International Cartoonists Exhibition

The International Cartoonists Exhibition, known familiarly as Rapalloonia, is an annual comics festival held in Rapallo, Liguria, Italy.

Founded in 1972, Rapalloonia is one of the oldest Italian exhibitions devoted to comics. Conceived in order to popularize and increase the importance of work done by comic authors, it was the first exhibition of its kind to display original artwork. It is one of the few comics festivals to have been founded and always directed by professional authors of the field — Carlo Chendi, Luciano Bottaro, and Giorgio Rebuffi. Other collaborators include the restaurateur Fausto Oneto, the artistic director Giovanni Nahmias and the association president Daniele Busnelli^[2] Since 1993, the festival has awarded U Giancu's Prize, given to a selection of accomplished comics creators.

Rapalloonia has not only been held in Rapallo, having traveled over the years and collaborated with other comics festivals 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").

For each exhibition, Rapalloonia produces catalogs/monographic publications based on that year's theme. The catalogs are between 70 and 120 pages in length, with large pages, either in color or black-and-white.