The main promotional poster for the 20th, anniversary edition of the Herceg Novi Comic Festival (HSF), taking place this year from September 4 to 9, was created by Italian star of the Ninth Art, Anna Lazzarini. She will also be among twelve special guests attending the festival in Herceg Novi, at this much-loved event dedicated to the art of comics.

This year’s edition brings together a truly glamorous line-up of artists and leading figures from the world of comics. The list of more than 150 artists includes Ricardo Secchi, the new writer and editor of the cult comic series *Alan Ford*. From the Apennine Peninsula, we will once again welcome outstanding artists Oscar Scalco, Marcello Mangiantini and Luca Strati, while the French contingent will be led by Jean-Charles Poupard — last year’s special guest who was prevented from coming to Herceg Novi at the last minute — along with Tristoon and Christoph Bataillon.

The Spanish comic scene will also be strongly represented this year, with returning artists Francis Portela and Fernando Dagnino among its leading names. The guest line-up is further rounded out by Brett Hobson, renowned for his work for *Heavy Metal* magazine and the comic *Heart & Sin*.

Those who have practically become part of the HSF family are led by *Game of Thrones* storyboard artist and festival ambassador William Simpson. Joining him are stars of the American publishing scene Esad Ribić, Dalibor Talajić, Stipan Morian and Mirko Čolak, alongside Sarah Burrini, Aleksa Gajić, Jovan Ukropina, Milorad Vicanović Maza, Iztok Sitar, Izar Lunaček, Štef Bartolić, Krešimir Biuk and Tihomir “Tico” Tikulin.

In addition to the outstanding artists, Herceg Novi will also welcome, from September 4 to 9, the director of the Warsaw Comic Festival, Dominika Czapska, as well as Bob and Gina Chapman, owners of Graphitti Designs publishing house.

The Herceg Novi Comic Festival has always based its mission on supporting young artists and, more broadly, children and young people committed to cultural and artistic creation. Accordingly, the anniversary edition will feature a major exhibition dedicated to exceptionally talented yet still unrecognised artists from Montenegro. Presented across an entire floor of the “Josip Bepo Benković” Gallery in Herceg Novi’s Old Town — one of the country’s most important art galleries — the exhibition will showcase around one hundred works on the gallery’s main exhibition stage.

The importance HSF places on young artists is further demonstrated by the fact that they will have the same number of exhibited works, in the same gallery, as the twelve special guests: Filipe Andrade (Portugal); Marc Costiello, Josephina Tomarchio, Katja and Luana Vecchio (Italy); Dani (Greece); Darick Robertson, Terry Moore, Jim Mahfood and Shawn Crystal (USA); and British artists Geof Senior and Barry Kitson.

Together with many other stars arriving from more than 25 countries around the world, all of them will take part in an exceptionally rich six-day programme. In addition to exhibitions, the programme includes daily presentations, workshops for children, masterclasses for advanced artists, as well as the festival’s ever-popular free daily drawing sessions for fans and presentations of the latest developments in the world of the Ninth Art.

Once again this year, the programme will take place at more than 15 locations throughout Herceg Novi and the surrounding Riviera, as well as in Tivat, on Mount Lovćen and on the Luštica Peninsula.

The festival’s daily fifteen-hour programme will also feature concerts by some of the biggest regional pop-rock stars (the concert line-up will be announced in the coming days), joined by local DJs and musicians such as Low Voltage, Đenovićka Mjesna Muzika and the band NeonoeN.

And, of course, the Herceg Novi Comic Festival will once again feature its traditional “Comics in a Bottle” segment. Each special guest will draw one page of a comic, and after sailing through the Bay of Kotor, these original artworks will be placed in glass bottles and released into the sea outside the bay — a message of peace and connection, expressing the power of art and culture to bring people together.

In any case, as every September, Herceg Novi, the Bay of Kotor and Montenegro will once again become a global centre of the Ninth Art. The 20th edition of the Herceg Novi Comic Festival will reaffirm its reputation as a true cultural phenomenon, while the organisers continue to hope that it will finally receive official recognition as an Event of National Importance — a status it has unquestionably deserved for many years.