The Unwritten
Encyclopedia
The Unwritten is an American
comic book
ongoing series
written by Mike Carey with art by Peter Gross
and published by the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics
. The book follows Tom Taylor, who was the inspiration for a series of hugely successful children's fantasy novels in the vein of Harry Potter
. The series deals with themes related to fame, celebrity, and the relationship between fiction and human consciousness.
series. Tom is generally portrayed as being somewhat rude and jaded about his status as a minor celebrity. His father had made a fortune off of a character modeled on young Tom, but Tom himself is without accomplishment, even claiming that his only real skill is an encyclopedic knowledge of literary geography. Tom makes most of his money through appearances at comic book and fantasy conventions. At one of these he is confronted by a man dressed as the villain of the Tommy Taylor novels, Count Ambrosio. Believing him merely to be an obsessive fan, Tom dismisses him but he is later kidnapped and held captive by the man, who appears to be a real vampire like Count Ambrosio. Taylor manages to escape with the kidnapper being killed by an explosion. His troubles are just beginning as a young woman named Lizzy Hexam confronts him at a convention where she publicly asserts that Tom is not the real son of Wilson Taylor. A media firestorm ensues in which various theories, such as Tom being a gold digging impostor, or his having been bought by Wilson Taylor from Romanian Gypsies, circulate.
Eventually, some fans come to the conclusion that Tom Taylor, who had miraculously escaped unharmed from the explosion which killed Count Ambrosio, was the living incarnation of the fictional Tommy Taylor and would act as some sort of messiah. In an attempt to get away from the publicity, and get to the bottom of the mystery of his identity, Tom retreats to the Villa Diodati
, the Swiss mansion where Mary Shelley
wrote Frankenstein
. The villa is the place where his father wrote the Tommy Taylor novels and the last place where he had been seen before mysteriously disappearing. Unbeknownst to Tom, a small gathering of mystery and horror authors is also meeting at the Villa. While Tom attempts to figure out what happened to his father, the other attendees are murdered by a mysterious assassin known as Pullman. When the authorities arrive they accuse Tom of the murders. As he is being arrested, Tom is shocked to see the winged cat which accompanies the fictional Tommy Taylor in his adventures, perched nearby. Thrown into prison, Tom is put in a cell with Savoy, who turns out to be a reporter who had bribed his way into prison in order to report on Taylor's activities.
In prison, Tom immediately runs afoul of the prison's warden Chadron. The warden's children love the Tommy Taylor books and he hates Tom for potentially sullying their enjoyment of it. Chadron even goes so far as to allow a team of assassins to enter the prison to kill Tom. However, Tom and Savoy are rescued by Lizzie Hexam, who had gotten herself imprisoned in the women's section of the prison in order to help Tom. Using a magical doorknob which he had discovered in the Villa Diodati, Tom, Lizzie, and Savoy escape from prison, but not before witnessing the death of the warden's young children who, enamored of the Tommy Taylor novels and believing them to be real, had attempted to save Tom. After Tom's escape the warden discovers his dead children and, consumed with rage, transforms into Tommy Taylor's enemy Count Ambrosio. Meanwhile, Tom, Lizzie and Savoy, who now mirror the fictional threesome of Tommy and his friends Peter and Sue, find themselves in a ghostly 1930s Germany. Tommy discovers that this is a representation of the creation of Jud Suss the notorious Nazi propaganda film. This is an important event because the original novel Jud Suss involved a positive portrayal of a Jewish civil servant in Germany. The Nazis twisted the narrative to reinforce their antisemitic notions of Jewish villainy.
At this point, we discover that Lizzie is apparently still in communication with Wilson Taylor, a fact which she continues to hide from Tom. Wilson worries that Tom is not ready yet to confront as powerful a fiction as Jud Suss. Indeed, when they meet a fictional version of Joseph Goebbels
, the phantom nearly kills Tommy. Lizzie, Tom, and Savoy eventually escape and use the doorknob to travel back to the real world, just in time for the release of the final Tommy Taylor novel.
– who is famous as the Christopher Robin of the Winnie the Pooh books. Milne grew up feeling that his father had stolen his childhood from him, turned a profit from it and then given it back to him in a form he couldn’t use. Our Tom is very much in that situation when we first meet him, although we take his identity crisis a fair bit further than that."
:
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
ongoing series
Ongoing series
The term "ongoing series" is used in contrast to limited series , a one shot , a graphic novel, or a trade paperback...
written by Mike Carey with art by Peter Gross
Peter Gross (comics)
Peter Gross is an American comic book writer and artist known for such works as The Books of Magic, Lucifer and The Unwritten.-Biography:Gross attended St. John's University and did graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin-Superior...
and published by the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
. The book follows Tom Taylor, who was the inspiration for a series of hugely successful children's fantasy novels in the vein of Harry Potter
Harry Potter
Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...
. The series deals with themes related to fame, celebrity, and the relationship between fiction and human consciousness.
