Customer Reviews

Unwritten Vol. 1: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I'm absolutely new to comic books. I'm much more of a canon-lit lover. However, I've been seeking out graphic novels lately for my students (I'm an upper elementary special ed teacher, always on the lookout for anything that will get my kiddos interested in books, reading, and writing...

This is actually the first comic book (excuse me if I'm using the wrong lingo) that specifically called to me. I can't put my finger on why, and even now, just flipping through, I can't figure out what attracted me to it. Maybe the title? Something 'unwritten?' Does that mean it has not yet been written? Or words are being undone? It intrigued me.

Now that I've read it, I'm hooked. I love the way the author has brought in literature, the authors that we've all had to read for school. I love the literary GPS stuff. I love the historical background. All of it makes for very good reading, and I'm very impressed.

I've just gotten Volume 2. And I can't wait to read it!

The team from Lucifer team up in this new, slightly post-modern fantasy. Tom Taylor lives in the shadow of his missing father - but even more in the shadow of "Tommy Taylor", his father's Potter-esque fictional creation.

As things start to get a bit weird (serial killers, death threats, magical tattoos...), Tom Taylor starts out on a quest to figure out what's really going on. He doesn't get too far in this first collection, but the set-up is very intriguing.

A bit of Fables (what with the "power of stories" shtick) and a bit of The Magicians (with its combination of angst and fantasy). The lead characters are, so far, slightly forgettable - with the absent father being the most appealing of the lot. However, the story is great - and the occasional creative segue to "Tommy Taylor books" (or Rudyard Kipling's diary) is incredibly well done. Carey and Gross should settle in for a long and fascinating run. One to keep following.

If ICV2 sales figure estimates based on numbers and data provided by Diamond Comic Distributors are any indication of popularity, Mike Carey and Peter Gross' The Unwritten is Vertigo Comics' third best-selling title, although such a classification is somewhat unfair and perhaps misleading. Unlike the top-selling Fables, which just recently broke the one-hundred issue milestone, or the slightly one-year old American Vampire series that was co-written by Stephen King for its first five issues, The Unwritten is just nearing the two-year mark and holding strong between 11,000 and 12,000 issues per month. In fact, for such a newcomer on the comic scene, volume three recently ranked number one on the New York Times' paperback graphic bestseller list. Statistics and ratings aside, The Unwritten is deserving of this attention and more.

Signaling a confluence of popular culture, bridging the artificially constructed divisions between high and low art, The Unwritten makes an original contribution to both the monthly floppy shelves and chain bookstore retailers' trade paperback collections. Synthesizing elements and themes of fiction versus reality from Neil Gaiman's award-winning The Sandman as well as Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol or The Invisibles, Carey and Gross' The Unwritten is by far one of the most innovative and strategically marketed books of the decade. Just now, as Harry Potter-fandom is at its zenith with the anticipated release of the final film installment, readers who have grown up alongside the boy wizard can now graduate to the mature, young adult Vertigo title that goes far beyond the mere walls of Hogwarts.

The Unwritten opens on the life of Tom Taylor as he makes a scant living touring on the convention circuit and capitalizing on the fame of his father's series of popular children's books about a young wizard named Tommy Taylor. Immediately, the central conflict of the series is the identity of Tom--not so much distinguishing his life from that of the fictional Tommy Taylor (that comes much later in the series), but rather if Tom Taylor is actually Wilson Taylor's son. Blurring this further is the arrival of Tommy's arch nemesis from the novels, Count Ambrosio, who captures Tom and threatens to kill him. Aided by Lizzie Hexam, who bears a striking resemblance to the character of Sue from the Tommy fantasy tales, Tom embarks on a quest to learn more about the mysterious Wilson and the literary geographic trivia he instilled in Tom as a child. Add to this the paternal discord between Tom and Wilson, and The Unwritten is a multifaceted work.

