In 1930s New York, Wilson Taylor confronts the true enormity of his betrayals, while in the present day, Tom comes face-to-face with the Tinker.
Read the finale of "On to Genesis” in THE UNWRITTEN #30 this Wednesday!
And here’s a look at a couple gorgeous covers by Yuko Shimizu for THE UNWRITTEN #33 and #33.5!
Tom, with the help of Lizzie, enters the journals of Wilson Taylor. While there, he learns that something horrible happened to Milton Jardine, the man whose name Miriam Walzer was using as a pen name. And Tom is shocked when he goes looking for Miri in present day.
On to Genesis continues in THE UNWRITTEN #29 this Wednesday!
With THE UNWRITTEN, Mike Carey and Peter Gross continue to innovate and push the limits of comic books. Issue #28 is no exception.
Below are Vince Locke's finishes on a two page spread from the 1930s sequence in the main story. These are then combined with Peter Gross' rendering of the Tinker comic.
Below is the Tinker comic in its beginning stages "as drawn by Miriam" from the two page spread illustrated by Peter Gross. Doesn't that staircase look familiar?
And here is the script for pages 7 and 8 written by Mike Carey. Please note that some things have changed from script to final page.
PAGES 7 & 8
Structure is kind of weird here. The centre of the spread is a page from a Tinker comic – not finished inks but pencils, rough but full of vibrancy and potential. To either side of it, we’re seeing Miriam and Wilson interacting both while the page is being created and after it’s done. I’ve done the panels in reader-experience below, dividing the page into three sections: area to the left of the Tinker page, page itself, area to the right of the page.
LEFT-HAND BIT
PANEL 1
Miriam’s studio. She’s at the drawing board, sketching with furious concentration. In background, Wilson watches. He’s in shirt-sleeves, jacket over his arm. He looks slightly irritated.
1 WILSON: The Thin Man starts in thirty minutes.
2 MIRIAM: Shut up, Will.
3 MIRIAM: I’m onto something here.
PANEL 2
Tight on Miriam. She carefully traces a line.
4 MIRIAM: It’s what we were talking about. Plugging your own story into
what’s already there.
5 MIRIAM: Making your one voice be part of a symphony.
PANEL 3
Close-up on what she’s drawing – the Tinker kneeling beside a woman’s dead body.
6 MIRIAM: God, I wish I was better.
7 MIRIAM: I wish I could do what Herriman does with a straight line.
THE TINKER PAGE
PANEL 1
A street in Tomorrow City: a lady is being held up by a gangster. The lady is young, beautiful and glamorous, but we’re not seeing her at her best because the gangster is shooting her through the heart. She staggers and falls. In background, the Tinker is running or seven-league-striding in to the attack.
1 GANGSTER: Sorry, lady.
SFX: BLAM
2 GANGSTER: The boss don’t want you on that witness stand!
3 LADY: Ohh!
PANEL 2
Two-shot. The Tinker punches out the gangster.
4 TINKER: You cowardly rat! You’ll get the chair for this!
5 GANGSTER: Oof!
6 TINKER: Justice never sleeps!
PANEL 3
Out wide. The Tinker kneels beside the body, gently touches the woman’s forearm. A uniformed cop – a sergeant, comic relief, probably overweight – watches anxiously.
7 TINKER: But that won’t bring back an innocent life!
8 COP: I don’t like that gleam I’m after seeing in your eye, Tinker!
9 COP: Begorrah, and you lost this one, so you did.
PANEL 4
Tight on the Tinker. He takes a piece of chalk from his pocket.
10 TINKER: Maybe not. This chalk is from the shores of Lake Avernus.
11 TINKER: The ancient gateway to the land of the dead.
PANEL 5
Out wide. The Tinker draws out a stairway in perspective on the ground. The cop pleads with him.
12 COP: Faith, you can’t do this, Tinker! What’ll I tell the lieutenant, at all at all?
13 TINKER: Tell him what you like, O’Malley. I’m going to Hades.
14 TINKER: And I’m bringing Lucy Cabot’s soul back with me!
PANEL 6
Tight on the Tinker. His drawn staircase has become a real staircase, from which flames and steam billow up. He walks down fearlessly into them.
15 TINKER: I spend a lot of time dealing with the criminal underworld.
16 TINKER: The underworld of the dead probably isn’t too different!
RIGHT-HAND BIT
PANEL 1
Back in the studio, out wide. Wilson stares at the finished page, which he’s lifted from the drawing board. He’s amazed. Miriam stands by, a little bashful and awkward but full of excitement at what she’s achieved.
8 WILSON: This is - -
9 MIRIAM: It’s Orpheus and Eurydice.
10 WILSON: I know, Miri. I got that.
PANEL 2
Tight on Wilson. He lowers the page, stares at her, very serious.
11 WILSON: It’s brilliant. You’re telling stories with real resonance, now.
12 WILSON: Real depth.
PANEL 3
Close-up on Miriam’s face, ardent and passionate.
13 MIRIAM: I’m making myths.
14 MIRIAM: For an age that doesn’t have any of its own yet.
It's a complicated process, but the end result is totally worth it when you see the finished pages colored, lettered and ready to be read.
