The Unwritten # 32

Written by Mike Carey
Art by Peter Gross and MK Perker

I find it hard to believe that there was a time when I was going to drop The Unwritten.  When the series started, it took a while before it found sure footing, or at least that's how it felt to me, who had never read or been interested in the Harry Potter books which this series owes so much to.

Now though, The Unwritten has become one of my favourite monthly comics.  Tom Taylor has taken action against the Cabal which controls fictional realities, and uses them to shape modern consciousness.  His actions of two issues ago (or last issue, if you skip the .5 issues that are coming out two weeks after each 'regular' issue) have left him completely drained of magic, and at the beginning of this issue, Tom is stuck somewhere in Antarctica, completely out of juice.

Even after he is brought back to the research station Tom and his friends have commandeered as their base through the sacrifices of the Frankenstein Monster, Tom looks like he is going to die.  Richie decides that only the Tinkerbell Effect can rescue them now, as the station's generator begins to fail (it was powered by Tom's magic).  I can see how this comic can really appeal to the blogosphere and the people who live on message boards, as Carey's story is about empowering them to have an effect on the stories they read.

While all this is going on, The Cabal is figuring out how to track Tom, and Pullman has some new ideas in that regard.  This has become an action-filled book, and each new issue is ratcheting up the tension and the excitement.  If The Unwritten didn't grab you at the beginning, you should give it another try.  Carey and Gross are doing some incredible work here.