And after the Spanish version… comes the French one, but… for when will Lucas Varela decide to release his Pinocchio personal adaptation in the Shakespeare language?
Paolo Pinocchio (published last year in Spain under Dib> Buks and this month in France under Tanabis) isn’t such a bad guy, just a very clever and sometimes selfish being. A bizarre version of Carlo Collodi’s immortal character who becomes a not very child-friendly adaptation… Pinocchio is now amoral and lacks any scruples… that’s why he always ends up in hell.
Paolo was born in 2003 as part of an illustration work done for an magazine which needed an image to go with an article about lies. The character inspired Lucas several stories but his inability to order all those ideas into a solid script quickly transformed into this anarchic mix of unconnected stories.
Comics have adapted Pinocchio 1001 times, Varela cites as examples the very admired version by Winshluss or the one appearing in one of Bill Willingham’s Fables. “Ive also seen the Pinocchio Vampire Slayer which I haven’t read but has a funny title“.
“Pinocchio is like Batman, a character that can adapt and supports any treatment with the advantage that it is free to use.” But Varela’s version isn’t very faithful to that of its creator. His Pinocchio nose doesn’t change with the act of lying but becomes a dark powerful phallus Paolo doesn’t know how to make good use of.
So this unethical and decadent criticism of modern society just got released by Tanibis but … for when the English version?! Only Paolo knows…
