Yzabel / August 6, 2014

Review: Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer

Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer Complete EditionPinocchio, Vampire Slayer Complete Edition by Van Jensen

My rating: [rating=3]

Summary:

This puppet may not be a real boy… but he just might be a real hero! When bloodthirsty monsters invade Pinocchio’s hometown and kill his father, Geppetto, Pinocchio discovers a new benefit to his magical nose: telling lies produces a never-ending supply of wooden stakes to combat the vampire hordes! Will Pinocchio be able to defeat these horrors, avenge his father, and save his friends? Now, for the first time, the complete trilogy is collected together in a single deluxe softcover edition. Jensen (Green Lantern Corps) and Higgins (Knights of the Living Dead) present a captivating blend of comedy, horror, romance, and adventure, rooted in the original Italian novel, but brought – as if by magic – to new life.

Review:

(I got a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.)

As honest a review as possible, since it was a preview that contained about half the graphic novel, and I have no idea how it’s supposed to end.

I quite liked it. Its premise felt somewhat weird, but all things considered, it was actually fairly logical: killing vampires with wooden stakes… Well, here’s a puppet with an endless supply, for as long as he can tell lies, and lies are easy to come by. So why not?

The drawing style isn’t a favourite of mine, but it was dark, sharp and raw, and in my opinion, this fit with the mood of the comics. The plot’s rooted in the original tale, with characters out of it and somewhat changed (the cricket’s a ghost, the fairy’s kind of dying, Master Cherry creates weird weapons…) and events that clearly aren’t the nice ones a lot of us got used to when reading more childish retellings (or watching the Disney version). Pinocchio became a vampire hunter after Geppetto was killed by such a monster, and while this places the story’s theme in the traditional revenge-type category, it worked for me. It also deals with related themes such as the matters of letting go, of trying to find a balance, a new life, and how those things aren’t so easy to achieve. Also, being human might not be such a boon after all.

The story had several twists and turns, and possibly some more in the part I didn’t get to read. I won’t place buying the complete volume on my priority list, but I’ll possibly do that at some point or other, if only to see where the characters will go from there (the excerpt ends on quite a cliffhanger).

Yzabel / September 7, 2013

Review: Once Upon A Time Machine

Once Upon a Time MachineOnce Upon a Time Machine by Andrew Carl

My rating: [rating=4]

Summary:

Fairy tales have fueled our dreams and fired our imaginations for centuries. Step inside a time machine built by a collection of today’s finest storytellers, and enter a range of futures where familiar tales are reimagined in an astonishing variety of styles. This collection of twenty-five retold tales delivers a reading experience that will delight generations young, old, and yet to come, featuring the next wave of leading writers and illustrators.

Review:

(A long-due review, considering I got an ebook copy through NetGalley over one year ago, but got sidetracked and forgot about reading it before it was archived there. Well, I can still give my opinion, though.)

This comic-book/graphic novel is about retellings with a sci-fi/futuristic twist—fairy tales and heroic deeds, but not only European ones: it also contains it shares of stories inspired by Asian folklore. As with every anthology-type book, quality varies, some stories being really good, and others leaving me cold; overall, though, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Every story is by a different author, too, and so you’ll get very different styles, both in drawing and storytelling (here, too, you might like or dislike a given style, depending on what your tastes are like).

Among my favourite ones, I would list:

– 1001: An interesting beginning, playing, of course, on the “1001 Nights”.
– John Henry: I admit I didn’t know about him before reading this book, and then researching him… No matter what, it was a strong story, even without previous knowledge of the original one, and proved to be a good way of illustrating the man/machine conflict.
– The Stars are not Wanted Now: Pinocchio as an AI who doesn’t know how “it” should behave. I liked how the part about lying was revisited.
– The Three Musketeers, in an unexpected setting where it’s indeed “all for one”, and where they either work together or don’t work at all.
– The Three Little Pigs: Highly unusual, especially regarding the role played by the wolf, who doesn’t go around destroying houses, but reputations. I loved the ending.
– Rikki-Tikki-Tavi: My favourite, even though it deals with a theme I’m not at ease with. The original one had always been one of my favourites, and it remains so here.
– The Five Chinese brothers also left a strong impression on me.
– Bombus and Vespula: Really creepy in its ending, and not where I thought it would take me… yet it made its point pretty well.