The most intriguing sequence, however, in this volume is the Eisner Award-nominated chapter five "How the Whale Became." Expanding the cast of characters to include Rudyard Kipling, Mark Twain and Oscar Wilde, Carey illustrates his creative strengths as he incorporates these literary icons into the story. Contextualizing Kipling's rise to fame as a defender and champion of British imperialism within the environment of the organization targeting Wilson Taylor and his son, Carey subtly introduces the concept of certain stories as dangerous, subversive weapons and weaves this idea into the conflict facing Wilson and Tom.

Alongside Carey's masterful narrative skills, Peter Gross has penciled a varied and diverse book as well.
Gross contrasts the muted tones and cartoon style attributed to the Tommy Taylor sections with a much sharper and crisper line work for the others. One of Gross' strongest contributions is his ability to construct extremely busy, detailed, and crowded sequences of foreground and background characters and elements within the panels, and yet not once reduce or limit the pages' impact upon the reader. His ink work and finishes are also deserving of praise, as the weight he ascribes to the lines reinforces the tension, fear, and mystery inherent in the scenes. Gross obviously has a solid rapport with his colorists too, as the hues only enhance the pencils and inks.

The potentials for The Unwritten in the classroom are stellar, particularly for educators specializing in Young Adult Literature. As a pedagogical tool, the series holds great promise, as it can inculcate a passion for classic literature within students without the didactic methodology or coerced nature traditional literature classes often have in junior high and high school curriculums. Furthermore, the possibilities for comparative assignments and projects between The Unwritten and other similarly themed fantasy books are endless.

-- Nathan Wilson

Tom Taylor has lived in Tommy Taylor's shadow all of his life. Everyone thinks it must be great to be the living inspiration for his father's best selling character, but Tom hates it, he'd rather be himself. He's sick to death of Tommy and his two faithful companions, Sue and Peter, and their arch nemesis Count Ambrosio. Maybe now that his dad is dead, and there will be no more Tommy Taylor stories, now Tom can live his own life.

Ha, foolish mortal!

As Volume 1 of The Unwritten begins, Tom Taylor's life is on a downward spiral. Forced to make a living the best he can, he attends comic conventions and signs autographs, and speaks about his namesake, Tommy Taylor. This isn't his choice, but it's the best his agent Swope can do for him, and he is forced to endure the condescension of the other writers, who accuse him of living off of his late father's coat tails. During one of his panels, a weirdo who dresses and acts like Count Ambrosio pops up--seems he's been stalking Tom for a while. Then there's the girl, Lizzie Hexam, with the burning question--who is Tom Taylor and is it true he isn't who he says he is?


Things go from bad to worse, as information surfaces that Wilson Taylor never had a son, that he bought Tom from a Bosnian family. So now he's being accused of being a gold digger and a fraud!

Crowd sentiment has definitely turned against Tom. He can't even do his next gig because of threats against the book shop where he is supposed to have a signing. As he and Swope walk around London, Tom points out all the literary landmarks--it's the only real legacy his dad left to him, this encyclopedic knowledge of literary geography, useless though that is. The internet is filled with stories about Tom Taylor and his heritage, running the gamut from hatred for him to proclaiming him to be the Messiah. Things are definitely getting weird. What's a guy to do? Before he has a chance to sort that through, though, Tom finds himself kidnapped by the wannabe Count Ambrosio, who tells him he's going to cut him up with his homemade nail bomb. Okay, this is not a good day, not at all.

After he leaves the hospital, Tom decides he needs to search for the truth, figure out who he really is, starting with Lizzie Hexam, who opened up this Pandora's box. But when he goes to the college where she claims to have been a student, he learns that the only Lizzie Hexam there is in the library--in Charles Dicken's Our Mutual Friends. Meanwhile, at the publishing house which is the home of the Tommy Taylor series, a mysterious package arrives containing the missing 14th volume of the series, signed by the author himself!

