Mike Mignola & Lemony Snicket Tease Illustrated Version Of Original ‘Pinocchio’ Tales (First Look)

Between the Disney remake and Guillermo del Toro’s Oscar-winning adaptation, it’s been one hell of a year for Pinocchio. Things are about to get even wilder for the anthropomorphic puppet with an upcoming illustrated interpretation of the original Carlo Collodi tales from Hellboy creator, Mike Mignola, and colorist Dave Stewart.

“Here in America, I think we all just fell in love with the original Disney film, which I think is still one of their best,” Mignola tells me over email. “It’s very charming and heartwarming and sad. And the book is all that — and so much stranger. I hope the new films at least point some people back to the book. They will be surprised at how much other crazy stuff is in there — even the del Toro film just scratched the surface.”

And here’s something even crazier: Lemony Snicket — renowned author of A Series of Unfortunate Events and internationally wanted fugitive — somehow found the time to provide a number of original annotations for the project while on the run from authorities attempting to arrest him for acts of arson he did not commit. His gothic storytelling sensibilities are so perfectly aligned with Mignola’s, that it makes you wonder how no one thought to pair them up before.

“The adventures of Pinocchio are a torrent of misery and abuse, punctuated insensibly by moments of recklessness and bad choices with the very occasional moment of joy,” writes Snicket from an undisclosed location. “Life is like this.”

He follows up this very fraught denouncement with: “It surprised me that Pinocchio is even more troublesome, and thus even more hypnotic, than I had remembered.”

When I ask if the eponymous puppet shares anything in common with the three Baudelaire orphans — Violet, Klaus, and Sonny — Snicket goes full Count Olaf, showing no mercy. “All four of these individuals are flammable,” he says.

The world is quiet here because I am speechless. Anyway, now that the Kickstarter campaign for Pinocchio: The Illuminated Edition is up and running, publisher Beehive Books was kind enough to share three pieces of exclusive artwork with me.

“I tried to make Pinocchio my own,” Mignola concludes. “That is, I wanted to do an illustrated version we haven’t seen yet. It wasn’t easy, as the book has been illustrated so many times — and sometimes beautifully — so I had to just lean on my style and sort of translate it into my world, without steering away from the actual text. Mine is just a little darker than most — sort of Victorian Gothic. Or maybe it’s the German expressionist version.”

Check them out below: