When “The Unwritten” launched in 2009, it was undoubtedly one of the best new books to launch from a colossal imprint that had built its name on producing the highest of caliber series. 100% subverting beliefs that this was “just a Harry Potter riff” and providing a thought-provoking narrative that explores every nook and cranny of literature in all its forms, “the Unwritten” has been the feather in Vertigo’s cap for the past four years.
And now it’s all getting weird.
#50 launched a crossover of sorts with another long-running Vertigo series, “Fables.” While the two books don’t intertwine and they’re 100% self-contained, the series has gotten a bit odd very quickly into the story — to the point that it doesn’t really feel like itself. But what has made this now ostensibly news-worthy (beyond the positive or negative reviews) is that this crossover is causing the book to relaunch.
As revealed at Newsarama, following October’s 54th issue the series will temporarily go on hiatus to return in 2014. As explained in the interview,
Newsarama: Mike and Peter, The Unwritten didn’t show up in November solicitations, and now DC has confirmed that the book is taking a two-month hiatus. How did this come about?
Peter Gross: Partly, I think it’s a blessing for us because we just finished a 150-page Unwritten graphic novel, the Tommy Taylor [and the Ship That Sank Twice] book, while working on the Fables arc, which opened with a double-sized issue.
I think I was kind of begging them for a little time.
And as we were working on the Fables arc, we realized it ended at such a big point — almost like an ending and relaunching point. And we asked if we could start up the next volume of Unwritten with a #1.
And when they said yes to that, we pushed for a little break to get us back on schedule.
Mike Carey: Yeah, it felt like we reached a natural turning point in the story, particularly since the Fables arc was, itself, such a big change of pace and tone.
So there’s a kind of natural rhythm to it so the break won’t seem like a stop; it will feel like a breather. And it will be very short. It’s only a few months.
Correct me if I’m wrong here, but this has never really happened with a Vertigo series before. Yes, certain books have ended and come back for additional volumes (“The Invisibles” comes to mind), but the way Gross and Carey talk about this is almost like your average run of the mill comic relaunch is happening. And that’s really peculiar.
How the Fables crossover ends and what change it brings to “The Unwritten” is yet to be seen. It’s a strange direction for the book to head in because, while I’m not actually that against the current story (it’s not the book’s usual form of great and I’d rather something else more along the usual flair of the story be told, but hey, it works well enough) it sort of feels like the book has gotten pushed off its own path. The book has been having some serious highs and lows, but the Fables crossover is undoubtedly the lowest point of the book — even if that isn’t really saying too much for an otherwise generally flawless run.
Mind you — Gross and Peter would firmly disagree, as noted in the Newsarama interview:
Nrama: The fact that you say that the end of the Fables crossover arc ends with something that makes sense with a break and a new #1 issue really emphasizes that this storyline isn’t just a “side” story. Because I looked at some reviews of the last issue, and there’s still the opinion out there that this takes your comic off track. This is still a big part of the ongoing Unwritten story, right?
Gross: Yeah, it really is.
Carey: Very much so.
Gross: And in maybe a more subtle way than they’re realizing in the first couple issues of it. But we didn’t want to do the Fables story if it didn’t have implications for Unwritten.
And given that this is their story, we may just want to trust them on this.
Either way, look for “The Unwritten” v2 #1 next year. “The Unwritten: Tommy Taylor and the Ship That Sank Twice” will be released in September as a 150-page graphic novel which acts as a pseudo-origin story for Thomas and Tommy, with interstitial pages by Wilson that give additional insight into where the Tommy Taylor novels came from and some of the earliest days of the saga of “the Unwritten.”
