(August 26, 2024) Renowned Hellboy creator Mike Mignola, award-winning colorist Dave Stewart, and celebrated novelist Lemony Snicket (A Series of Unfortunate Events) are teaming up with Beehive Books for an illustrated and annotated edition of Carlo Collodi’s classic novel PINOCCHIO. This all-new, deluxe hardcover edition includes over more than 50 exquisite original illustrations from Mignola, which breathe new life to the charm, gloom, and chaos of the seminal novel, alongside over 100 full text annotations by Snicket, presented as slipped-in typewritten sheets produced by Snicket during his Pinocchio-induced descent into madness.
Beehive Book’s PINOCCHIO: THE ILLUMINATED EDITION provides commentary by Lemony Snicket, which takes both the reader and the acclaimed writer on a first experience of the iconic novel, chock full of surreal symbolism and commentary. “For many years I have been curious to see if I, too, will join the tradition of readers completely transformed into lunatics from a reading of PINOCCHIO, and although Carlo Collodi died long ago, I like to think that somewhere, somehow, he is interested in seeing what I might have to say as I read this book and likely lose my mind,” writes Snicket. “Perhaps you are too.”
“This is not just a new edition of Collodi’s classic—it’s both a celebration of a classic work of children’s literature, and a strange Borgesian experiment,” said Beehive Books Editor Josh O’Neil.” Mignola and Snicket have invented an entirely new way to read this beloved Italian fable. Covered with coffee-stains and ink-blots, Snickett’s notes are more than text annotations -—they’re missives from the brink of literary agony and ecstasy, and in their strange conceit they walk us through the wilds of Collodi’s fabulous tale, and reintroduce us to its odd, wonderful music.
The project is part of Beehive Book’s acclaimed Illuminated Editions imprint, the Philadelphia-based company’s distinctive line of book art editions of literary classics which reimagine literary masterworks with all-new covers and illustrations from the world’s greatest graphic artists, including the Balbusso Twins, Rebekka Dunlap, Brecht Evens, Dave McKean, Paul Pope, Yuko Shimizu, Bill Sienkiewicz, Kent Williams, and Jim Woodring, alongside original essays from the likes of Academy Award-winning filmmakers Guillermo Del Toro and Darren Aronofsky and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Cunningham. The Beehive Books Illuminated Editions feature singular design sensibilities, the highest production values, and a special emphasis on comics and graphic art.
PINOCCHIO: THE ILLUMINATED EDITION is due out on Tuesday, August 27.
Here’s what people are saying about PINOCCHIO: THE ILLUMINATED EDITION:
“As far as creative pairings go, it’s hard to beat the combination of Hellboy creator Mike Mignola and A Series of Unfortunate Events author Lemony Snicket.”—IGN
“(Snicket’s) gothic storytelling sensibilities are so perfectly aligned with Mignola’s, that it makes you wonder how no one thought to pair them up before.”—FORBES
“Gorgeously upsetting” — io9
“It’s A Real Book!” — TOR
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About Beehive Books: Beehive Books is a Philadelphia-based small press founded by artist and designer Maëlle Doliveux and author and editor Josh O’Neill. They create book art editions of literary and pictorial works with a special emphasis on graphic art, design, and experimentation. Their catalog includes monographs on Harrison Cady and Herbert Crowley; a line of lavishly illustrated classic novels featuring artists like Dave McKean, Yuko Shimizu, Jim Woodring and Mike Mignola; the ongoing experimental periodical LAAB Magazine, created and curated by Ronald Wimberly, and much more. Learn more at www.beehivebooks.com, or on Instagram @beehivebooks.
About Mike Mignola: Reading Dracula at age 12 introduced Mike Mignola to folklore and Victorian supernatural literature, from which he has still never recovered. He began working as a comic book artist in 1982, working for both Marvel and DC Comics before creating Hellboy, published by Dark Horse Comics in 1994. What began as a single comic-book series would eventually expand to a “Hellboy Universe” of related graphic novels, prose novels, short story anthologies, and both animated and live action films. He also wrote and drew The Amazing Screw-On Head and Other Curious Objects. He has co-written novels with Christopher Golden (Baltimore, or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire) and Thomas Sniegoski (Grim Death and Bill the Electrocuted Criminal), worked with Francis Ford Coppola on Bram Stoker’s Dracula, was a production designer on Disney’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and was a visual consultant to Guillermo Del Toro on Blade II, Hellboy, and Hellboy II: The Golden Army. A new Hellboy film directed by Neil Marshall was released in April 2019. Mike’s comics and graphic novels have earned numerous awards, and are published in a great many countries. He lives in Southern California with his wife and a very demanding cat.
About Lemony Snicket: LEMONY SNICKET is the author of far too many books, including the four-volume All The Wrong Questions, the thirteen-volume A Series of Unfortunate Events, and the single-volume Poison for Breakfast, and has won several dubious and/or notorious awards, most recently the Charlotte Zolotow Award for The Dark, and the Peabody Award for an alleged television adaptation of his work. He is represented in all legal, literary and social matters by Daniel Handler, the author of seven novels, including We Are Pirates, All The Dirty Parts and Bottle Grove.
