This award-winning graphic novel re-imagines the story Pinocchio as a noir fairy tale both comic and tragic. In this dark rendition, a greedy Geppetto builds Pinocchio as a metallic weapon of war, while Jiminy Cockroach is a homeless squatter living the good life in Pinocchio's skull. Critically acclaimed, Pinocchio won the Grand Prize at France's Angoulême comics festival in 2009. Exquisite drawings by celebrated cartoonist Winshluss bring to life a rich tale of greedy fools, lust, sadness, redemption, and hope. Teamed with brilliant colorist Cizo, Winshluss creates an epic adventure through a lush world. As we follow Pinocchio along the way, the stories and vinettes intertwine, offering subtle political critiques and send ups of popular culture. We meet seven sleazy dwarves, follow Jiminy's struggles as a novelist, watch a blind tramp find God, and see the innocent, yet powerful Pinocchio encircled by those who would use him for their own ends. Winshluss has perfected the wordless comic. Each page is perfectly composed - not a panel is wasted. The artwork is primarily done in pen and ink, and watercolor but switches to paint for larger splash panels. The art also references a terrific range of illustrative styles and history in the story from late 18th century pen and ink, to early French film pioneer Georges Méliès , through early Disney, and underground comix. Born in 1970, Winshluss is the creator of numerous comics and graphic novels that have garnered awards and acclaim across Europe. Winshluss is the pen name of Vincent Parronnaud, perhaps best known as co-director of the animated film Persepolis (with Marjane Satrapi), which won the Jury Prize at Cannes and was nominated for numerous awards, including the Academy Award, Golden Globe and Cannes' Palm d'Or. Currently, he and Satrapi are teaming up again to adapt Satrapi's 2006 book "Chicken with Plums.”
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Born in 1970, Winshluss is the creator of numerous comics and graphic novels that have garnered awards and acclaim across Europe. Winshluss is the pen name of Vincent Parronnaud, perhaps best known as co-director of the animated film Persepolis (with Marjane Satrapi), which won the Jury Prize at Cannes and was nominated for numerous awards, including the Academy Award, Golden Globe and Cannes' Palm d'Or. Currently, he and Satrapi are teaming up again to adapt Satrapi's 2006 book "Chicken with Plums.”
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Kidding about reading it to my kids. This is for adults only; no child should ever see a woman riding Pinocchio's face.
Winshluss, whose real name is Vincent Paronnaud, is yet another amazing French comic artist and filmmaker. If he's best known for anything, it would be cowriting and codirecting with Marjane Satrapi the animated film Persepolis. Now that I've finally gotten a chance to read some of his work, it's easy to see why many consider him one of the best comic artists of his generation. His 'freely adapted' version of Pinocchio is grim, perverse, satiric and gorgeously illustrated.
Though comical, it's also tragic. W's Pinocchio is practically wordless yet it manages to make dark allegorical commentary on a sordid post-industrial civilization. It's not a retelling, but more of a re-imagining, and it involves other familiar characters as well. I love how all the smaller segmenting story-lines weave in and out of the main plot and ultimately have direct impact on Geppetto and Pinocchio.
This book is the epitome of a 'rare gem' in the comic medium. It's easily one of the best I've read. The book itself is of top-notch quality. There's no dust-jacket; instead Winshluss's invitingly bewildering artwork is stuck right on the cover. Parts of it shimmer; it's gorgeous. The paper is of stock quality. It's like opening up a book and walking into an art gallery. A graphic novel really can't look any better than this.
Winshluss, whose real name is Vincent Paronnaud, is yet another amazing French comic artist and filmmaker. If he's best known for anything, it would be cowriting and codirecting with Marjane Satrapi the animated film Persepolis. Now that I've finally gotten a chance to read some of his work, it's easy to see why many consider him one of the best comic artists of his generation. His 'freely adapted' version of Pinocchio is grim, perverse, satiric and gorgeously illustrated.
Though comical, it's also tragic. W's Pinocchio is practically wordless yet it manages to make dark allegorical commentary on a sordid post-industrial civilization. It's not a retelling, but more of a re-imagining, and it involves other familiar characters as well. I love how all the smaller segmenting story-lines weave in and out of the main plot and ultimately have direct impact on Geppetto and Pinocchio.
