Pinocchio: Vampire Slayer

by Dustin Higgins

Paperback, 2009

Status

Available

Call number

741.5973

Publication

SLG Publishing (2009), Paperback, 128 pages

Description

Pinoccho seeking to avenge the death of Geppetto goes after the vampires that have infested Nasolungo.

User reviews

LibraryThing member delzey

It's a clever idea for a graphic novel, marred slightly by clunkiness and serialization, but still fun.

Picking up where Collodi's original story left off, Pinocchio is older, only slightly wiser, and still a puppet. No, he wasn't turned into a real boy. And his town is suddenly being culled by dark

creatures of the night who seem to be doing the bidding of the Master. Pinocchio has lost his "father" Geppetto to these creatures and now, with the aid of his carpenter friend Cherry and the Blue Fairy, stalks and kills the vampires in town with the aid of stakes he conveniently caries with him in the guise of a nose. While Pinocchio tries to warn the townsfolk the appearance of a pair of familiar-looking businessmen do their best to prove puppet-boy a lair.

Of course, if he were lying his nose would grow, but the townsfolk conveniently overlook this. He is, after all, only a talking puppet. Why would they listen to him anyway?

There's always been something almost Transyvanian about the story of Pinocchio to begin with, and the current vogue of vampires makes this an easy match-up. The storytelling in Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer is a little uneven – secondary characters and antagonists need to have emotional story arcs, I've recently figured out – and the chunky illustration style Higgins uses gets lost in the heavy zipatone, but I'm still left wanting more. For me, this is a good and a bad thing; good that I'm interested in following the story, bad because I hate waiting for serialized books and will generally lose interest by the time the next installment arrives.

At least, I'm assuming there's more to the story here. If not, well, then there's a bigger problem here.

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LibraryThing member Jellyn

So, this is a graphic novel that picks up Pinocchio's story.. well, not quite where it left off, because he's still a puppet, and continues the story, with him fighting vampires.This is much better than Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. It's more like fanfic. Well, it is fanfic. The vampires aren't

shoe-horned in to the original text, which is really just silly. They took the story and characters and made their own story and twisted the characters. Like you're supposed to!The first thing they do is give you a little summary of the real Pinocchio, assuming most of the audience has been brainwashed by Disney and other versions. And this summary is good, and really funny. (I just told a version of the story of Pinocchio in my ASL class, so I was at the point of being familiar and annoyed by the thing, and ready to listen to someone mock it.)Unfortunately, the summary was the best part. The story itself was only mildly, mildly amusing. Pinocchio goes around telling lies to make his nose grow, then snapping off the new nose so he can stab vampires with it. Vampires killed Gepetto, so he wants revenge. He and Cherry, the furniture-making guy who originally had his block of wood before Gepetto got ahold of it, as well as the Blue Fairy and the dead cricket, they all fight these vampires. Meanwhile, none of the rest of the villagers believe Pinocchio when he tries to tell them about the existence of the vampires.And, well, there you go. The plot's not particularly original. The action is mostly stabbing vampires. I couldn't really like any of the characters. Well, okay, I liked Pinocchio a little. And it wasn't as humorous as the summary in the beginning promised it would be.But all in all, it was better than I expected, honestly.

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LibraryThing member readafew

When playing around on Amazon I saw this title and just had to add it to my wishlist. It sounded like too much fun to pass up. As luck would have it my SIL got it for me for Christmas. It was a little shorter than I was expecting but I still found it to be rather amusing. It also appears to be the

first book in a series, if they are successful enough to continue.

The story starts a couple years after the end of the original Pinocchio story, Geppetto was murdered shortly after the end of the story by monsters and Pinocchio has been fighting them with wooden stakes (yes you guessed it) much like Buffy. A bit of fun, more oriented to teens I would say and not exactly sure it's worth the 10.95 cover price but if they come out with a second, I'll likely give them one more chance.

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LibraryThing member kivarson

His ability to lie his way into a longer wooden nose gives Pinocchio a never ending source of wooden stakes to slay vampires.

LibraryThing member hollyhox

This is really good. I don't have a lot of experience with graphic novels. I read Persepolis 1 & 2, and loved them. Then people started recommending other series to me, like The Walking Dead, which I thought were awful, so I quit reading them. But this is very satirical. The first 3 pages give a

tongue-in-cheek rehash of Pinocchio's story in tiny panels. Then the action starts. Since his nose grows when he lies, Pinocchio says, "I'm a real boy" when he meets a vampire, then snaps off his own wooden nose, and stakes the vampire with it. It's clever and laugh-out-loud funny.

