Winshluss's Pinocchio

This was a birthday present to one of many birthday books I bought myself. It's by Winshluss, a French cartoonist who was also, with Satrapi, behind the Persepolis movie that I still need to see. Quick review to spread the wealth around:

The basic story is a darkly comic retelling of Pinocchio, all sans (it's French!) words except for occasional interludes of Jiminy, the born loser cricket what lives inside Pinocchio's head.

I was surprised how funny everything was. It's not too often that I laugh out loud at comics anymore(--I submit that there is a definite minimum reading-speed limit needed in order to make a laughoutloud joke funny, and my Japanese reading-speed ain't it--)but I did a handful of times with Pinocchio. Like, there's this one bit where Pinocchio meets Candlewick (called 'Lampwick' in the Disney movie; called 'that kid who becomes Pinocchio's friend till he starts smoking cigars and turns into a donkey' by everyone who saw the Disney movie) and Candlewick offers out his hand to shake, only to pull it back and laugh like mad when Pinocchio tries to. Syke. Later in the book, Candlewick is being chased by soldiers and he begs Pinocchio to help him up a wall and to safety. Pinocchio holds out his hand to grab Candlewick's, who pulls it away again and laughs his head off. Oh wait, no, the soldiers chop his head off. He totally dies. Syke.

Anyways, really charming book. It won the Angouleme Best Album Award in 2009, if that helps. (Angouleme is like Comic-Con but less Hollywood; like Comiket but less porn. One hopes one can go one day, but sending one to Europe to buy comics would not be unlike sending a gambling addict to Monte Cristo to sightsee for a weekend.)