Title: Pinocchio Vampire Slayer
Author: Van Jensen
Artist: Dusty Higgins
Genre: Horror / Fairy Tale / Remake
Year Published: 2009
Year Read: 11/6/2014
Series: Pinocchio Vampire Slayer #1
Publisher: SLG Publishing
Source: Purchased
Content Rating: Ages 11+ (Some Language and Violence)
Buy or Add on: Amazon // Goodreads
Introduction:
Alright, so when I was
browsing through my library looking for some good fairy tale books to read, I
stumbled upon this unknown graphic novel series called “Pinocchio Vampire Slayer.”
Now, when I saw the title, I was thinking to myself: “Cool, Vampire
Slayers and Fairy Tale characters; two of my most favorite subjects in the
entire world!” So, I just had to check
this graphic novel out and man was I so surprised by the interesting premise of
this graphic novel!
What is this story
about?
After the events of the original “Pinocchio” story, a group
of vampires suddenly invade the city of Nasolungo and ended up murdering
Geppetto before Pinocchio’s very eyes.
This horrific act causes Pinocchio to become a ruthless vampire slayer
as he uses his own nose to stake the vampires.
With the help of the cricket, Master Cherry the Carpenter and a much
older Blue Fairy, Pinocchio makes his way through the vampires while
discovering a deep dark secret about the vampires’ true motives in their
murdering sprees.
What I loved about
this story:
Van Jensen’s writing: Now, I will admit that when I
first heard about this title, I was thinking to myself about how they would be
able to pull off a story about taking one of the world’s most beloved fairy
tale characters and transforming them into a vampire slayer. Well, Van
Jensen has proven that he can make a story about a wooden puppet becoming a
vampire slayer work out in an extremely intriguing way! I loved the way that Van Jensen wrote Pinocchio as a tough as nails older boy than as an
innocent yet naïve little boy he was in the previous story (well, to be fair,
the “Pinocchio” in the original
story was actually much more sadistic as a character than the Disney version
had led you to believe). To me, it felt
natural for Pinocchio to become a bit more ruthless in this story because of
what happened to Geppetto and Van Jensen
really did a great job at setting up Pinocchio’s character progression in this
story while letting the readers know about how Geppetto’s death really affected
Pinocchio. I also liked the fact that we
get Master Cherry the Carpenter in this story as he slays vampires just like
Pinocchio and he seems to have a relationship with Pinocchio that is similar to
the relationship between Giles and Buffy from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” (as in
Pinocchio does treat Master Cherry like a father figure after the death of
Geppetto). It was also interesting in
seeing certain characters from the original story return in different roles
such as the Cricket being mainly a ghost like character in this story, the Blue
Fairy being much older and the Fox and the Cat, who take on a much creepier
role in this story, which I will not reveal what kind of identities they
actually have in this story!
Dusty Higgins’ artwork: Dusty
Higgins’ artwork brilliantly combines both the humorous and frightening
mood of the story as the characters do look a bit cartoonish at times, but the
artwork also brings out the horror that the vampires bring to the story by
having them look so menacing for the most part.
I also loved the way that Dusty
Higgins drew Pinocchio as he looked a bit like John Constantine as in terms
of clothing style.
What made me feel
uncomfortable about this story:
The reason why I gave this graphic novel a four star rating
was because I felt that they did not develop the secondary characters very well
in this story. Since we have already
read many stories about Pinocchio, we pretty much already know about his
background history and the creators of this graphic novel did a great job of
explaining the story of the original “Pinocchio”
at the beginning of this novel. However,
we do not know much about Master Cherry, the Blue Fairy or the Cricket in this
novel and I would have loved to know more about these characters and how they
know about the vampires invading the city.
I also felt that this graphic novel was a bit too short as in it did not
explain enough about how the vampires invaded the city in the first place and I
would have liked to see more from this story.
Also, there were times where Dusty
Higgins’ artwork was a bit too scratchy to look at and it was hard for me
to understand what was going on in some of the fighting scenes.
Final Thoughts:
Overall, “Pinocchio Vampire Slayer” is a pretty creative
story that really set the bar for placing a well-known fairy tale character in
a situation that they normally would not be set in and turn it into something
fun and horrific for the readers! I
definitely cannot wait for the next few volumes of this series to come out!
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