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LibraryThing member kayceel

Booktalk - After seeing Geppetto die at the hands of vampires, Pinocchio swears revenge in this darkly funny graphic novel. As the vampires plot the enslavement of mankind, only a one-puppet army stands in their way. But will a wooden boy and his endless supply of stakes - courtesy of plenty of

lies and his elongating nose - be enough to save the day?

2nd bktalk: He's a puppet with a past and a score to settle! In this black and white graphic novel, Pinocchio turned angry and vengeful the day his father, Gepetto, was murdered by evil vampires. Long gone is that cheerful performer of years past. In his place is a snarky and dangerous vampire slayer, who doesn't need anyone to cut and sharpen stakes for him: Pinocchio grows his own by shouting elaborately funny yet untrue battle taunts and trash talk, then breaks off his newly grown wooden nose. Talk about deadly D.I.Y....

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LibraryThing member Velmeran

The story was an interesting version of the story of Pinocchio. It's dark and quickly turns sad. I found the way Pinocchio killed vampires to be creative and unique.

The art start maintained a noir feel, dark and mysterious, throughout the novel. The 'rough' and 'dirty' feel worked well with the

story line.

I give this book a B-.

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LibraryThing member Rosa.Mill

This was a fun read, but that was all it was. I am not saying that's a bad thing, I still liked it. I just wish there had been more going on. The art is passable and there was plenty of humor. Hopefully there will be a little more introspection in a follow up.

LibraryThing member Rosa.Mill

LibraryThing member ecataldi

Absurd, over the top, and probably good fun for younger audiences. This short graphic novel picks up where the classic tale of Pinocchio left off and liberally fills in the blanks. Geppetto and many townspeople have been murdered by something mysterious. The townsfolk don't believe when Pinocchio

tells them that something is underfoot. They just believe that people are missing because there are no bodies and no visible bad guys. Whenever Pinocchio kills one of them the body disappears and he has no proof. What's a poor puppet to do? Campy, ridiculous and good fun. Pinocchio lies and then rips off his nose to use as a stake, I couldn't make that up if I tried, just look on the cover. He is gripping two bloody wooden noses. Apparently there are more graphic novels in the series but I am content with just reading this one. Kids will get the most kick out of this.

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LibraryThing member roses7184

I dare you to look me in the eye and tell me you wouldn't pick this up if you stumbled upon it. Come on, Pinocchio as a vampire slayer? You know you'd be intrigued! Well, whether you agree with me or not, the fact remains that I was definitely drawn in by the idea. I'm a sucker for a good

retelling, especially in graphic novel format. Did it deliver? In some ways yes, in others no. Read on my friends, I'll lay it all out for you.

As with any good graphic novel review, I'll start with the illustrations. In this first volume, Pinocchio's story is told in very exaggerated and stylized panels. The characters border on cartoonish, which I honestly didn't like at first. However, as I read on, they slowly grew on me. I came to love Pinocchio's jaunty little hair style paired with his dark facial expressions. As witty one-liners came flying out of his wooden mouth, I fell more and more in love with the way he was drawn. It actually fits the character quite well. Which brings me to where I'm on the fence regarding this graphic novel, and that's the story line. While there's a lot to love between these pages, I still feel like something was missing.

Starting with the good, this is definitely an original story. It takes Pinocchio's story and blends it into something decidedly dark and funny at the same time. I can't deny I thoroughly enjoyed the fact that Pinocchio's stakes came from his ever-growing nose. One lie, and you have a stake! How cool is that? Of course, this allows for a ton of hilarious dialogue between characters too. I couldn't help but crack up laughing when Pinocchio stabbed a vampire in the heart with his stake while wise-cracking "Looks like you have a bloody nose!" at the same time. Be still, my wit loving heart!

So what was it that didn't click with me? First off, the story itself is a little sparse. The witty dialogue could only save this so much. I wanted more substance, and more understanding of how Pinocchio actually came to be. It's possible that there's more in the next volumes, but I honestly felt a little lost. I saw some of the characters from the original story, but everything was buried under vampire hunting. My other issue was that, because there isn't a lot of substance, I didn't really feel invested in these characters. There were moments while reading where I felt like I should be sad, or angry, but I just wasn't feeling it. Other than laughing, I didn't feel much else.

I think this series has definite potential. I've heard from other readers that it progresses rather well through the next volumes, and that the illustrations actually change too. That makes me curious to check out more. So, while this wasn't my favorite read this month, I think I'll stick with it and give the next volume a shot! After all, I can't deny I want to see where things go. Pick this up if you're looking for a funny and interesting graphic novel. Pinocchio and his vampire killing ways just might steal your heart.

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