The Unwritten: Tommy Taylor and the Ship That Sank Twice

Written by Mike Carey
Art by Peter Gross, Kurt Huggins, Al Davison, Russ Braun, Shawn McManus, Dean Ormston, and Gary Erskine

I've had a complicated relationship with The Unwritten, the long-running Vertigo series by Mike Carey and Peter Gross.  The first arc or so didn't do much for me, but I stuck with the title out of faith in the creators, and it soon became one of my favourite Vertigo titles.  Somewhere, along the way though, I lost interest in the comic, as it became a little too lost under its own weight.  A disastrous cross-over with Fables (that wasn't actually a cross-over, since it only happened in the one series) followed by a relaunch with a price increase was enough to get me to stop reading the book.

Somewhere in there, this graphic novel was published, but I guess I didn't even notice.  This is an interesting book, clarifying one aspect of the series, and diving into another aspect which has been largely ignored.

This book is split between two stories.  Wilson Taylor, author of the Tommy Taylor books, and father to Tom Taylor, writes in his journal about the first couple of years, when he managed to have his first novel published on the same day as his son's birth.  We learn about how he managed to manipulate his mother into leaving Tom's life, and how he arranged to keep his real son tied in the public consciousness with his fictional son.

The majority of this book tells that story that is in that first Tommy Taylor novel.  We learn about his parents' death, and how he ended up being raised in the kitchen of a school for wizards.  We learn that he doesn't have the 'Spark', the precursor to a magical education, and we meet his close friends.  Eventually, the Conclave, a group of powerful wizards, decide to raise the ship that his parents died on, as they tried to transport wild magic to the school.  Bringing the vessel also brings with it Count Ambrosio, an immortal vampire.  It goes without saying that it's up to Tommy and his friends to save the day.

The dual nature of this story is interesting, but I'm not sure that a reader new to these characters would have much of a clue as to what's going on in the Wilson Taylor sections.  Although there are passing nods to Leviathan, the whale-spirit that lives off fiction in the regular series, no mention is made of the Cabal, or why Wilson is immersing young Tom in a sensory deprivation tank.  Long-time readers are rewarded with this fleshed-out timeline, but I think the Wilson sections of this book would feel inconsequential to anyone else.

The Tommy story is enjoyable, in a YA kind of way.  It does help to understand the bigger picture of this whole series to know Tommy's story, and see how it parallels and differs from the Harry Potter stories that it was clearly roughly based upon.

I found the approach to art in this book pretty interesting.  Peter Gross provided layouts for the whole book, and gave it a consistent look, but the various finishers added their own voices to the mix.  The only pages I found I could identify were Dean Ormston's, as his work is always pretty individual.  This approach worked well to distinguish the Wilson pages from the Tommy ones, and to set apart different sections of Tommy's story.

I'm glad I read this book, and it does have me interested in picking up the last half-dozen or so issues of the second volume of Unwritten.  Carey and Gross do great work together; I just wish this series hadn't gotten so bogged down that it lost me.

The Unwritten #47

by Mike Carey and Peter Gross

After taking a couple of months off from Tom Taylor and his sojourn in Hades, we return to check in on the main character of this series.  Tom has shown up in Hades, and has met its master, who is none other than Pauly Bruckner, the once man, now rabbit whose adventures we've been following once a year in this title for quite a long time now.

We learn how Pauly came to be in charge of Hades, and we get a sense of how his new servants feel about that.  Tom originally went there to find Lizzie Hexam, his girlfriend, and hopefully bring her back to the living, but since he's drank from the waters of the River Lethe, he has no real memory of himself, or the various shades who have started showing up in Hades lately, all of whom know him in some way.

What's interesting about this issue is the fact that amnesiac Tom is not all that concerned about restoring his memory.  It's like he knows that with it will come a great deal of emotional baggage that he'd rather just skip out on.

This is a solid issue of a pretty solid series.

The Unwritten #46

by Mike Carey and Peter Gross, with Dean Ormston

This issue continues the two-part storyline featuring Australian Detective Didge and vampire Richie Savoy, who are investigating a pair of zombie attacks that they believed were caused by the writing of a young boy.  Savoy suspects that Leviathan, the wounded creature that has the ability to make stories real, is involved in what's happening, and he seeks out Madame Rausch, the 'puppet lady' for some answers.

