July 29, 2020 - Regardless of the general situation, the great Italian cartoonist Giorgio Pontrelli has once again confirmed his attendance at the 14th Herceg Novi Strip Festival (HSF), which will be held from September 4 to 9 this year at several locations. Pontrelli works for the most well-known Italian publisher, Sergio Bonelli Editori, as being the author of the series "One Age One Story," the cult comic Dylan Dog, and Stories from Tomorrow by the legendary writer and Dylan's creator, Titian Sclavio. For the American publisher DC comics he works on Batman, for the IDW series JI Zhou, for Boom Studios, CBGB.
"Despite the complicated situation caused by the COVID-19 virus pandemic, preparations for the XIV Herceg Novi Comic Festival are still going on following the measures prescribed by the NKT, and we hope for the best. The introduction of the new EU regime regarding Montenegro required additional communication with special guests. For now, the situation is positive because most of the special guests already announced have stated that they will accept a fourteen-day quarantine upon return to their countries, in order to participate in HSF. This may be one of the biggest compliments that our Strip Festival has received in its thirteen years of existence," say the HSF organizers.
They note that the status of Pontrelli as a special guest was announced in February on the last day of the Comic Weekend dedicated to the 400th issue of Dylan Dog (Dylan Dog). Since that announcement, the phenomenal Pontrelli has excelled in two episodes of Dylan Dog, as part of the famous saga called "666", which included numbers from 401 to 406 and completely changed the universe of everyone's favorite nightmare explorer.
Pontrelli was born in 1977. He is a professor at the International School of Comics in Rome and entered the comic scene by publishing in Heavy Metal magazine. After a successful debut, Pontelli became one of the most sought-after authors. In addition to the aforementioned engagements, he also works for the Italian companies Mondadori, Euro, Lyon, Edizioni BD, and others, and in France for Soleil, Monster Allergy, and Edition Narrative. He has also made a name for himself in the world of film and television, and is a regular contributor to feature films, television series and TV commercials for which he works on visual identity and filming books.
Support for HSF also came from the legend of the Italian comic scene, Enea Riboldi, the illustrator of all the covers of the Dampyr series, celebrating its jubilee this year - twenty years since it appeared in newsstands.
"Riboldi was a surprise guest at last year's HSF when, enchanted by everything he saw, he promised to make a central poster for this year. That poster is now ready to go public, so we exclusively present you the official poster of this year's Herceg Novi Comic Festival. We hope that the days ahead will bring us improvements in every way and an opportunity to look forward to new drawings from the world's biggest stars here in Herceg Novi," conclude the organizers of one of the most important cultural events in our country.
![hsf poster](/images/hsf_poster.jpg)
Enea Riboldi- the official poster of the 14th Herceg Novi Comic Festival