Plot synopsis
The plot revolves around Tom Taylor, son of Wilson Taylor, an author who disappeared without a trace at the height of his career. Wilson wrote a series of books about a boy wizard called Tommy Taylor, filled with fantasy, even being compared to the Harry PotterHarry Potter
Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...
series. Tom is generally portrayed as being somewhat rude and jaded about his status as a minor celebrity. His father had made a fortune off of a character modeled on young Tom, but Tom himself is without accomplishment, even claiming that his only real skill is an encyclopedic knowledge of literary geography. Tom makes most of his money through appearances at comic book and fantasy conventions. At one of these he is confronted by a man dressed as the villain of the Tommy Taylor novels, Count Ambrosio. Believing him merely to be an obsessive fan, Tom dismisses him but he is later kidnapped and held captive by the man, who appears to be a real vampire like Count Ambrosio. Taylor manages to escape with the kidnapper being killed by an explosion. His troubles are just beginning as a young woman named Lizzy Hexam confronts him at a convention where she publicly asserts that Tom is not the real son of Wilson Taylor. A media firestorm ensues in which various theories, such as Tom being a gold digging impostor, or his having been bought by Wilson Taylor from Romanian Gypsies, circulate.
Eventually, some fans come to the conclusion that Tom Taylor, who had miraculously escaped unharmed from the explosion which killed Count Ambrosio, was the living incarnation of the fictional Tommy Taylor and would act as some sort of messiah. In an attempt to get away from the publicity, and get to the bottom of the mystery of his identity, Tom retreats to the Villa Diodati
Villa Diodati
The Villa Diodati is a manor in Cologny close to Lake Geneva. It is most famous for having been the summer residence of Lord Byron, Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley, John Polidori and others in 1816, where the basis for the classical horror stories Frankenstein and The Vampyre was laid.Originally called...
, the Swiss mansion where Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley was a British novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus . She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley...
wrote Frankenstein
Frankenstein
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel about a failed experiment that produced a monster, written by Mary Shelley, with inserts of poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley started writing the story when she was eighteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty-one. The first...
. The villa is the place where his father wrote the Tommy Taylor novels and the last place where he had been seen before mysteriously disappearing. Unbeknownst to Tom, a small gathering of mystery and horror authors is also meeting at the Villa. While Tom attempts to figure out what happened to his father, the other attendees are murdered by a mysterious assassin known as Pullman. When the authorities arrive they accuse Tom of the murders. As he is being arrested, Tom is shocked to see the winged cat which accompanies the fictional Tommy Taylor in his adventures, perched nearby. Thrown into prison, Tom is put in a cell with Savoy, who turns out to be a reporter who had bribed his way into prison in order to report on Taylor's activities.
In prison, Tom immediately runs afoul of the prison's warden Chadron. The warden's children love the Tommy Taylor books and he hates Tom for potentially sullying their enjoyment of it. Chadron even goes so far as to allow a team of assassins to enter the prison to kill Tom. However, Tom and Savoy are rescued by Lizzie Hexam, who had gotten herself imprisoned in the women's section of the prison in order to help Tom. Using a magical doorknob which he had discovered in the Villa Diodati, Tom, Lizzie, and Savoy escape from prison, but not before witnessing the death of the warden's young children who, enamored of the Tommy Taylor novels and believing them to be real, had attempted to save Tom. After Tom's escape the warden discovers his dead children and, consumed with rage, transforms into Tommy Taylor's enemy Count Ambrosio. Meanwhile, Tom, Lizzie and Savoy, who now mirror the fictional threesome of Tommy and his friends Peter and Sue, find themselves in a ghostly 1930s Germany. Tommy discovers that this is a representation of the creation of Jud Suss the notorious Nazi propaganda film. This is an important event because the original novel Jud Suss involved a positive portrayal of a Jewish civil servant in Germany. The Nazis twisted the narrative to reinforce their antisemitic notions of Jewish villainy.
At this point, we discover that Lizzie is apparently still in communication with Wilson Taylor, a fact which she continues to hide from Tom. Wilson worries that Tom is not ready yet to confront as powerful a fiction as Jud Suss. Indeed, when they meet a fictional version of Joseph Goebbels
Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism...
, the phantom nearly kills Tommy. Lizzie, Tom, and Savoy eventually escape and use the doorknob to travel back to the real world, just in time for the release of the final Tommy Taylor novel.
Inspiration
While many people assume that the story is inspired by Harry Potter, Mike Carey, in an interview with Nicholas Yanes from scifipulse.net, claimed that "the most important reference point is the autobiography of Christopher MilneChristopher Robin Milne
Christopher Robin Milne was the son of author A. A. Milne. As a child, he was the basis of the character Christopher Robin in his father's Winnie-the-Pooh stories and in two books of poems.-Early life:...
– who is famous as the Christopher Robin of the Winnie the Pooh books. Milne grew up feeling that his father had stolen his childhood from him, turned a profit from it and then given it back to him in a form he couldn’t use. Our Tom is very much in that situation when we first meet him, although we take his identity crisis a fair bit further than that."
Collected editions
The series is being collected into trade paperbacksTrade paperback (comics)
In comics, a trade paperback is a collection of stories originally published in comic books, reprinted in book format, usually capturing one story arc from a single title or a series of stories with a connected story arc or common theme from one or more titles...
:
| Title | ISBN | Release Date | Collected Material |
|---|---|---|---|
| Volume 1: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity | ISBN 1-4012-2565-9 | January 12, 2010 | The Unwritten #1-5 144 pages |
| Volume 2: Inside Man | ISBN 1-4012-2873-9 | August 11, 2010 | The Unwritten #6-12 168 pages |
| Volume 3: Dead Man's Knock | ISBN 1-4012-3046-6 | March 29, 2011 | The Unwritten #13-18 160 pages |
| Volume 4: Leviathan | ISBN 1-4012-3292-2 | October 25, 2011 | The Unwritten #19-24 144 pages |
| Volume 5: On to Genesis | ISBN 1-7811-6050-3 | January 27, 2012 (TBD) | The Unwritten #25-30 160 pages |