Since the Cabal was taken apart by Tom Taylor a while back, this title has been casting about for a proper villain.  We got a cult leader for a little while, and have never been too sure where Rausch stands, although this issue suggests that she clearly has her own plans.  This issue introduces the idea that Leviathan is not the only creature of his kind, and that other such beasts, fed by more modern stories, are in competition to fill its place in the story-ecosystem.

This book has always been interesting, and I like the way that Carey and Gross give the spotlight to a pair of characters who don't often get much play.  The dialogue between the two works very well, and I always think it's nice when Dean Ormston provides inks over Gross's pencils; it changes the feel of the book a great deal.

The Unwritten #45

by Mike Carey and Peter Gross
Inked by Dean Ormston

The last issue of The Unwritten ended with the surprise appearance of a character I didn't expect to see again for until issue 48 (which probably gives away the surprise for any long-term fans of this series).  As if to acknowledge that things were happening a little early, Mike Carey and Peter Gross use this issue to start a two-part story that doesn't feature regular series star Tom Taylor at all, but instead focuses on a couple of the supporting characters.

Richie Savoy has settled himself in Australia for the time being, although he doesn't seem to be doing more than hooking up with some of his fans.  The police Detective, Didge Patterson is stuck investigating a horrible crime scene, where an older couple have been ripped to pieces in what looks like an attack by multiple cannibals.  The only clue she finds is a school book filled with a story written by a young boy.

Didge being dyslexic, she turns to Savoy for help with the case, and that leads them to young Jason, who seems to be able to create reality with his writing.  He described perfectly the death of the folks who watch him after school, and later it happened the exact same way.

The Unwritten has always been about the power of story, and now it seems that Carey and Gross are taking us into another aspect of that.  The kid's abilities play out poorly for his father, who probably is beginning to regret feeding his son's enthusiasm for zombies.

This is a solid issue.  I always like it when Carey moves the series away from Taylor for a little while, and I'm also always happy when Dean Ormston pops by to ink an issue or two.  His addition to the proceedings always gives the book a darker look, and makes it feel different enough to feel like the story is special.  It also makes me appreciate Peter Gross's own inks more, as I like seeing how differently some penciller's work appears with different inkers.

The Unwritten #44

by Mike Carey and Peter Gross

This issue of The Unwritten is book-ended by appearances from characters I didn't expect to see again, one ever, and another, for about four more issues.

The rest of the comic was filled by following Tom Taylor, newly arrived in Hades, searching for a way out of it.  Tom had gone to the fabled land of the dead looking for Lizzie Hexam, his companion, but after drinking from the river Lethe, he has no memory of who he is, or what he is looking for.

Tom is joined by the Chadron children, who we last saw being killed in the Swiss prison where the Cabal first tried to kill Tom.  They travel across Hades, meeting a few old acquaintances of Tom's, before figuring out a way to get across the lake of flames and arrive at Hades's palace.

There is a sense throughout this book that the underworld is not what it used to be, although if that's because of the sickness that has infected all stories, it's not made clear.

As with most issues of this series, this is a very high-quality book, although I feel like some of the momentum is missing from this comic lately.

The Unwritten #43

by Mike Carey and Peter Gross

The events of this series have made quite a mess of the fictional worlds, which has been hinted at for a while, and really only shown in the latest 'Pauly Bruckner' issue of The Unwritten.  Well, now Tom Taylor is in the fictional worlds, looking to rescue Lizzie Hexam, and he gets to see just how messed up things are.

Many fictional characters have ended up in the same place, as refugees from their usual spots.  It's not long before Tom runs in to his old friend, Baron Munchausen, who agrees to take him to the land of the dead.  The problem is, they are being pursued by an army of militant storybook animals, and when Munchausen's involved, nothing ever goes properly.

This is a solid, good issue.  I've felt for a while now that The Unwritten has been moving towards its grand finale, as without the threat of the Cabal, there doesn't seem to be as much for Tom to do.  The rescue mission concept feels a little tagged on, although now, as we see the problems surrounding Leviathan first hand, I assume that Tom will have to now fix whatever is wrong with fiction.

This book continues to be a very good read, but I would like some better understanding of its structure going forward, less it begin to feel like it's being improvised in the way that Fables is.

The Unwritten #42

by Mike Carey and Peter Gross

I've felt that The Unwritten has been floundering a little of late, and while this issue looks backwards more than it does forward, I find that my enjoyment of the series has not diminished because of this lack of momentum.

