With an unprecedented live stream on Lucca Comics & Games‘ Instagram profile today from the headquarters on Corso Garibaldi, the community event and the Star Comics publishing house jointly announced the participation of an exceptional guest: mangaka Hiro Mashima will be in Italy for the first time, in Lucca, from 1 to 4 November, to meet fans during a series of appointments and signings.

The publisher unveiled a host of new publications ahead of the Master’s visit to Italy.

Rave – The Groove Adventure, Mashima’s debut manga published by Star Comics starting in April 2004, will be available in a new edition, with the first issue also distributed in a limited-run variant-cover edition. Variant covers are also planned for the first volumes of Hiro Mashima’s most famous series, Fairy Tail, and his latest work, Edens Zero. Star Comics will also offer an Edens Zero Starter Pack containing volumes 1 through 4, perfect for newcomers to this compelling sci-fi epic. Last but not least, Star Comics will publish the self-contained volume Mashima Hero’s, a crackling crossover that unites the best loved characters from his three main series – Rave, Fairy Tail and Edens Zero – in a single adventure.

A look at the career of sensei Hiro Mashima

Born in Nagano Prefecture on 3 May 1977, in 1998 Hiro Mashima won the 60th edition of the prize for first-time authors of Weekly Shonen Magazine, the historic and prestigious magazine of the publisher Kodansha, with Magician. He then made his debut in FRESH Magazine with the self-contained short story Bad Boys Song. At age 21 he embarked on his first serialization with Rave – The Groove Adventure, published in Weekly Shonen Magazine from 1998 to 2005. The serial took Mashima into the big time: Rave became a huge success, inspiring an anime, video games and merchandise, and raising the author’s notoriety and reputation.

Mashima achieved the ultimate consecration with his second serialization, Fairy Tail, also produced for Weekly Shonen Magazine from 2006 to 2017. Fairy Tail became one of the magazine’s all-time best-sellers and one of the most iconic manga of the 2000s, surpassing total worldwide sales of 72 million. During this period the author completed his evolutionary path, establishing a highly distinctive soft pop graphic style with an immediate impact. He is currently at work on the sci-fi battle-action Edens Zero, which began in 2018 and is now in its 26th volume. Successful anime and a variety of transmedia products have been derived from all his major works.

Hiro Mashima is also active in video game design and has produced a manga miniseries based on the hugely popular Monster Hunter franchise, Monster Hunter Orage. Recently the publisher Kodansha announced that the Master would soon begin his fourth serialization, simultaneously with Edens Zero: Dead Rock, for Monthly Shonen Magazine.

Fairy Tail was named best shonen manga at the 2009 Kodansha Manga Awards. Mashima also received the International Spotlight Award at the 2017 Harvey Awards, and the Fauve Special Award at the 2018 Angoulême Festival, where an exhibition and numerous events were dedicated to him. In July 2021, he met French President Emmanuel Macron during the latter’s visit to Japan, with Macron posting news about the meeting on his social media.