Origin

The  modern  version is told in reference to a modern father who is dealing with the death of his wife and being a single father.  He confers with his son's teacher, with whom they later agree to see each other romantically.  He returns home and finds the fairy tale book which Belinda  has given to his son.  He reads the story of Pinocchio, the wooden boy created because the carpenter, Gepetto , has lost his wife and son.  The wooden boy strives to become real and goes so far as to run away from home and join a circus.  A group of thieves are hired by Gepetto to find the boy, and although they take the reward money, they also plan to free the boy and sell him to a richer bidder.  They give him a key to escape his cage, but with his pet cricket advising him, he decides to kill first the circus owner and then the two thieves, the latter of the two being witnessed by his father.  The story cuts back to the modern day where the son returns from school and reveals that his teacher died from a suspicious murder that same day.  After the school finds the father, he is certain that his son is guilty of the act.  As the story picks up, the father asks what his son has done, but when he doesn't answer he allows him to go to school by himself so that he can stay at home and read some more of the fairy tale.  After killing the two thieves Pinocchio was dragged into the water, and his father goes in after him.  The two are then swallowed by a whale.  Gepetto makes a deal with Pinocchio, allowing him to go free provided he try to reform, while he must stay in the whale's stomach.  A fairy comes to rescue him and tells him he must be there for Pinocchio.  He escapes and when he finds Pinocchio he finds he has killed more, and then Pinocchio kills him as well.  The fairy then shows up and reveals she had intended this all along.  When the father in the real world finishes reading this he finds his son has set his school on fire.  He runs in to rescue him but chooses to leave him to die and rescues another girl instead.  Belinda drives away with the boy (now transformed into a wooden person) alongside her.  He soon after becomes an agent of the Dark One.   
 

Creation

His first appearance was in Grimm Fairy Tales #31.  As a wooden monster he first appeared in issue #47.