I think what's making this book work so well right now is the addition to the cast of Didge, the Australian police detective whose dyslexia saved her from Pullman's wooden hand, and consequently caused it to short out.

In this issue, Didge tells Tom that she met Lizzie Hexam when she was sent to the Leviathan, and that in turn sets Tom off on a quest to enter the story-world Hades and find her.  Doing this involves an old Australian novel about missing school-children, and a legend about whales (it always comes back to legends about whales with this comic).

Carey and Gross continue, month after month, to impress me with this series, although after Tom's latest foray into the world of fiction, I'm hoping that something is going to happen to move this series towards a final conclusion; I don't want it to become like Fables, and keep creaking along well past it's day.

 

The Unwritten #41

by Mike Carey and Peter Gross

The last arc of The Unwritten was set some time after Tom Taylor's big showdown with The Cabal, and Tom only appeared at the very end of it.  Reading that last issue, there was a sense that many things had happened to Tom in-between appearances, and that is what this issue sets out to explain.

It opens with Richie Savoy, the vampire journalist, bringing an existentially wounded Tom to Villa Diodati, the Taylor estate in Switzerland where the series more or less began.  Tom spends most of the issue in a near-coma state, leaving Richie to look after him and to converse with the various ghosts who suddenly appear all around him.  These are the ghosts of the series - the writers who were slaughtered in the Villa, Tom's ex-girlfriends who were killed by The Cabal, and Miriam Walzer, Wilson Taylor's lover.  Mme. Rausch also makes an appearance, which helps to explain why Richie later went to visit her.

Richie is the focus of this issue, and through his experiences in it, he comes to a few realizations about just how Tom's powers work, and what happens to the people around him.  As always with The Unwritten, it is very well-written and marvellously illustrated.

The Unwritten #40

by Mike Carey and Peter Gross

It's been a while since we last saw Tom Taylor, so it's nice to see this issue feature him again, as Inspector Patterson, the Australian police officer we've been following for the last few issues takes her unicorn to stop the leader of the Church of Tommy from interrupting Tom's first stop on his Australian tour.  This leads to all sorts of madness, including a suitcase nuke, angry stories, and Tom perhaps being able to finally put the lightning back into the bottle of his public persona.

The Unwritten has worked really well for a while now, and this issue is a good example of why that is.  Carey and Gross work remarkably well together, and continue to move the story into new directions.  I thought that after the Cabal was finished off, the series would end, but it seems that there is more that Carey wants to say with this story.

What confused me a little is that the gigantic crowd that bought tickets for Tom's show were actually just sitting in a giant stadium to watch him read children's stories.  It made me think of the recent Charlie Sheen stage show, where people lined up and paid good money to listen to the man ramble.

Anyway, at the end of this issue, Didge announces that she has a message from Tom's girlfriend, which I guess tells us where the series is headed next.

The Unwritten #39

Written by Mike Carey
Art by Peter Gross

A lot is learned in this issue of The Unwritten, as Tom Taylor is still absent (he's much discussed, and even receives a voicemail message, but has not been in the comic for three issues now), but a few mysteries are revealed.  Daniel Armitage, the former employee of the Cabal who has come to Australia and has ended up working with the police, learns which familiar item is now in the possession of the Church of Tommy, and just how he saw a woman turned to words before disappearing.  We also learn just how the leader of the church was connected to the Cabal.  The biggest surprise s that he's also connected to Pauly Bruckner, who long-time readers know as the storybook rabbit who gets his own issue of The Unwritten every year or so.

I've been enjoying this book a great deal for a few years now.  When it began, I was not sure if I would stick with it, and I'd even decided to stop reading a few times, always giving it one more chance to impress me.  Now, I'm very pleased that I stuck it out, as Carey has built an impressive and well-structured story.

Peter Gross's art has always impressed me, but I especially like the way he decides to tell the story of how the leader of the church and Bruckner had to deal with Wilson Taylor, Tom's father.  These pages are drawn in black, white, brown, and red, using a more abstract style than Gross usually uses.  It really makes these pages stand out.

The Unwritten #38

Written by Mike Carey
Art by Peter Gross

I think removing Tom Taylor from this book for a whole arc (at least the first half of it) was an effective way of shaking things up a little in the wake of the momentous events of the last arc. 

