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scans_dailyLizzie Hexam is one of three main characters in Mike Carey and Peter Gross's Vertigo-published series The Unwritten, which began in 2009.
She didn't start out as a main character - although she has definitely become one - but she was present in the series right from issue #1.
She is awesome because she's the catalyst for a great deal of the action that takes place in the first four issues. She asks thoughtful questions, is resourceful and enigmatic, saves the life of main-character-from-the-start Tom Taylor - the son of a writer (missing when the story starts) who wrote a popular series of novels centered around a boy wizard named Tommy Taylor - at least once, and is generally great. She's also a London-dwelling character from a Dickens novel.
Notes:
- The post might be slightly NSFW due to some of the language in the scans.
- Also, I apologize for the quality of one of the scans which I made myself. I'll get a better-quality one up as soon as I can. For now I just hope that what's going on is clear enough to be understood.
Lizzie is someone who certainly knows how to make an entrance. Readers first meet her as a member of the audience at a panel at a "TommyCon" in London. The speaker is Tom Taylor, who may or may not *actually be* Tommy; he maintains he isn't, but Lizzie seems to think he is.
Lizzie starts off in issue #1 by doing what she'll continue to do throughout the series: asking difficult questions and shaking up the status quo a bit.
And she has more evidence like it: the testimony of a Romanian couple who have claimed that Tom is their son, and the fact that she's found that his national insurance number is not unique to him, like it should be. Poor Tom was not aware of this but before any more unease can be caused at the con he's moved off by his then-manager Rupert Swope.
Lizzie then sneaks into the hotel where Tom is staying while trying to avoid media attention and fan anger (they feel that he's "deceived" them by being a cheap fake "posing" as Tommy). She apologizes for getting him into that situation (she hadn't realized that it would get so out of control, because "of course your enemies would take advantage" of the fact that she'd called his identity into question), but tells Tom that he needs to give some interviews and makes some news of his own.
Tom disagrees strongly, feeling that if he just lies low the whole mess will fade away, and tells her to go away and mess up someone else's life. Sorry I can't post any scans from the scene, but we've already reached the posting limit for issue #1 (seesandoz_iscariot's post here and lurkslikefox's post here for more from that issue).
Lizzie next appears after Tom, whose life is now considerably more difficult than it was before, has been captured by "Count Ambrosio", a vampire who is the main antagonist in the Tommy Taylor novels. The Count's plan is to blow up Tom (and the Globe Theatre) as fans watch via a webcam feed to a Tommy Taylor fansite. I say "Count Ambrosio" in parentheses because I don't think that was really him.
Talking back - no, quoting children's literature - at a guy with that mouthful of fangs, strength enough to tear a chunk out of a solid wooden pole with one bare hand (with long fingers and sharp-looking nails, too, though), as well as the controls of a nail bomb? That takes guts, which Lizzie shows she has plenty of. This is Lizzie the Fearless, the risk-taker, the all-around do-what-must-be-done-without-a-flinch woman.
(from issue #1)
The bomb goes off, but Tom survives with only a few injuries instead of death (the Count's fate). He gets all the more media attention afterwards, particularly because Lizzie - before slipping away unnoticed - had set the scene to make his escape seem miraculous instead of something that happened just because of luck.
Once he's out of hospital Tom decides to do some investigation of his own, beginning with inquiring about Lizzie at University College London. He is told that the only place he can find a Lizzie Hexam, or any Hexam, is the library - because they are the main characters in Charles Dickens' novel Our Mutual Friend.
So then he decides to head to a place called the Villa Diodati in Switzerland, having learned that that was where his father was last seen before he disappeared. Surprise! Lizzie is there too, ostensibly as part of a group of horror writers attending a conference.
That tatoo, aslurkslikefox pointed out in the post I took the scan from, is one that Tommy has in the books. Tom never had one before that instant.
(from issue #2)
The issues set at the Villa Diodati are important because it is here that Lizzie pushes Tom to think more closely about his connection to Wilson, to the novels, and to think about who he is in general. Here we see Lizzie the Catalyst, the Plot-Mover.
