Unwritten #2

I thought the first issue did a great job of setting things up. Looking forward to see where this goes, as I think it will be a good indication on whether or not the premise has legs.

i agree. i might not follow this but i might get the trade

Yeah, this issue is going to be crucial.

The first issue was a wonderful suprise.  I cannot wait for this.

@miyamotofreak

Ditto. We shall see!

Issue #1 was worth about a dollar.  This title, like Vinyl Underground, like Greatest Hits, more evidence of Karen Berger's 90's Anglophilia hangover.

Very crucial issue, but I've no reason to think it won't be on par with the first. Excited.

i thought the first one was great.  I really hope this one can stay at the same level or maybe improve.

I have to read the first one tonight. I never got around to it.

I thought the first issue was really good, set up the story for various occurences. I'm looking forward to see what happens when the story really gets going.

I also hope that this issue lives up to the first. Cuz, Vertigo really needs a new series that clicks with the public. Hopefully this and the upcoming Greek street, Daytripper and Sweet tooth will have staying power.

I think I'll wait for the trade on this one.  I enjoyed the first issue quite a bit, but I have the feeling this would do well in large chunks.  For me, anyways.

The final page of this comic with the notes from the Wilson Taylor's desk moved this comic from great to incredible.  The explanation of the premise from Mike Carey solidified it.  My personal philosophy about the social meta-narratives we create to explain the world around us seems to link up pretty well with the views he's espousing in the on the edge column.  When you have a piece of art (no matter the media) that speaks to you directly, you'd better believe it can be a powerful experience.  I cannot wait to see where this goes. 

I read the first issue last night and it was, in fact, incredible. I must get #2 now.

Seems like people want to like this book.  Maybe because we're all afraid of Vertigo going under?  That would be a shame and, given the sales of most of their titles, a definite possibility. I could be wrong, and I'm certainly surprised to see the level of enthusiasm for the book here, but I don't see this one doing much for them.  But who knows.  If Fables can be a leader for them, anything's possible.

The first one I thought had a good premise, but it didn't really grasp me too much or make me love it. That said, I am going to be picking this up on what is a light week for me, and it will probably be better than the first issue.

two things could happen with this book:

1. i'm increablely annoyed by it

2. it develops into something really good and i'm put around

 both have exactly the same chance of happening

I can't, for the life of me, remember what happened in the first issue.  I might pick this issue anyway.

@paulieP

I got to about the 4th page and realized the same thing.  There's almost too much information per issue for me to get this monthly.  I'll make my trade decision when #3 comes out

Well, this issue sold the series for me. I thought I had a good idea what was going on, but it's quickly becoming clear that things aren't as obvious as I first feared. I'm really liking this.

@Slockhart/paulieP: I sorta forgot what happened in the first issue as well, so I read it last night as a refresher. I think this series is very rewarding to the reread.

I guess I'm one of those who wants to like the book, but, while entertaining and solidly written, it's not doing anything for me. The only thing keeping me reading (probably at least for the issues that would constitute the first trade) is my curiosity at where this is going.

Seriously, I really hope there's more to it than "fiction is often being more real than reality", but, and here's their selling point, this time we see how the internet and this new super interconnected mass culture affects it and is affected by it. Sure, the epistolary sections are quite interesting reads, but the central idea has been done to death a million times over.

And please god tell me, they're not going to start taking characters from random novels?! I'm afraid we'll soon find out which Victorian villian the moustache twirling guy is.

Lastly, one my biggest complaints is how little respect Mike Carey and Peter Gross seem to have for the Harry Potter series, which is obviously core to their comic, and sincerely doubt they have read any of them beyond maybe the first. That would be a massive oversight for such a comic series. Or is their message, "look at the power of fiction, even trite like Harry Potter can inspire".

Look, I'm definitely not a Potter-maniac, but I followed the books as they were published, and frankly admire what JK Rowling managed to accomplish with essentially a young teenager's series of novels. Yes, the clunky awful dialog in these excerpts, and the mystical magical talking unicorn from la la land who helps Tom find the magical trombone of evil power, is smirk worthy once, it quickly becomes extremely tiresome. I expect they will justify it down the line (and would be severly disappointed if they didn't), but for now I feel it's a bit cheap to take shots at a series that much more subtley and imaginatively dealt with similar themes.

Still, like I said I'll be following this for a few more issues, and must applaud Vertigo for their approach to the first issue.

I didn't see any cheap shots at Harry Potter.

Really? The whole tone of the Tom Taylor book segments, reads like a really bad Harry Potter parody complete with clunky dialog, bad exposition, ott villians, silly talking animals and mutlitudes of inane magical McGuffins. Perhaps it's not intentional (Mike probably wants to provide some levity to the main plot), but it's tiresome and boring. Like I said, I'm sure they're going to go somewhere with it, and, to be fair, they are only short segments in a larger narrative. My post ^ (and the length devoted to my complaint) probably sounds whinier than I intended! ;)

With the exception of the Tommy character clearly being a generic Harry Potter knockoff, the "parody" elements of the story just could easily be cribbing any other fantasy story from The Last Unicorn to Eragon to Narnia to Forgotten Realms and beyond. It isn't just a coy jab at Potter, although I imagine that the frenzy around the fictional stories clearly is a nod to the Potter series and its success.

Harry Potter, the series, entertaining and successful as it may be, is pretty far from original itself. 

It's not a Harry Potter parody, it's a Tim Hunter parody! ;)

@skeets... Touche!

Haha, I never claimed HP was particularly original; that's completely irrelevant.

And good point on the Tim Hunter resemblance, but there's more similarities in the comic than just the main character and his signature mark (his two friends, the silly villain etc). Regardless of what Mike Carey is parodying, or if the whole thing came to him in a flash of inspiration with no outside influence whatsoever, it's terribly bad reading. Again, the rest of the comic is fine, but I just hope they're going somewhere interesting!

This 2nd issue has got me more interested... i'll be sticking with it for at least the 1st trade