PINOCCHIO, VAMPIRE SLAYER (2014)
Top Shelf Productions/IDW | Illustrated by Dusty Higgins
A YALSA Top Ten Great Graphic Novels for Teens
This puppet may not be a real boy... but he just might be a real hero! When bloodthirsty monsters invade Pinocchio's hometown and kill his father, Geppetto, Pinocchio discovers a new benefit to his magical nose: telling lies produces a never-ending supply of wooden stakes to combat the vampire hordes! Will Pinocchio be able to defeat these horrors, avenge his father, and save his friends?
Now, for the first time, the complete trilogy is collected together in a single deluxe softcover edition. Jensen (Green Lantern Corps) and Higgins (Knights of the Living Dead) present a captivating blend of comedy, horror, romance, and adventure, rooted in the original Italian novel, but brought—as if by magic—to new life.
“…one of the most charming, fun-filled comics that I’ve read in quite a while. Van Jensen and Dusty Higgins (writer and artist/creator, respectively) aren’t doing a grimmed-up version of a Disney cartoon, they’re doing a thrilling adventure story, and they manage to wring a lot of genuine emotion out of it, too. That’s not to say that they don’t embrace the inherent goofiness of their premise, because they definitely do, just not in the way that you might expect. Make no mistake, Pinocchio telling a lie…and then snapping off his nose to do some vampire slaying is pretty much the core mechanic of this book, but Jensen and Higgins manage not to give into the temptation to beat it to death. It punctuates the action, but mostly, they use that idea as the focus to build a character.”