While the cabal continue their seemingly motiveless murder spree, Tom Taylor researches his father's journals to uncover the secret connections between Wilson Taylor and his deadliest enemy, Pullman--as well as a hint at an eighty-year-old mystery that could be a clue to Tom's own nature and origins.
Check out the two page spread below from THE UNWRITTEN #28, in stores tomorrow, with art by Peter Gross and Vince Locke. The setting is 1930s Brooklyn, NY--the Golden Age of a new artistic medium and the birth of a new type of hero.
Come back Friday as we reveal the making-of these two significant pages.
And here’s the first look at the cover of issue #31.5:
THE UNWRITTEN tops MTV Geek’s list of the 25 Best Ongoing Comic Book Series (So Far) at #1.
AMERICAN VAMPIRE and SWEET TOOTH also hit the list at #16 and #18 respectively.
In other news, Scott Snyder was featured in an article in USA TODAY for his work on Batman and IGN raved about SWEET TOOTH #24 rating it at 9.0 AMAZING.
Created by Mike Carey and Peter Gross, THE UNWRITTEN has been called “a roller-coaster ride through a library, weaving famous authors and characters into a tale of mystery that is, at once, oddly familiar yet highly original,” by USA TODAY.
Some of the most talked about issues have been the fabulous one-offs—from the Willowbank Tales of Mr. Bun to the Pick-A-Story origin of Lizzie Hexam. In the vein of those amazing issues, Vertigo will publish a series of 5 interconnected issues that will enhance the reading experience of the ongoing series.
Starting this November, THE UNWRITTEN will be published twice-monthly--with issue #31, followed by #31.5 followed by issue #32, followed by issue #32.5, and so on, through issue 36.
Issue #31 begins Tommy Taylor and the War of the Words, a game-changing story event. Tom Taylor goes to war against the cabal that has tormented, imprisoned and tried to destroy him - and it's far more than just a war of words! To have a hope of winning, Tom must use every weapon he can get hold of, but even storybook magic carries its own risks.
In the special .5 issues, Tom's crusade plays out against the backdrop of the cabal's sinister secret history and delves deep into the dark past of some of the series' major players. When it's all over, very little will remain Unwritten.
Written by Mike Carey, each of these issues will feature artistic contributions from some of the most talented artists in the industry, including ongoing series artist and co-plotter, Peter Gross. Yuko Shimizu will continue her gorgeous work on covers for each issue.
Check out the Cover to issue #31:
The nominees for the 2011 British Fantasy Awards have been announced and Vertigo’s THE UNWRITTEN Volumes 1 & 2 have been nominated in the Best Comic/Graphic Novel category. The winners will be announced during FantasyCon in September.
For the full list of nominees click here.
Congratulations to Mike Carey and Peter Gross.
Story by Mike Carey
Art by Peter Gross
Father’s Day was a major institution in the yearly round at the Villa Diodati, and had been ever since Tom Taylor reached the age of five.
Preparations would begin early, with one of Tom’s tutors – or, if he had no tutor at the time, Madame Venner – coaching and supervising him in making a card or gift for his father. Tom wasn’t adept at craft work, and often the design and manufacture of the thing would be taken out of his hands. He would sit and watch the adults carefully forging a child’s clumsy virtuosity, applying a carefully measured mixture of inspiration and glue-smeared fingerprints. Sometimes he would offer to help, and be rebuffed.
The day itself was dominated by the photo shoots: endless variations of Wilson posing with his son in his lap, grinning broadly, while he held aloft the card or the bookmark or the pen holder or whatever so that the cameras could get a clear shot of it.
Afterwards, the interviews. “What did you think of the last book, Tom?” “What’s the one thing you’d like to say to Tommy Taylor fans around the world?” and always, always “How much do you love your dad, Tom?”
From age 5 to age 13, he gave the approved answer to this: usually some variation on “As much as all the world.”
In the year he turned 14, he said “I don’t know. I never met him.”
Whereupon the PR people descended in a swarm to claim him, the official answer was supplied in a hand-out sheet, and Tom was hustled away out of the reach of the cameras. His words were edited out of all the media accounts, of course, but he was glad, afterwards, that he had said it: because that was the year when his father disappeared, and his childhood officially ended.
It was such a small rebellion. But he took it with him when he walked out of that poisoned Eden into the world, and it helped him not to look back.
The hammer goes down, the auction begins, and lot number 100 is . . . Tom Taylor. Who's going to be bidding, and what do they want him for? Tom hopes he never finds out - but he's out of options, in the hands of his enemies, and locked in a sensory deprivation tank that's terrifyingly familiar...
Mike Carey and Peter Gross continue to amaze in THE UNWRITTEN #26 on sale today.
Cover by Yuko Shimizu
THE UNWRITTEN continues to amaze.
Check out some of the fantastic review coverage for issue #25 from AIN’T IT COOL NEWS, KOTAKU, IGN, COMIC BOOK RESOURCES. If you’re not reading THE UNWRITTEN, it’s time to start!
