While the Sandman is Asleep and the Invisibles are Invisible
A brilliant start to what I imagine continues (and will continue) to be a brilliant series. I've read this and that of Mike Carey's over the years and I've liked him but with the Unwritten - a story about stories (about stories?!)- Carey seems to have found it - 'it' being HIS story.
In the last 30 years or so, there have been many great comic series that have come and (in some cases) gone. If the Unwritten stays as good as these first five issues, then it will have earned it's place amongst these greats.
And it's art - pencils and inks by Peter Gross - is as beautiful as the story, too. And as the story shifts, as it does often, so does the art - always adapting to what fits the tone, atmosphere, themes, setting, etc...
Perhaps Carey will always be attached to Neil Gaiman and Sandman to me because I first read Carey when I read Lucifer - but, I really don't think it's too far a stretch to place the Unwritten in the same "genre" or "category" as Sandman. Perhaps more "controversial" (what a silly thing to be controversial, though) is that I also place it - and Sandman - in the same category as Grant Morrison's The Invisibles. They're the pillars of a genre not yet named. Each individually unique and at times nothing like the other, but ...well read them all and perhaps you'll see what I mean.
Regardless, since this is a review of the Unwritten Vo1. 1 - READ IT. Read it ESPECIALLY if you love literature.