Sometime later:
(Three scans from issue #3, borrowed fromlurkslikefox's post)
Here's where the enigmatic side of her comes in (also from issue #3).
Well, damn is right, Tom.
He goes after her, finds her, and apologizes for the earlier outburst. Lizzie apologizes too and says the villa "has a very strange vibe for me, that's all." Tom agrees, saying he feels the same way since not much has changed since he was there with Wilson. Then he realizes that because Lizzie forced him to remember the night Wilson disappeared, he has remembered a detail about where to find the latter's safe. He finds it and opens it to see that it contains a note ("Use what I have taught you, Tommy. Use it against your enemies.") and the study doorknob.
What did he teach you? asks Lizzie. "[t]hat literary GPS bullshit" about what story happened in what geographical location, says Tom. He gets the study door open, but before they can go in he and Lizzie are confronted by the organizer of the writing conference. That's a private place off-limit to guests, she says.
(Mathilde Venner was Wilson's housekeeper)
(from issue #4)
Then there's horrible bloody multiple murder at the villa. Lizzie disappears and Tom ends up blamed for it - and because one of the dead is a French citizen, France demands Tom's extradition. It's granted and he's sent to Donostia, a notorious French prison, while awaiting trial. Lizzie, meanwhile, is not sure what to do.
Mingus is a winged cat, one of Tommy's companions (not sure if she's a "pet" in conventional terms) in the books.
(these two scans are from issue #6)
Wilson's plan involves her getting into Donostia herself. So how does she accomplish this?
This is Lizzie the Casually (Deliberately) Clumsy. I love the expression on her face here.
(from issue #6)
(from issue #6)
But Lizzie's got plans of her own too. She uses what's available to her at Donostia to prepare to break out of her cell.
This (scans from issue #7) is Lizzie the Resourceful.
A hastily-assembled exit strategy sees Tom, Lizzie, and Richard Savoy (a journalist who went to Donostia with Tom, undercover, in order to get the best scoop and who has now found himself drawn into the larger story) escape into a shadow of Stuttgart circa 1940. During the course of their experiences there, Lizzie does this:
to someone who gets in their way. While it wasn't an actual person she smashed to bits (because of the fact that they were in a "shadow" of Stuttgart), the lesson that can be learned here still stands: do not mess with Lizzie or her friends or get her mad at you. She can be brutal when she needs to.
And...that's all I really know, since at that point I started trade-waiting. I do know that at one point she needs to "go back" to the Dickens novel where she came from. In issue #15 we get a glimpse of both the London of Our Mutual Friend and of Lizzie's connection to Wilson and Tom.
Then something nasty happens and she is left, for all intents and purposes, brain dead.
But we do learn - via an entire (choose-your-own-adventure story format!) issue she has dedicated to her back story - that "Lizzie Hexam" started out as a young orphan named Jane.
(three scans above from issue #17)
Her fate was revealed in last month's issue, so as I understand it that's still a spoiler. Actually, even I don't know all of what happens since I haven't read the issue in detail yet (I flipped through #18 in-store some weeks ago) but I can give you some bare details if you'd like them (in white): She eventually gets out of the coma (although I'm not sure how). We learn at the end of issue #18 that sometime soon afterwards she, Tom, and Richard share a celebratory drink and set their sights on stopping the people who are after Tom - before it's too late.
Long story short: Lizzie is a fascinating character. She's important to the story of The Unwritten, and Mike Carey and Peter Gross are clearly willing to spend time and effort on her, which is awesome by itself. I can't wait to get the third trade inJanuary March to pick up where I left off!
The scans used in this post are:
- one page from issue #1, taken fromsandoz_iscariot's post here.
- one page each from issues #1 and #2, taken fromlurkslikefox's posts here and here respectively.
- four pages from issue #3, taken fromlurkslikefox's post here.
- my own scanning: one page from issue #4, four pages from issue #6, two pages from issue #7
- from previews on Graphic Content, the Vertigo blog: one page each from issues #4 and #7, two from issue #15, and three from issue #17.