This book is the epitome of a 'rare gem' in the comic medium. It's easily one of the best I've read. The book itself is of top-notch quality. There's no dust-jacket; instead Winshluss's invitingly bewildering artwork is stuck right on the cover. Parts of it shimmer; it's gorgeous. The paper is of stock quality. It's like opening up a book and walking into an art gallery. A graphic novel really can't look any better than this.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Let me preface this by saying that I work in a small comic shop. Having gotten sick of superheroes (we're a very small shop, so I have a lot of down time) I turned my attention to European comics as a means to explore something different. I got into Matz, Tardi, Moebius,among others and on a whim, I ordered Winshluss' Pinocchio.
This book is incredible. It's a fresh, adult take on a popular legend that has permeated our culture through cartoons, kid's books, and the like. But, Winshluss goes in a new direction with this book, and embraces all the angles that modern society would deal with Pinocchio (from a sex slave to a unstoppable soldier of death).
The art is beautiful, and the dialogue minimalistic, but this provides for a truly artistic experience, with the story going on for a dozen plus pages without any text, forcing you to focus on the images presented.
If you're looking for a children's take on the story, based on memories of the Disney movie, then this might not be for you. But if you're looking for something different, or a classic look at the wooden boy, then this is definitely the book for you. But, if you are willing to embrace a new, fresh (adult) take on a classic, then this is a great choice.
Plus, Jiminy Cricket is a depressed, alcoholic squatter in Pinocchio's head! Tell me that's not worth a read!
This book is incredible. It's a fresh, adult take on a popular legend that has permeated our culture through cartoons, kid's books, and the like. But, Winshluss goes in a new direction with this book, and embraces all the angles that modern society would deal with Pinocchio (from a sex slave to a unstoppable soldier of death).
The art is beautiful, and the dialogue minimalistic, but this provides for a truly artistic experience, with the story going on for a dozen plus pages without any text, forcing you to focus on the images presented.
If you're looking for a children's take on the story, based on memories of the Disney movie, then this might not be for you. But if you're looking for something different, or a classic look at the wooden boy, then this is definitely the book for you. But, if you are willing to embrace a new, fresh (adult) take on a classic, then this is a great choice.
Plus, Jiminy Cricket is a depressed, alcoholic squatter in Pinocchio's head! Tell me that's not worth a read!
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Will titillate and inspire fits of laughter in as many as it may offend and arouse in anger
August 10, 2011
Format:Hardcover
Brought to North America by San Francisco-based Last Gasp publishing following the English translation and release by Knockabout Books in London, Pinocchio was originally published in Winshluss' native French and won the highly sought after Grand Prize at the 2009 Angouleme Comics Festival. Winshluss is the pen name of Vincent Paronnaud, perhaps better known to American audiences from his work with Marjane Satrapi on the animated version of Persepolis.
Influenced thematically by the 1880s Italian serial fiction by Carlo Collodi known as The Adventures of Pinocchio, Winshluss' version upholds the darker and more sinister elements of the original story. Unlike the Disney-fication of many folk and fairy tales, where the primary story is essentially neutered of horrific elements in favor of more child-friendly fare, Winshluss' adaptation incorporates many of Collodi's traditional plot elements while embracing an innovative and at times disturbing reinvention of the tale itself. For example, Collodi's first vision of a tragic ending for Pinocchio where the puppet is hanged--something that Collodi altered in later editions--finds ample exploration in this updated version, as do aspects of the harlequinade that colored the original. Where Pinocchio differs from the popular perception of the wooden-boy turned human is numerous.
First, borrowing a page from Steven Speilberg's Artificial Intelligence, Winshluss transforms the main character into a robot. Gone as well are the lies and associated growing nose, replaced instead by a cold, steel appendage that finds new, degenerate uses from Geppetto's sex-starved wife. Pinocchio is not crafted for companionship or the amusement of children, but rather brazen capitalism and greed to satiate the puppeteer's own avarice. Although Jiminy is a cockroach and not a cricket, he remains a voice in Pinocchio's head due to the fact that he actually lives inside the little robot's skull. Along with an irradiated, mutant fish, lustful rapist dwarves who descend upon Snow White, and a host of other literary freedoms in the name of modernization of the classic story, Pinocchio is likely to inspire fits of laughter and titillate as many as it potentially offends and rouses in anger.
