The Unwritten, Vol. 4: Leviathan

The Unwritten, Vol. 4: Leviathan by Mike Carey
Illustrated By: Peter Gross
Published: 2011
Publisher: Vertigo
Collects: issues #19 – #24

I haven’t been reading many comics lately, but this is one series that I’m still really interested in. When last I wrote about The Unwritten, I described it thusly:

“Imagine if J.K. Rowling based Harry Potter after her son of the same name and then disappeared before the last book had been finished, and her son then grew into his 20s as a bitter Harry Potter Con regular living off his fame as a muse. That’s essentially how this series began – Wilson Tayler based his incredibly popular series on his son Tom Tayler, and Tom was drifting through life on that fame until the stories around him started coming to life.”

In this trade our three heroes find themselves on a tour of the Arrowhead, the farmhouse where Herman Melville wrote Moby Dick, while following a clue left behind by Tommy’s father. Lizzie and Savoy are dealing with problems which look to be setting up some fun events for future issues, including Savoy discovering he’s now a vampire, and Tommy lives through a part of Moby Dick, which eventually crashes into a number of other classic stories.

This was a trip of a read. I love the stage in these kinds of stories where you’re learning the rules of the new universe you’re in. We follow Tommy has he discovers what he can do and can’t do while interacting with the stories, and that’s a lot of fun. The idea of stories coming to life gives The Unwritten an unlimited number of possibilities of where to lead, and I hope they take advantage of that. You also get to have a nerd moment when they’re referencing something you’ve read, but it’s never been necessary to have read the stories (I haven’t gotten to Moby Dick yet). Mike Carey is pacing the story perfectly in my opinion.