The Unwritten #12

Written by Mike Carey
Art by Peter Gross, Kurt Huggins, and Zelda Devon

This is easily the best issue of The Unwritten so far.  I have been enjoying the series quite a bit, especially the Rudyard Kipling issue, but this one blows them all out of the water.

This stand-alone is set in the Willowbank Wood, a fictional, magical place populated by happy talking animals.  It's meant to be a mash-up of the fictional worlds of Beatrix Potter, AA Milne, and others of the type.  Mister Bun, our rabbity hero, was not an original inhabitant of the wood, nor was he a creation of Eliza Mae Hertford, the author of the books set in the wood.  Instead, he was a man named Pauly Bruckner, who had somehow crossed Wilson Taylor, and banishment to this fictional world was his punishment.

The book consists of Mr. Bun's schemes to escape back to the real world.  Finally, he decides that the best way to do it would be to confront Miss Liza, the child-version Hertford had written herself as.  Much of what makes this comic so great is watching the foul-mouthed Mr. Bun interact with the truly fictional characters.  There are some very funny scenes.

The biggest strength of this issue is its art.  Gross, with the finishing and colouring of Huggins and Devon, has created a very beautiful comic.  The pages look like they were done in watercolour, and the animals have very expressive and human faces.  This book looks like the old 'Green Forest' cartoons, if they'd been well done.