The Unwritten is an American comic book 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. 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 collected into trade paperbacks: +The Unwritten trade paperbacks Title ISBN Release date Collected materialVolume 1: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus IdentityJanuary 12, 2010The Unwritten #1–5 – 144 pagesVolume 2: Inside ManAugust 11, 2010The Unwritten #6–12 – 168 pagesVolume 3: Dead Man's KnockMarch 29, 2011The Unwritten #13–18 – 160 pagesVolume 4: LeviathanOctober 25, 2011The Unwritten #19–24 – 144 pagesVolume 5: On to GenesisJanuary 27, 2012The Unwritten #25–30 – 160 pagesVolume 6: Tommy Taylor and the War of WordsOctober 17, 2012The Unwritten #31–35.5 – 240 pagesVolume 7: The WoundMarch 26, 2013The Unwritten #36–41 – 144 pagesVolume 8: Orpheus in the UnderworldsFebruary 4, 2014The Unwritten #42–49 – 176 pagesVolume 9: The Unwritten FablesJuly 29, 2014The Unwritten #50–54, crossover with Fables – 144 pagesVolume 10: War StoriesOctober 14, 2014The Unwritten: Apocalypse #1–5 – 128 pagesVolume 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 (hardcover, ), a standalone story about the origin of Tommy Taylor and his powers.
The story of Tommy Taylor continues in the 12 issue series (also titled Volume 2) of The Unwritten: Apocalypse, started in January 2014 (compiled in collected Volumes 10 and 11).
The Unwritten was partially released in deluxe hardcover editions. Compendium One was released in 2023 collecting half the series. Compendium Two was released in September 2026.
+The Unwritten Deluxe & Compendium Editions # Title ISBN Release date Collected material 1 The Unwritten: The Deluxe Edition Book One December 14, 2016 #1–12 2 The Unwritten: The Deluxe Edition Book Two December 27, 2017 #13–24 1 The Unwritten: Compendium One June 20, 2023 #1-30 & The Unwritten: Tommy Taylor and the Ship that Sank Twice 2 The Unwritten: Compendium Two September 15, 2026 #31, #31.5, #32, #32.5, #33, #33.5, #34, #34.5, #35, #35.5, #36-54, and The Unwritten: Apocalypse #1-12
Reception IGN gave the first three issues 8.5, 9.0 and 9.0 out of 10, respectively.
References
External links Solicitation for The Unwritten #1