For the first time in its history, Poste San Marino will have its own stand at Lucca Comics & Games, one of the world’s most prestigious international events dedicated to comics. The festival, celebrating its 60th edition this year, runs from 28 October to 1 November, with the Poste San Marino stand located in the Philately Pavilion at the Lucca Fair Polo.
It is in Lucca that Poste San Marino will unveil its new stamp marking Lucky Luke’s 80th anniversary, issued on Wednesday 28 October, the opening day of the event.
This marks the second 2026 release in the series dedicated to comics, following the one honouring tokidoki™: a thematic strand that Poste San Marino revived in 2022 to pay tribute to iconic comic-book characters and their creators, which in recent years has also brought Valentina and Superman onto San Marino stamps.
Lucky Luke was created in 1946 by Morris, the pen name of Maurice de Bevere, in the pages of the magazine Spirou. White hat, waistcoat, red neckerchief and a gun always at the ready: over eight decades, the lone cowboy who rides off into the sunset whistling his signature tune has become part of the imagination of generations of readers.
He is famous for shooting faster than his own shadow, yet he is no glory-seeking gunslinger: he uses his pistol mainly to disarm opponents, riding into town to restore order before moving on without asking for anything in return.
Over the years the character has grown more restrained, a shift reflected even in small details — such as the cigarette, later replaced by a blade of grass.
The new stamp plays precisely on his most famous challenge.
The issue takes the form of a souvenir sheet with two stamps worth €1.85 each, printed in a limited run of just 15,000 copies: in the first, Lucky Luke is shown in the act of firing, while the second depicts his shadow — so that, placed side by side, the two stamps recreate the scene in full.
Both stamps feature the face value, the inscription “San Marino,” the Republic’s coat of arms, the caption “Lucky Luke 80th anniversary” and the year 2026.
The sheet is completed by the Lucky Luke logo, an illustration of the cowboy on horseback, the 80th-anniversary emblem, and the logo of the 60th edition of Lucca Comics & Games — underlining the connection between the two celebrations — along with the credit “©Lucky Luke, 2026” and the website poste.sm.
For collectors, here are the technical details: four-colour offset printing with invisible fluorescent yellow ink, produced by Cartor Security Printing, perforation 13¼ x 13, stamps measuring 30 x 40 mm, and a souvenir sheet of 140 x 70 mm.
The sheet is priced at €3.70 and will be available from 28 October at the Lucca stand, at the Philatelic and Numismatic Shop in Piazzetta Garibaldi 5, in San Marino City, and online at poste.sm. For those attending Lucca Comics & Games, it’s a chance to take it home on the very first day of issue, straight from the fair.
