The puppet who wished to be a boy, has been in the pop culture spotlight recently with Disney's recent live action movie adaption of Pinocchio, which my family thought was one of the worst House of Mouse movies we've seen in some time, and Guillermo Del Toro's Netflix flick that won this year's Best Animated Film Oscar award as well as a Geek Daddy nod of approval for a show my family thought very highly of. Now, Hellboy creator, Mike Mignola, award-winning colorist Dave Stewart, and celebrated novelist Lemony Snicket (A Series of Unfortunate Events) are teaming up with Beehive Books for an illustrated and annotated edition of Carlo Collodi’s classic novel PINOCCHIO.
This all-new, deluxe hardcover edition includes original illustrations from Mignola, which breathe new life to the charm, gloom, and chaos of the seminal novel, alongside over 100 full text annotations by Snicket, presented as slipped-in typewritten sheets produced by Snicket during his Pinocchio-induced descent into madness. The project is part of Beehive Book’s acclaimed Illuminated Editions imprint, the Philadelphia-based company’s distinctive line of book art editions of literary classics which reimagine literary masterworks with all-new covers and illustrations from some of the world's greatest graphic artists, including the Balbusso Twins, Rebekka Dunlap, Brecht Evens, Dave McKean, Paul Pope, Yuko Shimizu, Bill Sienkiewicz, Kent Williams, and Jim Woodring, alongside original essays from the likes of Academy Award-winning filmmaker Darren Aronofsky and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Cunningham. Beehive Books is now crowdfunding the PINOCCHIO: The Illuminated Edition on Kickstarter.
“I’ve been in love with PINOCCHIO as long as I can remember,” Mignola remarked to ageekdaddy.com. “Probably starting with the classic Disney animated 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, added Mignola. "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.
Beehive Book’s PINOCCHIO: The Illuminated Edition also provides commentary by Lemony Snicket, which takes both the reader and the acclaimed writer on a first experience of the iconic novel, chock full of surreal symbolism and commentary.
“For many years I have been curious to see if I, too, will join the tradition of readers completely transformed into lunatics from a reading of PINOCCHIO, and although Carlo Collodi died long ago, I like to think that somewhere, somehow, he is interested in seeing what I might have to say as I read this book and likely lose my mind,” writes Snicket. “Perhaps you are too.”
“Collodi’s PINOCCHIO is one of the most popular tales in the Western world, but perhaps also one of the most mis-remembered,” Beehive Book’s Publisher Josh O’Neill commented. “Best known among English-speakers for its sanitized Disney adaptation, PINOCCHIO is in fact a bizarre, fantastical tale in which the series of strange and horrific events that befall a foolhardy wooden puppet-child shed light on the cruelties of society, the redemptions of family, and what it means to be human. The story of Pinocchio, as Collodi told it, is full of betrayals, poisonings and assassins, among other various and sundry bedevilments to go along with all its magic, musicality, humor and warmth. In this edition, Beehive Books spotlights the glorious, troubling strangeness of this text, which truly has no parallel in children’s fiction – or maybe in fiction of any kind.”
PINOCCHIO: An Illuminated Edition comes in three print editions: a slipcase hardcover, a signed and numbered edition, and a sketched and lettered edition. All ten titles in the Beehive Books’ Illuminated Editions series are also available through the Kickstarter campaign. Each title also comes as a DRM-free digital PDF, which is included along with every print edition.
The standard print edition is an oversize 9x12" hardcover, bound in sewn signatures, and housed in an elaborately embossed and debossed die-cut slipcase, silk-screened or foil-stamped with artwork. The interior is printed on creamy, acid-free heavy-weight 140gsm uncoated paper with a fine tooth, and includes dozens of full color illustrations, illuminated letters, and special design pieces.
The Kickstarter campaign runs through April 20, 2023