In the months since Tom defeated the Cabal, the world has been changing.  There is a new cult based on worship of Tommy Taylor and the books that he stars in, and the world is beginning to lose its stories, or its connection to them.

This issue is divided between scenes that show Richie Savoy's conversation with Madame Rausch, and the continuing investigation of the Church of Tommy by the Aboriginal detective we met last issue. 

Rausch is suffering from the changes being brought about by the Leviathan, and she kind of freaks Richie out.  The cop, meanwhile (the only name given to her in this issue is a bit of a racial epithet, so I'm not using it, but don't remember her real name), is using Daniel Armitage, the former Cabal employee we met a couple months back, as an informant in the Church, although he takes more initiative than she expected.

This series has been working very well for a while now, and I appreciate the change in tone and approach that Carey is using right now.  I look forward to seeing where this is all going to end up, as I feel that Tom will have to get back into things soon.

The Unwritten #37

Written by Mike Carey
Art by Peter Gross

It's been a whole month since the last issue of The Unwritten was published, which is the longest we've had to wait for an issue for many months, as the bi-weekly run has come to its close.

Mike Carey advances his plot by a solid year since we last saw Tom or his friends (of whom only Richie shows up this month), and the world has changed a little.  To begin with, the Church of Tommy has grown a great deal, and has been linked with a number of disappearances in Australia.

We are introduced to Sandra Patterson, a Brisbane cop who is investigating the disappearances.  Her attempt to infiltrate the Church doesn't work, but we do get to see what goes on in their meetings.  We also know that Tom is due to arrive in Australia soon, so we can imagine where this is leading.

Patterson is an interesting new character.  It's made clear that she is of Aboriginal decent, and it is strongly suggested that she suffer from some form of dyslexia or other learning disability that impedes on her ability to complete all aspects of her job, although she is given a number of accommodations, causing some resentment among her fellow officers. 

This is a nice solid issue of a series that I find hard to predict, now that Tom has finished his war with the Cabal.  I am curious to see how the last year has changed Tom, and to find out why a certain vampire/reporter is seen visiting Madame Rausch...

The Unwritten #36

Written by Mike Carey
Art by Peter Gross and Rufus Dayglo

Every year since the twelth issue of this series, Mike Carey and Peter Gross have left Tom Taylor, to instead give us a story about Pauly Bruckner, a man who was cursed by Wilson Taylor into becoming a storybook rabbit.  First, he lived in a Beatrix Potter-inspired world, before escaping and finding himself on an endless staircase, leading a horde of other storybook animals on an endless quest to find his way home.  Now, another year has passed, and it's time to check in on Pauly again.

This time around, he has a new companion, The Tinker, the Golden Age superhero who is also Wilson Taylor's son, Miton.  Milton is trying to find his way into the land of the dead to look for the love of his life, but he and Pauly soon find themselves looking for safe haven from 'The Wave', a metaphysical thing that appears to be erasing fictional worlds and characters.  Early in the issue, the duo come across a stream of refugees, many of whom are recognizable as fictional, comics, and children's characters.  I recognized one of the Mr. Men, Omaha the Cat Dancer, and Pancho Sanchez, among others. 

These issues are usually very enjoyable, as Pauly is the worst type of person, but he has an ability to get others to believe in him.  This time around, Peter Gross is joined by Rufus Dayglo, who gives the book are more cartoon-ish feel.  It's good stuff.

The Unwritten #35.5

Written by Mike Carey and Peter Gross
Art by Gabriel Hernandez Walta

It's gotten a little difficult to tell who is doing what on this title of late.  I noticed a little while ago that the credits have taken to saying that the book is 'by Mike Carey and Peter Gross', and I wondered if perhaps Gross has been contributing to the writing, but as the credits have usually also listed a 'finisher', often MK Perker, it was clear that Gross was laying out and penciling most issues.  This issue, however, has the 'by' credit, and then credits the art to Gabriel Hernandez Walta.  Perhaps Gross laid out the pencils - the look is consistent with other issues - but Walta is a unique artist, and the work here looks like it is his. 

Regardless of who did what, this is a very cool comic.  It introduces us to Danny, a literature studies graduate, who has to deal with the same existential question that faces most lit grads - now what?  He lucks into the perfect job - he's going to be paid to read books and occasionally transcribe parts of them by hand.  Any reader of this series would recognize quickly that he's working for the Cabal, as part of their Grid, mysterious as that still is.