She didn't start out as a main character - although she has definitely become one - but she was present in the series right from issue #1.
She is awesome because she's the catalyst for a great deal of the action that takes place in the first four issues. She asks thoughtful questions, is resourceful and enigmatic, saves the life of main-character-from-the-start Tom Taylor - the son of a writer (missing when the story starts) who wrote a popular series of novels centered around a boy wizard named Tommy Taylor - at least once, and is generally great. She's also a London-dwelling character from a Dickens novel.
Notes:
- The post might be slightly NSFW due to some of the language in the scans.
- Also, I apologize for the quality of one of the scans which I made myself. I'll get a better-quality one up as soon as I can. For now I just hope that what's going on is clear enough to be understood.
Lizzie is someone who certainly knows how to make an entrance. Readers first meet her as a member of the audience at a panel at a "TommyCon" in London. The speaker is Tom Taylor, who may or may not *actually be* Tommy; he maintains he isn't, but Lizzie seems to think he is.
Lizzie starts off in issue #1 by doing what she'll continue to do throughout the series: asking difficult questions and shaking up the status quo a bit.
And she has more evidence like it: the testimony of a Romanian couple who have claimed that Tom is their son, and the fact that she's found that his national insurance number is not unique to him, like it should be. Poor Tom was not aware of this but before any more unease can be caused at the con he's moved off by his then-manager Rupert Swope.
Lizzie then sneaks into the hotel where Tom is staying while trying to avoid media attention and fan anger (they feel that he's "deceived" them by being a cheap fake "posing" as Tommy). She apologizes for getting him into that situation (she hadn't realized that it would get so out of control, because "of course your enemies would take advantage" of the fact that she'd called his identity into question), but tells Tom that he needs to give some interviews and makes some news of his own.
Tom disagrees strongly, feeling that if he just lies low the whole mess will fade away, and tells her to go away and mess up someone else's life. Sorry I can't post any scans from the scene, but we've already reached the posting limit for issue #1 (see
sandoz_iscariot's post here and lurkslikefox's post here for more from that issue).Lizzie next appears after Tom, whose life is now considerably more difficult than it was before, has been captured by "Count Ambrosio", a vampire who is the main antagonist in the Tommy Taylor novels. The Count's plan is to blow up Tom (and the Globe Theatre) as fans watch via a webcam feed to a Tommy Taylor fansite. I say "Count Ambrosio" in parentheses because I don't think that was really him.
Talking back - no, quoting children's literature - at a guy with that mouthful of fangs, strength enough to tear a chunk out of a solid wooden pole with one bare hand (with long fingers and sharp-looking nails, too, though), as well as the controls of a nail bomb? That takes guts, which Lizzie shows she has plenty of. This is Lizzie the Fearless, the risk-taker, the all-around do-what-must-be-done-without-a-flinch woman.
(from issue #1)
The bomb goes off, but Tom survives with only a few injuries instead of death (the Count's fate). He gets all the more media attention afterwards, particularly because Lizzie - before slipping away unnoticed - had set the scene to make his escape seem miraculous instead of something that happened just because of luck.
Once he's out of hospital Tom decides to do some investigation of his own, beginning with inquiring about Lizzie at University College London. He is told that the only place he can find a Lizzie Hexam, or any Hexam, is the library - because they are the main characters in Charles Dickens' novel Our Mutual Friend.
So then he decides to head to a place called the Villa Diodati in Switzerland, having learned that that was where his father was last seen before he disappeared. Surprise! Lizzie is there too, ostensibly as part of a group of horror writers attending a conference.
That tatoo, as
lurkslikefox pointed out in the post I took the scan from, is one that Tommy has in the books. Tom never had one before that instant.(from issue #2)
The issues set at the Villa Diodati are important because it is here that Lizzie pushes Tom to think more closely about his connection to Wilson, to the novels, and to think about who he is in general. Here we see Lizzie the Catalyst, the Plot-Mover.
