The Unwritten Vols 1-3

Hey guys, look who's back! I have to apologize for my long absence, but school has been a grind this year and between that and my own writing, doing a proper review has been difficult. I'm in the midst of reading a darn fine book that I'm holding off to review until June because I'm not quite done with it. Instead, I'm going to review a series of graphic novels called the Unwritten by Mike Carey.
Imagine a world where Harry Potter is real. A world where there is actually a person named Harry Potter...actually a person named Harold Potter.... and he's become a D list celebrity because he was the in-the-flesh inspiration for the character. If you follow my reviews, you know that I love high concept ideas and this is the high concept idea behind this series.

Well, Tom (not Tommy) Taylor has grown up to be a bitter, angry young man that lives with the constant shadow of the literary work that bears his name but isn't afraid to take advantage of it for a little coin. But there are bigger things in play in this series: a mysterious cabal trying to kill Tommy's creator/father (there is some deliberate ambiguity to this that adds to the mystery of the series), a seemingly immortal assassin and fictional characters from classic literature to pop culture coming to life to guide Tom. Tom and his companions (The Rule of Three is in complete effect here.) are on the lam and searching for Tom's father to get answers to these questions.

This was a fun series that plays with a ton of tropes of fantasy, comic books and fandom and almost reads like a Harry Potter parody, and that's part of the fun. It shows the power of words and in a day and age where the lines between creator, creation and audience are so blurred, it is timely. I particularly loved the use of Frankenstein's monster in this regard.