Tom begins a pilgrimage through his life, searching for answers, unaware that someone else is one step behind him, and is in fact manipulating him--the mysterious sinister Pullman. Tom decides to go to his father's old gothic castle, the Villa Diodati, near Geneva, Switzerland, where not only Tommy Taylor but Frankenstein and Satan (Paradise Lost) were born. There's a literary weekend going on, but he is vouched for by someone he hasn't expected to be there. Memories come flooding back to Tom, and he begins to put some of the pieces together. There are forces that are fighting against him, but why?

The second story in the volume is How the Whale Became, in which we meet Rudyard Kipling and Samuel Clemens, as Kipling tells Clemens an extraordinary tale and during the course of which we also meet Oscar Wilde.

I am already in love with this series! I found it almost by accident in searching the library catalog for Mike Carey's works, and decided to give it a try. This is a new type of fantasy, one which they call LAF. It's a mixture of three kinds of fantasy: literary fantasy, animal fantasy and fairy tale fantasy. You can read about it in the forward, which was written by author Bill Willingham, creator of Fables. It's actually interesting, unlike some of those things. Mike Carey creates a great character in Tom Taylor--he compares him to Christopher Milne, who was the model for his father's creation Christopher Robin, and who lived in that character's shadow all of his life. So it is with Taylor. People even call him Tommy for crying out loud! There's just so much a guy can take. There are obvious comparisons between Tommy Taylor and Harry Potter, both being boy wizards with two companions and all, and the book doesn't hesitate to make them. But there is a lot more. I love the literary references as we see glimpse of Holmes, and Frankenstein, and the second story, with Kipling and Clemens was simply amazing.

The action is constant, the novel simply thrums with excitement and anticipation. It's hard not to feel sorry for Tom Taylor, even if he isn't necessarily the most likeable guy on the planet. The artwork is wonderful, done by the very gifted Peter Gross. I recognized his style right away, as he did a lot of the art in the Lucifer series, the best artwork in that series. It's very detailed, and very well done, and it simply pulls you into the page. There are also sketches by Yuko Shimizu, the Japanese designer who created Hello Kitty. These reveal a different side of that artist, one you'd never guess at if you only looked at Hello Kitty.

Mike Carey is definitely on my list of authors I'd love to meet. This is a great series already, I look forward to seeing what else he has in store for his hero! He has become an automatic read for me, I'll check out anything he writes.

THE UNWRITTEN has things to say about the nature of fame and our obsession with celebrities. And, as a nod to the Roadside-Accident-Neck-Swivel syndrome, writer Mike Carey demonstrates again that, while we as a public love to build up our idols, what we love even more is tearing them down. Carey - whom I first met in the pages of his Felix Castor horror novels - reunites with his LUCIFER cohort Peter Gross - whose EMPIRE LANES I loved back in the day. They've hooked me in again with yet another high concept series from Vertigo. Hear that? It's my wallet sobbing as it bleeds out. But it's okay.

Tom Taylor is one of those low-rent celebrities who subsists on his own name recognition. Many years ago Tom's reclusive author father, Wilson Taylor, used his son as a template for the core character - a bespectacled boy wizard - in his fantasy books, even going so far as to name him after Tom. One wonders if Wilson Taylor had ever scribbled his plot ideas on napkins. The Tommy Taylor books were huge successes, and so Tom became famous by default. Now an adult Tom has had his various stabs at a career stalled - as a novelist, as a jazz trumpeter, even as an actor who once auditioned for the lead part in a Tommy Taylor motion picture (he was rejected). Tom ekes out a living by attending book signings and comic book conventions, sort of like a poor man's Bill Mumy.

Conflict is introduced during one such convention as a college student named Lizzie Hexam, during a Q & A, begins to sow doubts regarding Tom's true identity. She raises questions that promptly launch furrowed brows and wondering gazes at Tom (whose own brow is pretty furrowed as well). Come then the public disenchantment, Tom's mission to unearth the truth, and an ancient, shadowy cabal seeking to perhaps dissuade Tom. A despicable gent called Mr. Pullman creeps onto the scene. Note that he is murderously up to no good. College student Lizzie Hexam resurfaces faster than you can say "wholesome femme fatale."

