Dungeons & Dragons: A 50-Year Art Retrospective at Lucca Comics & Games 2024

Gaming Staff • July 9, 2024

Role Playing Game Indie Game

From October 26 to November 3, 2024, Lucca Comics & Games will host a special exhibition, 'Gateway to Adventure,' celebrating 50 years of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) artwork at the Chiesa dei Servi in Lucca, Italy. Curated by Jon Peterson and Jessica Lee Patterson, the exhibit will feature over 100 original works from the Koder Collection, the world's most comprehensive collection of D&D and fantasy game art.

The Koder Collection, assembled over more than two decades, aims to conserve and showcase the impact of fantasy art on popular culture. The Lucca exhibition will display original works, memorabilia, rare publications, and iconic objects, tracing the evolution of D&D art and its influence on gaming, literature, and society.

Visitors will explore images from the first versions of the game to the most recent, including works by the 'Four Horsemen' of D&D art: Jeff Easley, Larry Elmore, Clyde Caldwell, and Keith Parkinson. The exhibition will also feature works by Todd Lockwood, Tim Hildebrandt, Brom, Wayne Reynolds, Robh Ruppel, Rick Berry, and many others.

The event will honor D&D creators Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson and name one of Lucca's historic dungeons after them. The city will also pay tribute to Keith Parkinson, who passed away in 2005.

Jon Peterson is a role-playing and wargaming historian, while Jessica Lee Patterson holds a PhD in Art History from UC Berkeley. Both curators have extensive experience in their fields and have contributed to various academic anthologies, film and television projects, and Wizards of the Coast publications.

Lucca Comics & Games is Europe's most important pop culture event, dedicated to comics, games, video games, animated cinema, fantasy fiction, illustration, and TV series. The 2023 edition attracted 315,470 ticketed visitors and 741,428 attendances, not counting over 13,000 accredited professionals.

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