By: Mike Carey & Peter Gross (creators), Vince Locke (finishes on book sequences), Chris Chuckry (colors), Todd Klein (letters) & Pornsak Pichetshote (editor)
The Story: Having learned a LOT about the interconnected nature of stories, Tom Taylor begins to learn where his own powers come from.
Intro: One of the good and the bad things with creator-owned comics is that they typically have an ENDING in mind. This is great because it provides a more complete story than you get with rinse-and-repeat/hamster-on-a-wheel superhero stories, but the problem is that the reader never knows how long the story is going to be. With a book or movie, you know that the experience is intended to be ____ pages or ____ hours long. Even with a TV series, you generally know that you are watching the final season of Lost and that there are only 5 episodes left. The reader doesn’t get that with comics like The Unwritten and it can lead to some anxiety (at least for me) once you reach around issue #15 because you know that you aren’t in the beginning anymore, but without knowing where the end is, it’s hard to evaluate the middle of the story. Imagine if you were reading a paperback novel and the authors just kept handing you chapters. You would know intellectually that very few novels are under 250 pages, but you also know that some stretch up to 800 pages, so you’d never really know if an increase in tempo of the story represents the climax or is just a blip in a longer story. This can obviously be a good and a bad thing, but it is something worth pointing out and something to remember the next time someone asks you to name unique features of the comic medium.
What’s Good: The Unwritten is clearly building up to a climax because the revelations are coming fast and furious now. I hate to do this, but SPOILING WHAT HAPPENED IN LAST ISSUE is kinda necessary to discuss what happens here.
In this series, we’ve been introduced to the cool concept that stories are almost living entities that change and evolve over time as people tell new versions of the story or make awful movies. [Imagine how tortured most comic properties would be after the movie adaptation! Yikes!] We’ve also learned that Tom can use his magic doorknob to move between stories in a very vague sense and in the last issue, we saw how that works: That stories are tied together by common elements. For example, multiple stories feature the ocean, so by being in the ocean in one story, you can move into the ocean in another story because the stories touch (kinda like a big Ven diagram).
So, that was a cool story reveal, but it pales in comparison to what we learn in this issue about where Tom’s power comes from. It is a testament to how well done this issue was that I didn’t see the reveal of the whale’s true nature coming at all and the scene of revelation comes on a glorious 2-page spread by Peter Gross & Vince Locke that must have taken days to draw because of all the detail. My hand cramped up just looking at it. The spread has ink drops on it and Locke must have put those there either intentionally (to accentuate how much work it was to ink) or accidentally (and there was no way Locke was starting over). I’d love to know the answer.
By the time this issue ends, you will understand how these stories work, where Tom derives his power from and why Tom’s father created all those Tommy Taylor novels. That in itself is a great story if you’ve wondered why this man who was such a fan of great literature was writing the equivalent of Harry Potter books.
All that’s really left now is to understand the true purpose behind Wilson Taylor’s creation of Tom. What is this battle that he created this boy/man to fight?
The art is again glorious. I think Vince Locke probably had to replenish a few of his inking supplies because this issue must have worn out a few nibs. It seems like every page has things like cargo nets and ropes that require a TON of fine little lines. And it is all done with linework. There is no lazy ass dot overlay in this book and no cheating by using rendered colors to add depth. If you like detailed linework, this is a book for you.
And, as I’m starting to appreciate lettering more, you should really take note of any book that has Todd Klein’s name on it. I don’t think I’d ever buy a book for the lettering, but any creators that seek him out are probably pretty darn serious about their comic and having it be a professional work of art. This lettering is really a work of art itself rather than looking like word balloons that many readers could do themselves.
What’s Not So Good: Honestly, not much. My biggest complaint is that it’s a bit of a long read. That does mean that you got your money’s worth, but I was emotionally ready for this to end a page or two sooner.
Conclusion: Great! Awesome! The revelations keep coming in this series that is headed towards a climax. Wonderful art if you like fine linework!
Grade: A
- Dean Stell
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Filed under: Vertigo Tagged: | Chris Chuckry, Dean Stell, Mike Carey, Peter Gross, Pornsak Pichetshote, review, The Unwritten, The Unwritten #23, The Unwritten #23 review, Todd Klein, Vertigo, Vince Locke
