory together, giving bookshops and readers a map of contemporary comics that extends well beyond a sales ranking and reflects the breadth of the medium today.