The Unwritten Vol. 01: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity

A very promising beginning: The author of a Harry Potter-esque phenomenon (only even bigger) disappeared without a trace after the thirteenth book was published. Fifteen years later, his son -- the namesake of his books' protagonist -- is still making a living signing his father's books at conventions, yet understandably resents it whenever people identify him with the character.

But then, some odd stuff starts happening, and in a very literal sense (pun intended), the lines between fact and fiction might not be drawn in the way anyone could have expected.

While this character is clearly the one The Unwritten is to follow, the collection ends on an issue omitting him entirely, and rather going back to the life of Rudyard Kipling, show more reimagined through the lense of the rules and mysteries of this world. A surprising but intriguing choice to say the least, and it effectively provides a lot of answers (and yet more questions) about how The Unwritten world works.

I'll be reading volume 2 next, and if it builds satisfactorily on this, buying the rest of the series will go rather high on my (admittedly crowded) list. show less

Summary: Tom Taylor is the adult son of Wilson Taylor, author of the famous beloved Tommy Taylor series of books. Wilson disappeared mysteriously after writing the thirteenth book, and Tom is now making a living on the convention circuit, although he's getting tired of people assuming he's the boy from his father's books. One day, a woman shows up at a convention with some very disturbing questions about Tom's past, and suddenly, everything Tom thought he knew about who he is starts to unravel.

This collection ends with a one-off issue from the point of view of Rudyard Kipling, which doesn't bear directly on the main plot but does shed a little light on the means and motives of the villains of the story.

Review: In his introduction, Bill show more Willingham (of Fables fame), points out that while the last century of comics was dominated by the superheroes, the new trend in comics is the rise of the fantasy stories, animal stories, and literature-based comics. He dubs this the "LAF Triumverate," and while I agree that the three are inextricably linked, I think he doesn't really stress the main common theme that holds them together: LAF comics are, almost without exception, stories about stories. And that, of course, is why I love them, and why I thought "The Unwritten" was so great.

Seriously, I feel like "The Unwritten" was written specifically for me, it's got so many elements that I love. It's a story about stories, and the power of stories to shape our lives and the world around us. It is chock-full of literary references that are actually relevant to the story. It gave me a chance to apply one of my favorite tags on LibraryThing, "permeable boundaries between fiction and reality" (otherwise only used for Cornelia's Inkworld books and Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series.) It's got a good and mysterious mystery set up in this first volume, with plenty of clues doled out and a serious sense of urgency. It's got splashes of horror, but also has this wonderful, witty, dark sense of humor about the whole thing - I particularly love the zealots who claim Tommy is the Messiah: quite literally, the "word made flesh." I feel like it's also got a bit of the social commentary about the public's obsession with Harry Potter-esque fantasy worlds that Lev Grossman was shooting for with The Magicians, but it manages it more subtly and evenly. Overall, this had pretty much everything I could possibly want out of a comic, and I can only hope that Carey and Gross manage to keep this series at the high level with which they started out. 5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: The two big and obvious read-alike recommendations are Sandman and Fables - if you like those, you'll almost certainly like The Unwritten as well. If you haven't read those - or haven't read many/any graphic novels in general - but if the idea of metafiction, or stories about stories, appeals to you, then you should check out The Unwritten for sure. show less

Tom Taylor is the son of Wilson Taylor, the author of a stupendously popular series of books about a young wizard, called Tommy Taylor. Wilson has long since disappeared, and Tom ekes out a living appearing at conventions, signing his father's books as Tommy Taylor. Then one day his identity is questioned by a young graduate student at a convention: is he really Wilson's son, or the son of a poor immigrant couple?

Tom is suitably shocked as his identity is pulled out from under him, but what is more shocking is the outpouring of rage from the fans of Tommy Taylor. They practically want to lynch Tom. While Tom is searching for his real identity (and dodging angry fans), the puzzle gets deeper and deeper.

The charms of this graphic novel - show more apart from the great story, great art, and fascination with where it's all going to go - is the meta-textuality of it all. There are pages that are made up to be a computer screen with various bits of information (a news website with an article about the scandal of Tom's identity; Google searches; chat sessions) all of which add to the background of the story; and (best of all for me), the whole fun of Tommy being such a complete rip-off of Harry Potter. show less

In this smart, exhilarating new comics series, Tom Taylor is a man with an identity crisis. When he was young, his father published a wildly popular Harry Potter-like series of children’s fantasy books starring none other than Tommy Taylor, and promptly disappeared. In the years since, Tom has gathered all the burdens of fame and none of its privileges. Unable to access any of his missing father’s fortune, he’s forced to travel to science fiction conventions and book fairs, signing Tommy Taylor books and dodging questions about his father’s disappearance. One day, when his patience has worn thin, a convention-goer publicly accuses him of being a fraud, claiming that his father illegally adopted Tommy as a marketing gimmick for show more his books. Soon his adoring fans around the world have become an angry mob, and they’re the least of Tom’s troubles: A dangerous, mysterious cabal of meta-fictional villains believes that he is the fictional Tommy Taylor come to life, and is out to destroy him before he can discover the truth. This is the best new series I’ve started in years: perfect for fans of The Sandman and Fables, it explores the shifting lines between the stories we tell and the realities we live in jaw-dropping ways. show less

This got reviewed on BoingBoing a couple of weeks ago and both comic shops in Newcastle had sold out by the time I got there (though neither shop seemed to make the connection ;-). I finally got my hands on it. I do miss having a local independent comic shop where the staff know me and can recommend things - there's no way I should have found out about this from Cory Doctorow, much as I like him. ;-)

Anyway, this is a great first volume with lots of food for thought on the power of stories. Mikey Carey rolls out all the clichés and tropes of fantasy in his 'story within a story' of Tommy Taylor. That bit reminds me a little of the Sandman issue about the serial killer convention. The narrative technique, of stories within stories, is show more tried and tested (Wuthering Heights, Sandman - Worlds' End), and Mike Carey pulls it off well. It's also well supported by Peter Gross's artwork which, though not stunning, gets the story across nicely. I like some of the cover art and the sketches very much too. Possibly the one real quibble I have with the volume is Bill Willingham's introduction, which is pretentious beyond belief.

I'm looking forward to picking up the next volume when it comes out.

Bechdel: Pass (the horror writers' workshop) show less

Dang. It was like someone crawled into my head and found out what my best of hypothetical comic books would be, then wrote it.

The kid who supposedly inspired his dad's Harry Potteresque stories has to carry on after his dad inexplicably disappears, after his dad forces him to memories all kinds of literary landmarks. Where George Orwell got his inspiration for the Ministry of Truth. The house where Frankenstein started. Now he finds out that he might not be his father's son at all, but a kidnapping victim, while being chased by characters out of "his" books...

Metafiction at its best :)

Imagine the worlds best selling fantasy series was never finished, the author disappearing into thin air. Now imagine that was your father and those books star you as the hero and your life is now one round of signings and interviews at fantasy conventions. Bad enough until you realise your childhood was a lie and someone is out to kill you.

A startlingly good first graphic novel, just enough to set the scene and draw you but leaving you enough mystery to wonder where it's all going. The playful merging of reality and literature is not only great fun it makes a great plot, a plot which moves along at a fast pace and is complex but never overwhelming. The artwork is superb too. I for one cannot wait to get my hands on the 2nd volume.