Sometime later:
(Three scans from issue #3, borrowed from
lurkslikefox's post)Here's where the enigmatic side of her comes in (also from issue #3).
Well, damn is right, Tom.
He goes after her, finds her, and apologizes for the earlier outburst. Lizzie apologizes too and says the villa "has a very strange vibe for me, that's all." Tom agrees, saying he feels the same way since not much has changed since he was there with Wilson. Then he realizes that because Lizzie forced him to remember the night Wilson disappeared, he has remembered a detail about where to find the latter's safe. He finds it and opens it to see that it contains a note ("Use what I have taught you, Tommy. Use it against your enemies.") and the study doorknob.
What did he teach you? asks Lizzie. "[t]hat literary GPS bullshit" about what story happened in what geographical location, says Tom. He gets the study door open, but before they can go in he and Lizzie are confronted by the organizer of the writing conference. That's a private place off-limit to guests, she says.
(Mathilde Venner was Wilson's housekeeper)
(from issue #4)
Then there's horrible bloody multiple murder at the villa. Lizzie disappears and Tom ends up blamed for it - and because one of the dead is a French citizen, France demands Tom's extradition. It's granted and he's sent to Donostia, a notorious French prison, while awaiting trial. Lizzie, meanwhile, is not sure what to do.
Mingus is a winged cat, one of Tommy's companions (not sure if she's a "pet" in conventional terms) in the books.
(these two scans are from issue #6)
Wilson's plan involves her getting into Donostia herself. So how does she accomplish this?
This is Lizzie the Casually (Deliberately) Clumsy. I love the expression on her face here.
(from issue #6)
(from issue #6)
But Lizzie's got plans of her own too. She uses what's available to her at Donostia to prepare to break out of her cell.
This (scans from issue #7) is Lizzie the Resourceful.
A hastily-assembled exit strategy sees Tom, Lizzie, and Richard Savoy (a journalist who went to Donostia with Tom, undercover, in order to get the best scoop and who has now found himself drawn into the larger story) escape into a shadow of Stuttgart circa 1940. During the course of their experiences there, Lizzie does this:
to someone who gets in their way. While it wasn't an actual person she smashed to bits (because of the fact that they were in a "shadow" of Stuttgart), the lesson that can be learned here still stands: do not mess with Lizzie or her friends or get her mad at you. She can be brutal when she needs to.
And...that's all I really know, since at that point I started trade-waiting. I do know that at one point she needs to "go back" to the Dickens novel where she came from. In issue #15 we get a glimpse of both the London of Our Mutual Friend and of Lizzie's connection to Wilson and Tom.
Then something nasty happens and she is left, for all intents and purposes, brain dead.
But we do learn - via an entire (choose-your-own-adventure story format!) issue she has dedicated to her back story - that "Lizzie Hexam" started out as a young orphan named Jane.
(three scans above from issue #17)
Her fate was revealed in last month's issue, so as I understand it that's still a spoiler. Actually, even I don't know all of what happens since I haven't read the issue in detail yet (I flipped through #18 in-store some weeks ago) but I can give you some bare details if you'd like them (in white): She eventually gets out of the coma (although I'm not sure how). We learn at the end of issue #18 that sometime soon afterwards she, Tom, and Richard share a celebratory drink and set their sights on stopping the people who are after Tom - before it's too late.
Long story short: Lizzie is a fascinating character. She's important to the story of The Unwritten, and Mike Carey and Peter Gross are clearly willing to spend time and effort on her, which is awesome by itself. I can't wait to get the third trade in
The scans used in this post are:
- one page from issue #1, taken from
sandoz_iscariot's post here.- one page each from issues #1 and #2, taken from
lurkslikefox's posts here and here respectively.- four pages from issue #3, taken from
lurkslikefox's post here.- my own scanning: one page from issue #4, four pages from issue #6, two pages from issue #7
- from previews on Graphic Content, the Vertigo blog: one page each from issues #4 and #7, two from issue #15, and three from issue #17.
