Inside Man is the second book (issues 6-12) in The Unwritten series of comics, written by Mike Carey and art by Peter Gross and cover art by Yuko Shimizu. [Here’s my review of the first book.]

Plot:
As fiction and reality start to overlap ever more, Tom Taylor is arrested for the murder of an entire group of horror authors at Villa Diodati, where Tom tried to get away and find out more about his father’s disappearance and about himself. Save to say, that plan has failes and now Tom is sent to a prison where he gets to share a cell with undercover reporter Savoy. But there are still forces out there trying to harm Tom, and Lizzie isn’t about to give up on him, either.

Man, this series is so cool! It’s not only a well-told, engaging story with very nice art, but it’s also so very smart about fiction itself.

[SPOILERS]

I honestly don’t know what my favorite part about this was. Was it the bits where Lizzie talks to Wilson through the books? Or the prison warden’s children and their slightly warped handle on reality? Or maybe how fiction keeps bleeding into reality? Or was it the part where they come into Jud Süß and discover what the novel’s history meant for the properties of this particular piece fiction? Or Tom’s fight against it?

The entire comic is just so densely packaged and it still manages to be enjoyable at a very superficial level. If you want to dig deep, you’ll find material aplenty. If you want to just skim over it, no problem at all – it’s gonna be entertaining and enjoyable.

I absolutely adore the drawing style, too. Especially the differences between worlds was beautifully done. And it’s not only aesthetically pleasing, but also structured so that it makes your understanding of the story better (as it should be). I also like the character design. And the covers by Yuko Shimizu.

Summarizing: It’s just an excellent series altogether.