From this point, Danny plays a 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead' role in the story - he's present at, or affected by, many of the key moments that have happened over the previous thirty-five issues of this comic.  He attends the Tommy Con of the first issue, but doesn't notice the significance of Lizzie Hexam's questions from the audience.  He has a Leviathan sighting while on the Grid, but doesn't share what he learned with his bosses, and he's one of the few survivors of Tom Taylor's recent attack on the Cabal.

Danny never figures out what his role is in this story, nor that he has had a minor affect on it.  It's a pretty cool story that I suppose dances around some of the questions of responsibility that can be asked of low-ranking soldiers who are involved in war crimes. 

A very cool issue, and a nice way to end the .5 stories.  After the next issue, The Unwritten will return to a monthly schedule (thankfully), and I suppose, take Tom and his friends into new territory.  This series is impressive.

The Unwritten #35

Written by Mike Carey
Art by Peter Gross and MK Perker

Finally, after almost three years of build-up, just about every secret or mystery that Mike Carey has developed in this series has been explained.  Tom Taylor (or should I call him Tommy now?) has a double-lengthed confrontation with Pullman, the real power behind the Cabal that has given Tom so much trouble.

Not surprisingly, Pullman's origin lies in Old Testament times, when his story became one of the first stories, therefore giving him great power and longevity.  Now, Pullman wants to die, and figures that manipulating Tom into confronting the Leviathan is the way to do it.

I don't want to give away much of what happened here, except to say that I'm a little surprised that we haven't heard about an end date for this series yet.  I can really only see the need for a few more issues, unless Carey has another big surprise waiting for us.

Once again, I'm blown away with Peter Gross.  He's been the primary artist on every issue (but one) of this series since it started double-shipping with its 0.5 numbers, and now has drawn an extra-long issue on top of that.  I hope he's getting danger pay.

The Unwritten #34.5

Written by Mike Carey
Art by Peter Gross and Gary Erskine

Each of these '.5' issues of The Unwritten have been giving us a glimpse or two into the history of The Cabal, the shadowy group that use the power of stories and fiction to control the world, or into the history of some of the prominent characters in this comic.  Until this point, we haven't seen Wilson Taylor, the father of main character Tom Taylor and author of the fictional Harry Potter-like Tommy Taylor novels.  We know from the regular issues of this comic that Taylor pere worked for The Cabal during the Golden Age of comics, but we have never learned a thing about his life before that.

This issue stars Will Tallis, who became Wilson Taylor some time after his experiences in the Great War.  Now, the First World War has long held an enduring fascination for me, and this issue has Taylor address the origin of some of the great myths of that war - the Angels of Mons, the corpse factory of Thiepval Wood, and the Blood Keep, the place where German soldiers tied nuns to their bells and tolled them to death.  As we learn, many of these stories came from young Taylor himself, although they then came true at the same time, suggesting the depth of Taylor's connection to the world of fiction.  This is later confirmed when a certain fish-like figure appears before him.

Carey has really crammed these decimal-numbered issues full of information, and much of what I've seen makes me want to go back and re-read the series from the beginning, knowing what I know now, especially the 'Leviathan' arc, which featured the whale from Moby Dick, which was also all fictional whales.  There is definitely more going on in this comic than I would have thought at the very beginning of the series.

One thing that has consistently surprised me since the comic went bi-weekly is that Peter Gross is still drawing almost every issue.  In a world where it takes many artists three months to draw 20 pages, Gross deserves a lot of credit for almost doubling his output.  He's joined by Gary Erskine as inker this issue, and the result is work that doesn't really look like Gross's or Erskine's at first.  I'm used to Erskine's inks making people look very harsh, especially around the jaw (look at Rick Veitch with, and without Erskine to see what I mean), but that didn't happen here.

The Unwritten #34

Written by Mike Carey
Art by Peter Gross and MK Perker

Peter Gross must be one of the fastest-working artists in the business, as he's basically drawing a new twenty-page comic every two weeks (that would be ten pages a week) lately.  Sure, he's being assisted by the likes of Vince Locke (on the .5 issues) and MK Perker on inks, but still, that is very impressive.  Especially since all of this is being done without any change in the quality of the art.

This is a big issue of The Unwritten, as Tom continues his assault on The Cabal.  Their plan to leave him powerless falls apart once Lizzie and Richie get involved, and soon, The Cabal is left in ruin.  The one thing we, the readers, have known for a while though, that Tom and his friends haven't figured out yet, is that The Cabal's true power lies in the hands (or maybe just the wooden hand) of Pullman.

