Beehive Books‘ latest crowdfunding campaign is sitting at just under $400,000 as I write this, and no doubt it’ll pass that milestone soon. And it’s no surprise, since it involves the talents of both Lemony Snicket (A Series of Unfortunate Events) and Mike Mignola (Hellboy) putting their own unique spin on the story of Pinocchio.
This new edition of Carlo Collodi’s beloved novel is currently up on Kickstarter for the next six days.
“I’ve been in love with Pinocchio as long as I can remember,” said Mignola. “Probably starting with the Disney film and then really drilled into me when I finally read the Collodi novel. It’s just so brilliantly strange—very very funny and also heartbreakingly sad. It’s one of the two books (along with Dracula) that I think sort of make me do what I do the way I do them.When Beehive Books approached me about doing a book… Well, at the time, the last thing I wanted to do was take on another project, but once I started thinking about doing Pinocchio I just couldn’t say no. The challenge was to come up with MY version of Pinocchio—much harder than I thought that was going to be but in the end I think I got there.”
Not wanting to rest on their laurels, Beehive has added a new tier to their Kickstarter campaign featuring prints of three more pieces by Mignola.
The full-color paintings were created by the artist as part of a Society of Illustrators exhibition, live now in NYC, which features a full portfolio of yet-to-be-published Pinocchio illustrations, including all the drawings done for the book and additional art not included in it. The exhibit will be open to the public until July 8. Take a look:
The prints won’t be included in either the print or digital editions of the book, but can be bought separately as a $50 tier on Kickstarter or added to another tier.
This new edition of Pinocchio includes 10 color illustrations from Mignola and his frequent collaborator Dave Stewart, as well as 40 additional black-and-white spot illustrations from Mignola. It also includes more than 100 full text annotations by Snicket, presented as slipped-in typewritten sheets produced by Snicket “during his Pinocchio-induced descent into madness.”
The project joins a long list of illustrated classic novels from Beehive; past editions have featured artists like Dave McKean, Yuko Shimizu and Jim Woodring. Here’s a look at more of Mignola and Stewart’s interior art for the project:
Visit Kickstarter for more information.