the unwritten, vol. 1-5

the unwritten
tommy taylor & the bogus identity
inside man
dead man's knock
leviathan
on to genesis
mike carey & peter gross
graphic novel/literary/mystery/fantasy
vertigo
published 2009

Tom Taylor's life was screwed from go.  His father created the Tommy Taylor fantasy series, boy-wizard novels with popularity on par with Harry Potter.  The problem is Dad modeled the fictional epic so closely to Tom's real life that fans are constantly comparing him to his counterpart, turning him into the lamest variety of Z-level celebrity.  In the final novel, it's even implied that the fictional Tommy will cross over into the real world, giving delusional fans more excuses to harass Tom.

When an enormous scandal reveals that Tom might really be a boy-wizard made flesh, Tom comes into contact with a very mysterious, very deadly group that's secretly kept tabs on him all his life.  Now, to protect his own life and discover the truth behind his origins, Tom will travel the world, eventually finding himself at locations all featured on a very special map.  And in the process of figuring out what it all means, Tom will find himself having to figure out a huge conspiracy mystery that spans the entirety of the history of fiction.

This is what one might call the graphic novel for book lovers.  The whole idea is that books fuel the world.  That people can come together to all love a book, think about a book and that will fuel the magic that the world is lacking yet needs.  But there's this group of people who age incredibly slowly and they control the world by controlling the literature that the world is exposed to and they'll do whatever it takes to get that control.

I think.

These books have a lot going on and mostly at times I feel slightly confused.  Still, they are exciting and, well, graphic.  The only one I had a hard time with was Leviathan.  All that Moby Dick talk bored the heck out of me.  Not a fan.

But if you love books this could possibly be the best series of graphic novels you've ever read.