Pinocchio is real hot right now. Last year saw two feature adaptations: the very bad “live-action” retelling from Disney, and the Oscar-winning stop-animated film from Guillermo del Toro (pictured above). The classic story is getting another modern treatment this year, with Hellboy creator Mike Mignola, colorist Dave Stewart, and A Series of Unfortunate Events author Lemony Snicket teaming up to give us an illustrated, annotated edition of Carlo Collodi’s classic story.
Beehive Books’ Illuminated Editions imprint is pulling the project together after a successful Kickstarter campaign. “I’ve been in love with Pinocchio as long as I can remember,” Mignola said in a statement. “Probably starting with the Disney film and then really drilled into me when I finally read the Collodi novel. It’s just so brilliantly strange—very very funny and also heartbreakingly sad. It’s one of the two books (along with Dracula) that I think sort of make me do what I do the way I do them. When Beehive Books approached me about doing a book … well, at the time, the last thing I wanted to do was take on another project, but once I started thinking about doing Pinocchio I just couldn’t say no. The challenge was to come up with MY version of Pinocchio—much harder than I thought that was going to be but in the end I think I got there.”
The Illuminated Edition of Pinocchio includes 10 original illustrations from Mignola and colorist Dave Stewart, as well as 40 additional black-and-white spot illustrations from Mignola. It will come in three print editions: a slipcase hardcover, a signed and numbered edition, and a sketched and lettered edition.
You can secure a copy of your own by backing the (fully-funded!) Kickstarter now.
