Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Carey kicks things off nicely., January 14, 2010
This review is from: Unwritten Vol. 1: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity (Paperback)
Mike Carey is one of the many British comic writers to make his name at DC's Vertigo imprint. Carey began his North American writing career with his famous "Lucifer" series (a spinoff of Neil Gaiman's "The Sandman"), as well as a run on the longrunning "John Constantine, Hellblazer". Subsequently he's spent some time at Marvel Comics, most prominently with a lengthy period on "X-Men", which has met with quite a bit of fan acclaim. Now he returns to Vertigo with his next big indie project, "The Unwritten", which revisits a passel of familiar Vertigo themes and should prove very popular among literary enthusiasts. This trade paperback collections issue 1-5 of the series. Some spoilers follow.
Our protagonist is Tom Taylor, the now-adult son of the famous author Wilson Taylor; much like A. A. Milne and his son Christopher Robin, Wilson integrated his son into his writing, making him the hero of a thirteen-volume fantasy series that (the series helpfully tells us) is popular enough to make Harry Potter look like, ah, I guess the hero of "Eragon" by comparison. The now-adult Tom makes a living at fan conventions and the like, while his father vanished without a trace years before. At least, that's what Tom believes. But after an encounter with a mysterious woman inquiring into his past, the question of exactly what Tom is comes to the fore. This kicks off a strange and as-yet-largely-unexplained journey into conspiracy and metafiction.
In comparison to past Vertigo series, one can very easily see many similarities with "The Sandman", which was also very much concerned with the nature of story and the interactions between fiction and reality. Carey's writing demonstrates quite a wide range of literary influences, with the core of the series being quite obviously based on Harry Potter, the defining literary product of the first decade of the 21st century. But perhaps the most impressive work comes in issue five, a standalone story focused on Rudyard Kipling, the great imperial poet, where Carey manages to reinterpret Kipling's entire literary output and personal life in the context of the series' ongoing plot. It's quite a bravura piece of writing. Peter Gross, the artist, does a terrific job rendering the world of Tom Taylor, and he doesn't miss a beat in the skips between different storytelling styles.
An interesting, if still somewhat inscrutable, start to a new property at Vertigo.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent comic that gets better as it goes along, January 20, 2010
This review is from: Unwritten Vol. 1: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity (Paperback)
I'm probably grading this slightly on the curve because it gets so much better as it goes along. And, as they say, the plot thickens. The first few issues introduce us to Tommy Taylor and his sad little life. As a child he was the model for a series of kid's novels about Tommy Taylor, boy wizard, who was aided by two friends who bear a sharp resemblance to Ron and Hermione and a flying cat. There is even a Voldemort equivalent, the evil vampire Count Ambrosio. At first, you think that the Harry Potter resemblance is pretty much all there is going to be to the book, but the plot, as they say, quickly thickens. The heart of the story is not wizards and vampires, but the act of writing and the role of stories in our lives. As of the most recent issue (I write this shortly after having read Issue No. 9) it isn't clear what all the threads are leading to, but we know that there is a centuries old conspiracy connected to great writing. The key will certainly turn out to be Tommy's map of places where great fictional events took place, but the identity of the mysterious organization behind it has yet to be revealed or all of their purposes determined.
This marvelous series is still in its early stages and is going to be with us for a while. If you haven't started reading this, you need to. It is going to be another great series in the best Vertigo tradition.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
13 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Waay tooo slooooow, May 17, 2010
This review is from: Unwritten Vol. 1: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity (Paperback)
I'm a Mike Carey fan, or used to be. Certainly, his Lucifer series was one of the great stories to ever come out of comics. Then he went into novels and wrote a few books which, while not spectacular, were readable. Now, he's come back to comics and I think he's lost his way.
One of the great things about the comic media is that the phrase "a picture is worth a thousand words" is a given. The artist creates a scene that allows the author to make grandiose, sweeping statements that would seem trite in novel form, and the plot moves along accordingly. Here, it's almost as though Mr. Carey is writing a novel and the art is wallowing in the novel's pace. This volume covers issues 1-5 and there is no feeling of plot, or character development in it's snail-like progression and, even in a novel I would find this pacing tedious.
I know this puts me at odds with the other reviewers; but 2*s is the most I can give it.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
