Whimpulsive: The Unwritten: Dead Man's Knock by Mike Carey & Peter Gross

The Unwritten: Dead Man's Knock by Mike Carey & Peter Gross

Genre: Fantasy (Graphic Novel)
Series: #3 in the Unwritten series
Publisher: Vertigo Comics
Publication Date: 2011
Pages: 160
Source: Library

The Short Version:
Tom Taylor spent most of his life trying to live down the fact that his father’s bestselling books featured a boy wizard with his name but now he’s discovering he has more in common with Tommy Taylor the character than he thought and that his father has prepared him to face off against a dangerous group who use stories to control.

Why I Read It:
A twitter conversation led me to this series and I haven’t been able to stop since I read the first one.

The Book:
This volume 3 is a compilation of issues 13-18 of the comic series.

From the back cover:

The fictional adventures of Tommy Taylor are the biggest publishing sensation of the still-young century. And now, years after the last volume, Tommy’s creator Wilson Taylor, long missing and believed dead, is unleashing a brand-new Tommy Taylor book upon the world. There’s just none problem: It’s not a new Tommy Taylor book at all.

Sinister forces have create a fake book in Wilson’s name, a fraud designed to destroy his literary legacy – and coax the reclusive author of hiding so they can destroy him once and or all. But they didn’t count on Wilson’s most powerful creation: his son, the real Tom Taylor.

To unmask the truth about the new Tommy, Tom must confront some of the darkest secrets that surround him, from the hidden fate of his father to the secret origin of his closest friend to the true nature of his fictional alter ego. Will Tom be able to stop his doppelganger’s return? Or will the publishing event of the decade lead to the end of time?

My Thoughts:
I am enjoying the heck out of this series. The story is interesting and keep surprising me. The artwork is amaxing and tells as much of the story if not more than the words.

The section that revealed more of the history of the semi-myterious Lizzie Hexam character was quite different than anything in the previous volumes. This section was done as a ‘choose your own adventure style’ and I loved it. I know it’s a departure from anything in the series so far but I had a great time going through all the options and possible histories of Lizzie. I was compulsive and made sure I’d explored all the possibilities. I was a bit hesitant when I started that section but after a thorough study of it I have to say that it really worked.

There weren’t as many literary references in this one as in the second volume but the story was still rich and interesting. The artwork really makes it cleat when the story is shifting from Tom Taylor to the Tommy Taylor books written by his father. They are interwoven but it’s smoothly handled.

I have a feeling that this is a series that I’ll be reading again from the beginning once I catch up to the current volumes. The small details in one section can become important later. I’m eager to get caught up with all the available volumes so I can start re-experiencing this highly entertaining and interesting series.