Comics Review: Pinocchio the Vampire Slayer

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is one of my favorite properties.  I've followed it from the movie to the television series to the comic.  I even read some of the BVS fiction (not fanfic have you, but the actually published books). I wasn't sure about how I felt about trading a feisty, sharp witted blonde for a wooden puppet who gets his stakes from his growing nose, but after meeting Van Jensen at Fanaticon in Asheville, NC, I added Pinocchio the Vampire Slayer to my buy pile at HeroesCon.

While Pinocchio is a different kind of cute than Buffy, he has a similar wit slinging one liners at vamps as he prepares to stake them.  Written by Van Jensen and drawn by Dusty Higgins, the comic picks up where the story we're familiar with from childhood ends.  Instead of the happy ending of Pinocchio becoming a real boy, his surrogate father, Geppetto has been murdered by vampires and no one in the village believes Pinocchio's warnings about the creatures of the night in spite of his nose not growing.

For their readers not familiar with the story of Pinocchio (and those who need their memories refreshed), Jensen and Higgins include a three page breakdown of the childhood story.  It may not be exactly how you remember it, but I wish the Disney movie had more of that flavor than I remember.  (Pinocchio is kind of an ass.)  This short intro is one of my favorite parts of the book.  It has more of a cartoon style than the rest of the art and a comic strip lay-out that is the perfect setting for the humor within each tiny panel.  

Pinocchio is an entertaining read that's quite the twist on an old story.  It blends childhood memories with the supernatural in a way that makes perfect sense.  The story is well-written and matches nicely to the art style of the book.

I'm looking forward to picking up Pinocchio: The Great Puppet Theater (Volume 2) at the next convention I see Jensen or Higgins (it looks like that might be SPX).  The best thing about reading a book later in its lifetime is new volumes already being out when you finish!