Good news! Tom's found his way out of the whale stories!Ok, this volume has some of the forward motion that was missing for me in the last volume. Finally, finally, some of the mystery behind the what/who/how of Tom's origins are starting to be revealed. Well, his father's origins are starting to be revealed, at any rate. And since his father's past holds the clues to Tommy's Tom's creation, it feels like we're getting somewhere. Maybe. Ish.So. Tommy discovers how to use a new power, and he and

Not sold on the On to Genesis storyline. For a forbidden love affair that Wilson was willing to risk everything to maintain, there's a distinct lack of passion between him and Mari. I was dissatisfied with the aftermath, too: (view spoiler)[if their kid is functionally a superhero, why did he spend 70+ years of his life doing literally nothing with his powers? (hide spoiler)] There's a bit of handwaving, but I wasn't satisfied with Carey's explanation. Still good enough to keep going with the se...

The 'source' of power is not in the actual books or the words written - but in the people that the story affects.Soooo...crowd sourced super powers?That's pretty f'ing cool! And that is what this series is. Really, really, fucking cool! You know what I love most about The Unwritten? I'm sitting there reading the actual comics and enjoying myself and all is great. I finish the comic and go on with whatever else the day has in store for me. Throughout the day, it's like my brain is absorbing the s...

I'm having a hard time writing reviews for Unwritten. Is it sufficient enough for me to say that by now this is one of my favorite series and that you should high-tail it to your local comic shop to grab it right now? I hope so. :)

When I was a kid, I read the occasional super-hero comic book -- I have 4 brothers, so those kinds of comics were around -- but I've never considered myself a fan of the genre. Even so, I enjoyed the super-hero connection and twist to this installment as we are taken back to Depression-era Brooklyn.The auction, the journals and the return of the Tommy Taylor websites were fun too. The plot thickens!

More of Wilson's history is revealed, and there is a blessed absence of the disturbing sub-story with the horrific realm of the poor talking animals.

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this one. It was good, it built on the revelations from the previous volumes, and it explored the potential of media which academics and ivory tower types refuse to take seriously... But it felt a bit patchwork, and there was a trifle too much exposition this time around. I suspect the author recognized this, because he included this marvelous exchange in the final chapter:LIZZIE: "Th-thank you, Tom. Uh...is this really--?"TOM: "If we start in with the expo...

If you're a writer or someone who likes to think more deeply than just the immediate text, you may really like this series. I can't remember who recommended this to me, but it's an amazing read on a number of levels. This series keeps getting stronger and stronger...and it's now at a point where I may break my habit of waiting for trade paperback collections and go hunt up any issues after this one just so I don't have to wait to read more.....

Really enjoyed this volume, I feel like we're getting some more answers, although really more about Tom's father than Tom himself. Still, it was a fun volume and I feel like things are really starting to build up now. I don't really want to say more because ~spoilers~ but we're definitely picking up steam at this point.

With Tom Taylor presumed dead and Wilson’s estate up for auction, what else can Lizzie and Savoy do but try to steal what they need from it? Specifically Lot 57. Lizzie provides a diversion so that Savoy can surreptitiously photograph the layout of the auction house where everything is on display for inspection. And while they are mulling everything over in the safety of a small diner, the wayward wanderer himself unexpectedly returns after his absence of three months, bursting on the scene fro

Brilliant backstory of Wilson Taylor, comics, and the cabal. The tragic and tightly told backstory is what lifted this series from four to five stars for me.

It may be that the novelty of the story is starting to wear off, but I found this volume to be pretty weak. There were several lines and plot twists where I thought, oh yeah, this is a comic book. The early issues didn't really feel like that to me. In the earlier issues, it seemed like the fascinating storyline transcended the commonly weak writing of comics. In this volume, however, it seems like the creators had lost some of the passion they had for it or something. Some of the methods they u...

We'll call it 3.5 stars.This series continues to perplex and frustrate me, but only because the first volume was so unbelievably fantastic--when I read volume 1, I thought to myself, "Self--at last, we've found one! A worthy successor to Preacher/Transmetropolitan/Fables/etc. in the grand scheme of epic and imaginative graphic novels that I will devour repeatedly in perpetuity!" Alas, each subsequent volume has been up and down, and none have approached the peak of vol. 1, though I'd say vol. 5

December 2015: This one didn't work for me as well this time around, but it's still pretty great. Not every book in a series is going to be five stars. It's not even that I can necessarily point to anything in particular as a reason for my reluctance to give out that five stars like I did the first time I read it, it's just it didn't seem as good as the previous four volumes. Each of those left me going YES YES YES and this one, while still excellent, merely left me going "yes". You know, singul...

These graphic novels are great. Quick to read, lots going on, plenty of action and excitement...I'd definitely recommend them.As the title suggests, we learn more about who Tommy Taylor is, and how and why he was created. We also learn that his father was once an active member of the cabal and how they began to discover that the power of books and stories could be harnessed. Tommy isn't the first son that Wilson Taylor has used to power beliefs, and as Tom and Liz investigate Wilson's past, the

The further I get into this series, the more I love it. The concept is so smart, and layered, and unlike anything I've ever read before. For the first couple books, I felt like I was getting my bearings--trying to simply understand the contours of the world Carey was building--but now everything feels fully formed and realized, and I'm simply able to enjoy an incredibly clever, erudite story. And the deeper I go in this series, the more I appreciate that quality--the refusal to talk down to read...

Tom Taylor and his partners, Lizzie and Richie are trying to learn more about Wilson's life and his purpose in creating Tom. They're lured into a trap when Wilson's estate goes up for auction, but manage to escape with their lives and the writer's journals. Reading them allows Tom to bring to life the events that took place and he learns that Wilson was part of a secret cabal that exists to control the world and its events through words and stories. The cabal tries to draw Tom out by killing eve...

I'm continually going back and forth on this book, and it makes me wish that I used four stars as sparingly as I use five, because the Unwritten is so close to classic and not just there.The art by Peter Gross is competent without being amazing -- the best way to describe it is "Average Vertigo art." I can always tell what's going on, which is very nice, but for me, a great comic needs a page or a panel every five or six pages that makes you gasp in awe. Not every shot can be, or should be, clas...

Carey and co. continue to provide top notch comic entertainment in the fifth volume of The Unwritten, On To Genesis. The title is, of course, a play on words referring both to the stories pointing toward a new beginning (by the end Tommy seems truly ready to take an active rather than reactive posture toward Pullman and the Cabal) and ontogenesis--a word referring to the entire cycle of growth and development of an organism from birth to death--a reference to the stories further clues about Wins...

The story is snowballing and becoming more cohesive, and with that more interesting. Things are making a lot more sense, now that Leviathan concept and the source of Tommy's powers. There's a bit of fuzziness on whether it's a two-way street; a bit of a chicken or egg argument brewing, however, in terms of reality vs. meaning. But the story doesn't seem to want to drown in that philosophical conundrum, which I'm thankful for. But it leaves things rather confusing in terms of Tommy, and nearly in...