The Unwritten #3

Written by Mike Carey
Art by Peter Gross
I'm enjoying this title, but I am, so far, underwhelmed by it. As a point of comparison, I found Carey's recent title, 'Crossing Midnight' to be much more intriguing and exciting. There's nothing really wrong with 'The Unwritten', it's just that it comes off as textbook Vertigo (kind of like 'Greek Street' and 'House of Mystery'), and maybe I've moved on from that. It does seem like Vertigo has recently made an attempt to return to their 'core values', and judging from the most recent sales figures, I can't blame them for that, but it has the effect, to me at least, of giving us titles that can not measure up to the energy, intensity, or creativity of books like 'Scalped', 'Young Liars', 'Northlanders', and 'Air'. Granted, sales on those books aren't that good, so maybe they're on to something....

Regardless, this is a decent comic. Tom/Tommy is continuing to explore his place in the world, aided by the lovely and mysterious Lizzie Hexam. There are a group of horror-writers meeting in the house where Frankenstein (the book, not the monster) was conceived, and there's some creepy mutton-chopped guy with a scythe. It's a good comic - it's just not a great comic.