What may shock American readers more than the content of Pinocchio, however, is the fact that the majority of the story is merely visual. While text appears in the interlude segments involving Jiminy Cockroach, the remainder of the narrative is wordless, sequential art or a form and act of mime or pantomime achieved on the printed page. The style of lineart Winshluss employs mirrors early R. Crumb, particularly in his ability to capture and present the grotesque caricature of human life and emotions developed in the story. Along with the more restricted color palette of Cizo, Winshluss' pencils and inks give every panel and page significance. It takes a talented artist to move a story forward, but Winshluss defies expectations, as his art is the entire story. The result is at times terrifying, but the beauty inherent within his work is undeniable.
This is a fascinating book. Winshluss alters the original story further, but hopefully, readers will pick this book up and discover those additional gems on their own. While the book might be a difficult narrative to teach, its classroom and educational value are important not so much for the adaptation and literary license, but more for the style and structure of the pages, the pacing, and the development of the visual beats that drive the prose-less story.
-- Nathan Wilson
Influenced thematically by the 1880s Italian serial fiction by Carlo Collodi known as The Adventures of Pinocchio, Winshluss' version upholds the darker and more sinister elements of the original story. Unlike the Disney-fication of many folk and fairy tales, where the primary story is essentially neutered of horrific elements in favor of more child-friendly fare, Winshluss' adaptation incorporates many of Collodi's traditional plot elements while embracing an innovative and at times disturbing reinvention of the tale itself. For example, Collodi's first vision of a tragic ending for Pinocchio where the puppet is hanged--something that Collodi altered in later editions--finds ample exploration in this updated version, as do aspects of the harlequinade that colored the original. Where Pinocchio differs from the popular perception of the wooden-boy turned human is numerous.
First, borrowing a page from Steven Speilberg's Artificial Intelligence, Winshluss transforms the main character into a robot. Gone as well are the lies and associated growing nose, replaced instead by a cold, steel appendage that finds new, degenerate uses from Geppetto's sex-starved wife. Pinocchio is not crafted for companionship or the amusement of children, but rather brazen capitalism and greed to satiate the puppeteer's own avarice. Although Jiminy is a cockroach and not a cricket, he remains a voice in Pinocchio's head due to the fact that he actually lives inside the little robot's skull. Along with an irradiated, mutant fish, lustful rapist dwarves who descend upon Snow White, and a host of other literary freedoms in the name of modernization of the classic story, Pinocchio is likely to inspire fits of laughter and titillate as many as it potentially offends and rouses in anger.
What may shock American readers more than the content of Pinocchio, however, is the fact that the majority of the story is merely visual. While text appears in the interlude segments involving Jiminy Cockroach, the remainder of the narrative is wordless, sequential art or a form and act of mime or pantomime achieved on the printed page. The style of lineart Winshluss employs mirrors early R. Crumb, particularly in his ability to capture and present the grotesque caricature of human life and emotions developed in the story. Along with the more restricted color palette of Cizo, Winshluss' pencils and inks give every panel and page significance. It takes a talented artist to move a story forward, but Winshluss defies expectations, as his art is the entire story. The result is at times terrifying, but the beauty inherent within his work is undeniable.
This is a fascinating book. Winshluss alters the original story further, but hopefully, readers will pick this book up and discover those additional gems on their own. While the book might be a difficult narrative to teach, its classroom and educational value are important not so much for the adaptation and literary license, but more for the style and structure of the pages, the pacing, and the development of the visual beats that drive the prose-less story.
-- Nathan Wilson
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Devastating, and great
Pinocchio as a weapon of war, with the history of 20th century violence and death woven back through the familiar tale. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Petra Kim
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pure Madness! A surreal, tragic fairy tale with utterly gorgeous...
If only all graphic novels could be this good. The artwork is BRILLIANT. The sparse dialog and grotesque detail draw you in and encourage you to analyze each panel and weigh its... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Drewford
5.0 out of 5 stars
An absolute Masterpiece
I don't know what else to say, if you care about comics or illustration at all, buy this book. From front cover to back, it's overwhelmingly beautiful. Read more
Published 19 months ago by M Winston
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pinocchio by Winshluss
The book is amazing, highly recommended. This version of the classic Pinocchio by Callodi is a one-of-a-kind thing. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Rodrigo Camy Betarte
5.0 out of 5 stars
A dark and surreal fairy tale
I was attracted to the amazing cover of this book when I spotted it at a local comic shop. Upon pulling off the shrink wrap (this book is shrink wrapped for good reason -- the... Read more
Published on May 20, 2011 by Ralph Jenkins
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