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From May 1st to 4th, 2025, the city of Naples transformed into the epicenter of international pop culture as the XXV edition of COMICON Napoli took place at the iconic Mostra d’Oltremare. This milestone edition marked 25 years of one of the world’s most important cross-media festivals, bringing together comics, animation, video games, cinema, music, and more in an unforgettable four-day celebration.

This year's edition welcomed over 450 guests from three continents, 400+ exhibitors, and hosted more than 600 scheduled events, reaffirming COMICON's reputation as a global hub for fans and industry professionals. Naples itself joined the celebration with an expanded COMICON OFF program featuring exhibitions, talks, and pop culture activations throughout the city. To honor the festival's 25th anniversary, Jamie Hewlett—celebrated British artist and co-creator of Gorillaz—designed the official poster, capturing the playful and rebellious spirit that defines COMICON.

The festival followed the resounding success of the 2024 edition, which drew 175,000 visitors, and aimed to set new records with its densely packed agenda of panels, premieres, concerts, workshops, and live events spread across thematic areas such as Fumetto, Videogame, Cinema & TV Series, Gioco, Asian, Young, LARP (Neverland), Urban, PizzaCon, and more.

Renowned Italian illustrator Tanino Liberatore was honored as the Magister of COMICON 2025, with a dedicated retrospective exhibition, DRAWING POWER. The Art of Liberatore. He also curated a spotlight exhibition on Massimo Carnevale, one of Italy's most powerful realist comic artists. Liberatore's presence was central across panels and special events throughout the festival.

COMICON opened in grand style with Max Pezzali, who presented his new comic book from the Max Forever series. Written and illustrated by Roberto Recchioni, the volume reflects stories and characters from Pezzali’s iconic songs. Fans had the opportunity to attend a talk and a signing session on May 1st.

A Special Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Altan, creator of the beloved red-spotted dog La Pimpa, who celebrated her 50th birthday this year. Altan participated in an emotional generational dialogue with Zerocalcare, one of Italy’s leading contemporary comic voices.
Panini Comics released a limited Topolino issue (#3623) with a Naples-themed variant cover by Blasco Pisapia and Mario Perrotta, available exclusively during the festival with a distinctive "sand effect" background.
Highlights from the world of screen entertainment included:The Jackal’s preview of Pesci Piccoli Season 2, The premiere of the animated series Il Baracchino, featuring Lillo and Frank Matano. A rare Italian appearance by Yuji Horii, legendary creator of Dragon Quest. Horror and supernatural film previews: Presence by Steven Soderbergh, Werewolves starring Frank Grillo, and the Italian thriller Mani Nude with Giordana Marengo
The Festival offered a special tribute to  David Lynch: Cinema, Dream, and Reality with Asia Argento, Igort, and Paola Barbato, accompanied by a live drawing by Emmy-nominated Laura Pérez Granel.

Italy’s top comic artists were out in force, including Zerocalcare, Igort, Davide Toffolo, Sio, Fumettibrutti, Zuzu, Daniele Kong, Luca Enoch, Leo Ortolani, Simone Bianchi, Alessandro Cappuccio, Lorenzo Pastrovicchio, Mirka Andolfo, Simone Di Meo, Quasirosso, Labadessa, Teresa Radice, and more.