Mike Mignola and Lemony Snicket Create Reimagined, Gothic ‘Pinocchio’ (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Meredith Woerner Deputy Editor, Variety.com A new, hot literary collab just dropped: Hellboy creator Mike Mignola and Lemony Snicket from “A Series of Unfortunate Events” fame are partnering up for an illustrated and annotated edition of Carlo Collodi’s classic novel “Pinocchio.” Variety has the first look of the little wooden boy, reimagined by Mignola.

Teaming back up with award-winning colorist Dave Stewart, Mignola returned to his gothic roots for a reimagining of the centuries-old story that will be published by Beehive Books.

But despite the wooden boy’s recent, Oscar-winning popularity, Pinocchio has always influenced Mignola’s oeuvre. “This is a book I’ve loved since I read it when I was a young teenager,” Mignola told Variety. “I really think between this and Dracula, this is what’s formed whatever the hell it is I do, my sensibilities.” When first approached by Beehive Books to contribute to their collection of reworked literary classics, Mignola was hesitant, unsure of what he could bring to this translation, “I got spooked because it’s been so well-illustrated over the years.” The lure of Pinocchio eventually proved too much and Mignola returned to the idea, drawn in by the creature’s simplicity. “He’s just basically stupid,” Mignola said. “He means well, but he fucks up endlessly.

And there’s a charm to that, that wanting to not be a fuck-up. It’s that thing of having to make a million mistakes in order to go, ‘Oh, okay, now I get it.