Holy bejeezus.

I try not to give a lot away (about good stuff) on the Fondle so talking about this issue is going to be difficult.

I’m a little stunned as to what Carey just did, in terms of what he’s doing with The Unwritten–he’s introduced the triumvirate into the “real” world too, mirroring the one in the Tommy Taylor books, another sign the series isn’t intended to go on too long, which is a good thing, sure, but I hate to think he’s rushing–anyway… what was I saying?

What Carey does this issue, it’s hard to believe… I mean, it’s just so harsh, but still so good and so completely not cheap (I’ve been reading lots of cheap melodramatic comics lately, see the Marvels posts), it’s incredible.

I don’t talk about Gross enough. Here’s where Gross really comes through. He sells this whole issue.

Completely, absolutely brilliant.

Here’s why I love Carey (and The Unwritten). This issue is an interlude issue, but very different from the last interlude issue, which was about Rudyard Kipling. Instead, it’s about the corrupt warden who’s got Tom Taylor in his jail. It’s just about him and his family. Yes, it ties into the other story, but it provides all sorts of texture (not to mention introducing three new characters) to the warden. It makes The Unwritten fuller.

One of the drawbacks to a big, complicated serial is how often the writers succumb to the “everything’s connected” mentality, taking it to the nth degree instead of just letting some of it be texture. Are the warden’s daughters being Tom Taylor fans connected to the greater narrative? Yes. Is the website shown on the iPhone at the daughters’ school somehow connected? I hope not and don’t think so. Carey’s very careful.

Brilliant stuff.

A lot happens this issue–Lizzie goes to jail, it’s revealed she knows the flying cat, Tom’s cellmate is a reporter, the warden is corrupt–but nothing really compares to Tom’s conversation with the Frankenstein Monster.

Carey gives it all away–at least some of all of it–in the conversation, as it becomes clear Tom is Tommy, but not in a particularly special way. Tom has the ability to call fictional characters forth and the Monster implies he, Tom, has been called forth.

It’s kind of a crazy move to make this revelation, or hint at it, so early in the series. Usually, one might think it’d go in the first issue, but with The Unwritten, I’m kind of hoping Carey’s got a plan for the series past thirty issues. That’s two and a half years, right?

I feel like him giving away the secret so soon is dangerous.

Carey starts something new here, in Unwritten‘s second arc, which I didn’t expect before. Well, he actually introduces a couple things I didn’t expect. First, Lizzie Hexam, is working with someone in her quest to… do whatever… with Tom. Second, Tom can apparently bring characters forth from written works–this issue ends with Tom discovering Frankenstein’s Monster waiting for him.

Otherwise, I guess the issue is somewhat traditional. It doesn’t do anything to resolve the appearance of Tommy Taylor’s (fictive?) flying cat at the end of the last arc, for example, which is a standard continuation trick these days. It just moves Tom into the legal process and has an amusing, well-written Tom in (French) prison sequence.

While the issue–and series–is excellent, I still have some problems with Carey’s pacing. He established it the series with gradual, precise pacing. Now he’s just racing through, scene after scene.

The first time I read this issue, it sort of shocked me. I mean, Carey spends the issue rewriting history; or something close to it, anyway. He spends the issue looking at how the way writing and writers work in The Unwritten has effected other writers, not just the characters in the main story.

It seems like this issue will be the first aside of many and it concerns itself with Rudyard Kipling and his experiences with the malevolent shadow organization of reading enthusiasts.

But the issue doesn’t just showcase Carey’s abilities to write this story–which, in itself, is a fantastic achievement, because Kipling isn’t exactly the most sympathetic character throughout and we don’t get the context of his narration until the last page–but also Gross.

Whereas the regular issues do offer Gross some range, it’s basically in the same visual context. Here, he’s all over–and brilliant.

The fourth issue–I’m trying to remember if something magical is revealed each issue, but I don’t think so, just the first and second–ends on a wacky cliffhanger. I mean, it ends on a very dramatic, horrific note, but then on this, well, sweet one too.

The potential for The Unwritten is just amazing–if Carey pulls it off, but there really isn’t any sign he’s going to mess it up.

This issue introduces, with its first page, a new mystery, one I’m wondering if Carey’s even going to have time to reveal, since he’s kind of closed the action in this issue and the last one.

Still, as nice as the book gets, I’m not convinced I like it at this pacing. Carey introduced a lot the third issue, spent lots of pages, only to invalidate it this issue. It’s a bad formula.

In other words, fingers crossed.

The third issue drastically changes pace. Instead of it being a summary of events, it’s more “real time,” with Tom’s trying to figure out the variety of weird things going on. Not the weird things overall, just the weird things going on since the end of the last issue.

There’s a lot more humor this issue, as Carey drops Tom in the middle of a horror writers’ workshop and none of the attendees are particularly bright. They bicker, it’s funny; but there’s this artificial sense to everything, because Carey’s always weaving the “fictional” into the story’s reality, which I’m sure is intentional.

Oh, and the mystery girl comes on to Tom, which is a cool little moment. Carey’s way of making Tom this incredibly identifiable protagonist–he’s not on Joseph Campbell’s twelve hero steps, for example–he’s almost comically tragic.

However, I don’t believe he wouldn’t not question mystery girl.

The second issue introduces magic to the protagonist for the first time. Unfortunately, it’s one of the issue’s weaker moments, because his reaction is nowhere near intense enough.

The series has become, at least for the moment, a quest story–the quest for knowledge–and it’s definitely an approach Carey is comfortable playing with. The revelations we get this issue only raise more questions and these are new questions, the ones from the first issue are going unanswered so far.

I suppose Carey does answer some of the non-questions resulting from the first issue’s conclusion, but those answers come on these theme pages–like a newspaper clipping or a bunch of internet chat messages–it’s clearly not what’s really going on.

The issue ends on an awkward note, one to totally shake the reader and the protagonist. The reader and the protagonist get new information at the same time.

The premise of The Unwritten is simple–what if a Harry Potter-like character turned out to be real–but the way Carey weaves the story, the intricacies, the endless setups, makes The Unwritten so much more than its concept, it’s hard to remember the premise was ever simple.

Carey introduces maybe nine things this issue–protagonist Tom Taylor’s agent being in on the secret, Tom’s disappeared father forcing him to remember a literary geography, it goes on and on. Maybe nine is being conservative. I’m not sure there’s a single thing introduced this issue Carey isn’t going to follow up on. It’s incredibly dense, but so pleasurable, it doesn’t even seem like a hard read.

Gross’s artwork is also key. He gives the story a light feel, sort of an affable tone, then introduces these horrific scenes (the Nosferatu-influenced villain). That affability fits the protagonist perfectly.

Just fantastic.