The Unwritten by Mike Carey

Published by Vertigo on September 24, 2013

The Unwritten is an outgrowth of a comic book series of the same name. While it serves as an origin story for the comic book's protagonist, the reader need not be familiar with the comic book series to enjoy this volume as a stand-alone graphic novel.

This incarnation of The Unwritten is a story of creation or conception, of an author giving birth to a story. The story is about Tommy Taylor, the son of two powerful mages who, as a baby, floated away in a basket from the sinking ship on which his parents died. The baby is swallowed by a whale and delivered to a village where a wizard lives. The wizard names the baby Tommy and, for much of his young life, raises him in ignorance of his heritage. Tommy discovers the nature of his parents at about the time his parents’ enemy (a vampire, of course) discovers Tommy. The vampire wants whatever was on the ship. At the same time, he wants something from Tommy that Tommy doesn’t have … or does he?

Not coincidentally (or so he comes to believe), the author of Tommy’s story unexpectedly fathers a son of his own. Naturally, he names the baby Tommy, but as his wife descends into a well of depression, the author finds that he’s better at parenting a fictional child than a real one. But is there, in the end, any difference between the real and the fictional Tommy?

The Unwritten is an ambitious story that, after a slow start, grew on me until I became fully absorbed. That’s largely due to the quality of the storytelling. In addition to some swashbuckling fantasy, there are a couple of unconventional family dramas here, and a nice lesson about the possibility of being special even if you aren’t gifted. Although it’s possible to anticipate much of what happens to the fictional Tommy in the second half, the story is still satisfying, while the deeper story (involving the “real” Tommy) charts a more surprising course.

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