The Unwritten, Vol. 1: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity

Truth, reality, story, fiction. Fact is that if enough people believe something to be true it really isn't much different that just being reality itself. The leviathan binds us all. Lets kill it together.

Mike Carey has me hooked again. I'm not sure if I know exactly what's going on, or I'm completely lost, and that's a lovely tension. I can't wait to see what happens next - hopefully the library has the series, or this could get expensive . . .

This review is for books 1-5.

This is what one might call the graphic novel for book lovers. The whole idea is that books fuel the world. That people can come together to all love a book, think about a book and that will fuel the magic that the world is lacking yet needs. But there's this group of people who age incredibly slowly and they control the world by controlling the literature that the world is exposed to and they'll do whatever it takes to get that control.

I think.

These books have a lot going on and mostly at times I feel slightly confused. Still, they are exciting and, well, graphic. The only one I had a hard time with was Leviathan. All that Moby Dick talk bored the heck out of me. Not a fan.

But if you love books this could possibly be the best series of graphic novels you've ever read.

Completely enjoyed this story and cannot wait to read the next in the series!

I read this quite a while back and remembered enjoying it, but never continuing with it. I wanted to revisit it, since I've been in the mood for something ‘different' in my reading repertoire. On my second reading, I realize why I enjoyed it so much the first time around.
Touching on themes about stories and their impact on our lives, nuggets on literary sources along the way, great artwork and interesting characters, it would be hard for me not enjoy this.
I love stories about stories! A lot of my favourite books are about books, bookworms or stories and storytelling and this is a great addition to that list. I am excited this time to continue to read the series and see where it leads.

This was a book that, in the beginning, I didn't expect to like. I anticipated this book being a pot shot at Harry Potter and its fandom. A deconstruction of the series (and YA fiction) by someone who doesn't appreciate the genre.

Instead, I enjoyed this volume and definitely am going to read subsequent volumes. My concerns about subsequent books have shifted to something else though. As it stands, I am somewhat concerned that importance the series' universe has on literary convention could end up turning into dueling TV Tropes users.

Hopefully, as with my preconceptions, I'll be wrong.

There once was an author named Wilson Taylor, who wrote a series of fantasy novels based around a fictionalized version of his son, Tom. The Tommy Taylor books were in the vein of Tim Hunter or Harry Potter, but even more popular than the latter. Then, right after the penultimate volume in the series is released, with Tommy on death's door - Wilson disappears.

That's the backstory for The Unwritten, which begins with the real Tom Taylor making convention appearances and otherwise cashing in on his father's legacy. Until a woman confronts him at the San Diego TommyCon, claiming that he isn't Tom Taylor, and that in fact there is no such person as Tom Taylor. The fallout of that is rumour and scandal enough to drive Tom into hiding, and we start to get some hints as to who Tom “really” is, and what his relationship is to his father's work.

It's a Vertigo comic from a pair of Vertigo veterans, doing the type of book that Vertigo does best (literary urban fantasy). Anyone who is a fan of Sandman or Fables would feel really at home with this story, for example.

The one thing that did bug me about it, though, was that the book itself seems more like an introduction of premise or proof of concept than an actual story; there's little actually there, beyond introducing characters and laying hints for future volumes. I know that it's an ongoing series, so they couldn't have wrapped up everything, but a little more meat on the bones would have been appreciated.

Pretty much a must read if you've spent any time on Gothic or Brit Lit.

The Unwritten has wickedly good premise, some biting satire of the publishing industry, and really great cover art. The interior art is solid as well.

One of only three new comics from the past year to stay on my pull list past five issues.