Here’s why I love Carey (and The Unwritten). This issue is an interlude issue, but very different from the last interlude issue, which was about Rudyard Kipling. Instead, it’s about the corrupt warden who’s got Tom Taylor in his jail. It’s just about him and his family. Yes, it ties into the other story, but it provides all sorts of texture (not to mention introducing three new characters) to the warden. It makes The Unwritten fuller.
One of the drawbacks to a big, complicated serial is how often the writers succumb to the “everything’s connected” mentality, taking it to the nth degree instead of just letting some of it be texture. Are the warden’s daughters being Tom Taylor fans connected to the greater narrative? Yes. Is the website shown on the iPhone at the daughters’ school somehow connected? I hope not and don’t think so. Carey’s very careful.
Brilliant stuff.