Any similarity with Harry Potter is absolutely intentional. Carey and Gross are very much aware that hordes of readers are familiar with that other boy wizard, and that this only serves to add resonance to their narrative. This is a pretty twisty read. The frame of reference continually shifts from the real world to fantasy. I bet it didn't take long for you to suspect Tom Taylor of what you're suspecting right now. And, odds are, you're spot on. The hook is in how well Carey and Gross go about their storytelling, which is smart and creative and clearly working towards something. You don't get full disclosure in this volume, of course. Way too early for massive reveals. But Gross, in an interview, describes the premise as involving the "conspiracy behind literature." We're given a smattering of hints, one of which is that Tom's father may be distant and reclusive but, once upon a time, he imparted upon his son knowledge of the geography of famous literary works. For instance, Tom is aware that the real life Coram's Fields is the setting of Jamila Gavin's CORAM BOY and also partly the setting of a Dickens story NO THOROUGHFARE. This smacks of being a relevant connective tissue, although Tom calls all of it "literary GPS bu11$hi+." But that should get you guessing good. Carey and Gross keep laying terrific groundwork.

I got no clue where the story is headed, but I'm along for the ride, enthusiastically. THE UNWRITTEN accomplishes what Bill Willingham's Great Fables Crossover doesn't - which is get me to buy into the meta storytelling. It's important that Tom Taylor is likable and relatable, and that the mystery is engrossing. I enjoy that whiff of the surreal. The small touches are appreciated. Like those panels and insets depicting the public's reaction thru various media outlets and online chat rooms. In issue #4, fan fiction - in the shape of a detestable Tommy Taylor pastiche - worms its way into the story, and it's disgusting but fun. Issue #5 delivers a swerve, tells the life of Rudyard Kipling (yes, that one). This issue had me scratching my head at first - my brow was starting to furrow - but, it turns out, Kipling plays a role in the mythology of the series. Nice swerve. Just one of many in store for the curious reader, I think.

THE UNWRITTEN Vol. 1: TOMMY TAYLOR AND THE BOGUS IDENTITY collects issues #1-5 and features doses of profanity, as well as an introduction from Bill Willingham, a cover sketch gallery by cover artist Yuko Shimizo, and Mike Carey's original prose for the opening sequence in issue #1 along with Peter Gross's illustrated layouts of that prose.

There are a number of positive reviews alreday that describe what the book is about so I though I would just add a couple of asides:

1) I didn't hesitate a moment to order up the second volume and put the third (unpublished) in my wishlist

2) It reinforces Vertigo as one of my top publishers, supplying many of the best reads on my bookshelf (Sandman, Preacher, Fables, Hellblazer, The Losers etc - if you didn't know that already). It's getting such that I'll do a search against 'Vertigo graphic novels' when I'm looking for something new.

The Unwritten starts with Tommy Taylor, the son of a famous writer who wrote a series of books about a kid magician called Tommy Taylor. The author named the character of his books after his son. The books are a huge hit in the world, much like Harry Potter and after the thirteenth book the author went missing. Nobody knows where he is.

The first issue introduces the characters smoothly and it leads us to question whether fiction became reality (is Tommy Taylor, the Tommy Taylor from the books?) Throughout the story we get more questions. The comic is fun, interesting and full of questions I want answered. Exactly the kind of comic I love.

The art in this comic is terrific. Most panels have a very detailed background and Peter Gross is able to make the comic feel very different when drawing excerpts from the Tommy Taylor books compared to when drawing "real life". I love the style, he makes a world feel real and it works in an intuitive level. Without explanation, it is very clear from the beginning that what is happening is supposed to happen in a book and not in real life.

The fifth issue is interesting in that it leaves the main story on the side and tells us the story of Kipling (the writer) and how he is related to the villains. The villains in this book seem to believe in the power of the written word so they try to use writers. A very good issue that builds the atmosphere of the comic, while straying from the main story a lot. This is something that comics can do quite well that movies can't. TV shows could do this too if they wanted.

A very good new series that I'll continue reading.