This is a great, action-filled issue of a comic that has been terrific for about a year now. 

The Unwritten #33.5

Written by Mike Carey
Art by Peter Gross and Vince Locke

I thought that each of these .5 issues, which are being used to fill in the history of The Cabal, the organization that has been controlling the world's literature and making life difficult for Tom Taylor in the whole number issues of the series, was going to feature artists that are not normally associated with this book.  The first .5 issue had a handful of artists attached to it, but the subsequent ones have mostly just featured art by Peter Gross. 

Now, I'm not complaining.  I've been a fan of Peter Gross since he was drawing Books of Magic years ago, and I especially like him with Vince Locke inking (giving his work a touch of a Guy Davis feel), but I was looking forward to seeing some other artists.  Plus, drawing two issues a month must not be easy on the guy...

Anyway, this issue doesn't feature The Cabal or its members, but instead tells us a story about a soldier and a young girl who plays with puppets.  It is set in Silesia in 1740, a couple of years before most of the land is taken over by Germans.  The soldier, who is billeted at the house of a prominent Prussian family, has the last name of Rausch.  That, and the sight of the girl playing with her marionettes explains just who the girl is, at least to long-time readers of this series.

The soldier takes an interest in the solemn little girl, especially after he discovers that things in that house are not right.  To begin with, strange events begin to happen, such as the self-dismemberment done by the cook.  Also, the girl's father is a monster, as the soldier discovers.

In addition to providing us with a little of Madame Rausch's history, we get a slight glimpse of her connection to The Cabal, or at least to the whale-fish (Leviathan?) that wants to hear her stories.

Carey and Gross continue to do an excellent job with this series.  I'm not sure how much longer the .5 issues are expected to last, or really, how long the series is set to run for, now that Tom is in direct confrontation with the Cabal, but this book has never been more enjoyable.

The Unwritten #33

Written by Mike Carey
Art by Peter Gross and MK Perker

I really can not complain about this comic these days.  As Tom Taylor moves closer to finishing his conflict with The Cabal, the stakes get progressively higher, and the story steadily becomes more exciting.

In this issue, the newly-reinvigorated Tom (thanks to some digital-era Tinkerbell hand clapping) sets off to confront The Cabal before his powers wane.  This involves resurrecting a long-dead architect, and wading into his enemies' base without a plan, appropriate back-up, or anything else.  It feels like whenever Tom has a lot of power, he also develops a fair amount of hubris.

Anyway, there are a few things that are not really working for me here - like the fact that no one would have bothered to look for the Frankenstein monster that got left in the middle of Antarctica before moving on with their plan, but the way in which The Cabal chooses to combat Tom's incursion is pretty interesting, and amusing.

Does anyone know if The Unwritten is expected to end soon?  It feels like this book is moving towards a big finish, but I haven't heard anything to that effect.

The Unwritten #32.5

Written by Mike Carey
Art by Peter Gross and Dean Ormston

The .5 issues of this book are being used to tell us something about the Cabal, the group of people who have been shaping and using literature, and literacy, for their own purposes for as long as man has been writing things down.  In the previous .5 comic (they alternate with the whole number issues, which tell the current events surrounding Tom Taylor and his small crew) we saw the Cabal operating in Ancient China, and dealing with Gutenberg at the beginning of the printing press.

This issue is different in that it tells one single story, that of Gilgamesh, the great Sumerian king, and his journey with Utnapishtim, an immortal who wants him to slay a great serpent.  It seems clear that Utnapishtim is Mr. Pullman, a regular in the Unwritten cast, and it seems, the person who sets the direction of the Cabal, if not its actual leader. What we learn is that the serpent, Abaddon, or Leviathan, feeds on human stories, hence the choice to use Gilgamesh, who was then one of the most storied people living.

Carey doesn't give us a whole lot to work with here in terms of connecting what we've learned to the purpose of the Cabal.  We do know that Utnapishtim cannot be killed until people no longer know of him, which is why Gilgamesh has him written into his great epic.  What this means for Pullman I don't really know - he's kind of shadowy and unknown in the modern day issues.

Dean Ormston joins Peter Gross on this issue, and it brings to mind their collaborations on Carey's previous long-running Vertigo series Lucifer.  They are definitely a good team.