Welcome to the BURN CENTER!

Hey folks, Jonny Napalm here welcoming you to my charred little corner of the sky. Here I will be sharing views on all the things I love and adore and loathe with the burning passion of a thousand suns. Be aware.. my views tend to the nerdtastic, so... you are warned.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Rewriting the map of the world...

The Unwritten is one of my favorite new comics of the past year and a half or so.  By the exceptionally creative team of Mike Carey and Peter Gross, a pairing that has done exceptional work for the Vertigo division of DC comics, the story focuses on the trials and tribulations of one Thomas Taylor (sorry, the alliteration was just so tempting.).  Thomas is known worldwide in large part because his father made him the central figure in a children's fantasy, much like Christopher Robin's character when A.A. Milne wrote his Pooh stories, and it has become his primary means of making a living, making guest appearances at Conventions, signing autographs, etc.  Of course the situation is turned on it's head in the exceptional first issue of the comic and bizarre events begin finding focus around Tom.  These events are interspersed with related parts of the stories told ABOUT Tommy, exceptionally illustrated and written, in a style that's very recognizable from many of the most exceptional children's stories around today.  These are only some of the things that have brought me wholeheartedly into the world Carey and Gross are crafting.  Now it may be noted that I qualified this "comic" with the literature tag as well, and with good reason... as the stories develop and the comics move outward expanding on our understanding of Tommy, his role, and the role his Father is playing in the events occurring around him and what they mean, we find ourselves intersecting with many other great pieces of literature.  Shelly's Frankenstein, The Song of Roland, Dicken's Our Mutual Friend, and many others rear their heads and shout to be noticed as we move through Tom's world...  If nothing else this book is a great education in the world around words that have taken on a life of their own.  This is far and away one of the best books coming out in comic shops currently.  But for those who find an interest in these stories, there are a couple other recommendations I can make, Carey & Gross' work on Lucifer, and The Books of Magic, both from the DC imprint, as well as Michael Stackpole's A Secret Atlas series of novels, which, while not precisely the same style of story have a fantastic number of relate-able concepts.

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