The Unwritten


The Unwritten is an American comic book ongoing series written by Mike Carey with art by Peter Gross. 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.

Inspiration

Mike Carey, in an interview with Nicholas Yanes from scifipulse.net, claimed that "the most important reference point is the autobiography of Christopher Milne – 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 paperbacks:
TitleISBNRelease DateCollected Material
Volume 1: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus IdentityJanuary 12, 2010The Unwritten #1–5 – 144 pages
Volume 2: Inside ManAugust 11, 2010The Unwritten #6–12 – 168 pages
Volume 3: Dead Man's KnockMarch 29, 2011The Unwritten #13–18 – 160 pages
Volume 4: LeviathanOctober 25, 2011The Unwritten #19–24 – 144 pages
Volume 5: On to GenesisJanuary 27, 2012The Unwritten #25–30 – 160 pages
Volume 6: Tommy Taylor and the War of WordsOctober 17, 2012The Unwritten #31–35.5 – 240 pages
Volume 7: The WoundMarch 26, 2013The Unwritten #36–41 – 144 pages
Volume 8: Orpheus in the UnderworldsFebruary 4, 2014The Unwritten #42–49 – 176 pages
Volume 9: The Unwritten FablesJuly 29, 2014The Unwritten #50–54, crossover with Fables – 144 pages
Volume 10: War StoriesOctober 14, 2014The Unwritten: Apocalypse #1–5 – 128 pages
Volume 11: ApocalypseMay 25, 2015The Unwritten: Apocalypse #6–12 – 176 pages

Additionally, Vertigo released in September 2013 an original graphic novel called The Unwritten: Tommy Taylor and the Ship that Sank Twice, a standalone story about the origin of Tommy Taylor and his powers.
The story of Tommy Taylor continues in the 12 issue series of The Unwritten: Apocalypse, started in January 2014.
The Unwritten is also being released in deluxe hardcover editions.
#TitleISBNRelease dateCollected material
1The Unwritten: The Deluxe Edition Book OneDecember 14, 2016#1–12
2The Unwritten: The Deluxe Edition Book TwoDecember 27, 2017#13–24

Reception

gave the first three issues 8.5, 9.0 and 9.0 out of 10 respectively.