The Unwritten #23

Written by Mike Carey
Art by Paul Gross and Vince Locke

As the five-part 'Leviathan' arc ends, Tom has a much better handle on things, even if I, as a reader, am a little confused.  Riffing off the whole whale thing, Tom starts to think of Hobbes's Leviathan, a book he's never read before, but we learn in a flashback, has had recited to him while floating in a sensory deprivation tank.

This arc was originally about Tom hunting for the source of all stories, which his father had demarcated with a picture of a whale on his map, and that's more or less where Tom ends up - the source of things.  I should really read that scene over again, as I think some of the nuances slipped past me, as I started wondering whether or not Tom was speaking directly to the reader, or to Mike Carey (I started expecting a Grant Morrison/Animal Man thing).

This issue doesn't check in with any of the supporting cast of this book, allowing the focus to stay squarely on the group in the whale (an amusing bunch).  I wonder if the subplots became the victim of losing two story pages each month...