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The Books of Magic #new 1
Books of Magic, Book One
Continuing from celebrated author Neil Gaiman’s iconic graphic novel, the complete chronicles of Tim Hunter are finally brought together in a definitive new trade paperback.
Once, Timothy Hunter was just an ordinary 13-year-old boy living in suburban London. Then four legendary sorcerers took him on a journey beyond time and space, and his life changed forever. Traveling through realms long consigned to myth and legend, he also discovered an unsettling truth about his future: like it or not, fate has decreed that young Tim is destined to become the world’s greatest magician!
Unfortunately for him, this innocence smells intoxicatingly like weakness to the hungry predators that haunt the shadows of existence, and the extraordinary power they sense within his frail human form is too enticing to resist.
Written by John Ney Rieber and illustrated by Peter Gross, Gary Amaro and Peter Snejbjerg, THE BOOKS OF MAGIC BOOK ONE collects issues #1-13 of the classic VERTIGO series as well as the pivotal introductory tale from ARCANA ANNUAL #1.
Collecting: Books of Magic 1-13 & Arcana: Books of Magic Annual
Once, Timothy Hunter was just an ordinary 13-year-old boy living in suburban London. Then four legendary sorcerers took him on a journey beyond time and space, and his life changed forever. Traveling through realms long consigned to myth and legend, he also discovered an unsettling truth about his future: like it or not, fate has decreed that young Tim is destined to become the world’s greatest magician!
Unfortunately for him, this innocence smells intoxicatingly like weakness to the hungry predators that haunt the shadows of existence, and the extraordinary power they sense within his frail human form is too enticing to resist.
Written by John Ney Rieber and illustrated by Peter Gross, Gary Amaro and Peter Snejbjerg, THE BOOKS OF MAGIC BOOK ONE collects issues #1-13 of the classic VERTIGO series as well as the pivotal introductory tale from ARCANA ANNUAL #1.
Collecting: Books of Magic 1-13 & Arcana: Books of Magic Annual
400 pages, Paperback
First published May 30, 2017
17 people are currently reading
162 people want to read
About the author
John Ney Rieber
306 books23 followersJohn Ney Rieber is an American comic book writer. He has written for the comics The Books of Magic, Captain America, G.I. Joe and Tomb Raider.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
February 20, 2023
Oh, I loved this!
What a great continuation to Gaiman's original story.
Timothy Hunter is a little bit older in this one and is dealing with the fallout of deciding that he didn't want to have anything to do with magic. <--at the end of Gaiman's story.
Of course, if you read that comic, you know that it wasn't actually a choice for him to make in the first place. Magic is in his life whether he chooses it or not.
Nice art, good story.
There's a lot to like in here which kind of surprised me because, in the back of my head, I thought that it might lose a lot of the magic without Gaiman at the helm.
But this had a lot of heart to it and an interesting plotline.
I hope to see more of this character again someday.
Recommended.
What a great continuation to Gaiman's original story.
Timothy Hunter is a little bit older in this one and is dealing with the fallout of deciding that he didn't want to have anything to do with magic. <--at the end of Gaiman's story.
Of course, if you read that comic, you know that it wasn't actually a choice for him to make in the first place. Magic is in his life whether he chooses it or not.
Nice art, good story.
There's a lot to like in here which kind of surprised me because, in the back of my head, I thought that it might lose a lot of the magic without Gaiman at the helm.
But this had a lot of heart to it and an interesting plotline.
I hope to see more of this character again someday.
Recommended.
October 7, 2019
This spins out of the Books of Magic miniseries by Neil Gaiman and John Bolton. It takes a while to get going, especially since the Arcana Annual is included from the Free Country crossover but the rest of the crossover isn't. So you begin the series wondering somewhat what is going on. Tim begins the series as something of a petulant brat. His dad never leaves his chair in front of the telly, leaving Tim to more or less raise himself. Midway through the first arc, the story grabs firmer footing once Tim is transported to faerie. Tim has no idea how to work his magic, even though he's been told he will grow up to be the greatest magician on the planet, for good or ill to be determined. With each arc, the series gets better and better. Tim has a fantasticly, wonderful cast of characters that begin to appear. I love the world Rieber is building.
Charles Vess's covers are a delight. Gary Amaro, Peter Gross, and Peter Snejberg handle the art. They all have a similar style, simple with elongated thin characters. I found it very fitting.
Charles Vess's covers are a delight. Gary Amaro, Peter Gross, and Peter Snejberg handle the art. They all have a similar style, simple with elongated thin characters. I found it very fitting.
August 29, 2017
Spinning out of both Books Of Magic by Neil Gaiman and the Free Country: The Children's Crusade mini-series comes the ongoing adventures of Tim Hunter, potentially the most powerful magician of his age. Or, more accurately, the misadventures.
Tim's not the easiest character to like. He's very down on his luck, and quite petulant when things go wrong (which is all the time), but when you look at his circumstances, it does make sense. That said, it takes a little while to warm up to him as you read these, which makes the first few issues a bit of a slog.
We open with the Arcana Annual which sets up the series (as well as the Free Country mini, which gets a lot of reference as the series goes on - I've not actually read it, so I did feel a little lost at parts, but it's not massively off-putting. You can understand what's going on overall if not all the nuances), before the first story arc, Bindings.
This story reintroduces Tim Hunter and the realm of Faerie, and plunges them both into journeys of rediscovery, as Tim's world is shaken by a revelation about his parentage, and Faerie itself has to come back from the brink of death. This is probably the most straightforward the series gets, and then it's all down wacky magic lane from here.
The Lot and The Hidden School introduce a future version of Tim, master (?) of a demon named Barbatos that looks to be manipulating the past to try and ensure he continues to exist in the future. These characters pop up again in the next few arcs, and look to be major players as the series goes on, but the concept is kind of just dropped on the reader, which means you're playing catch-up for a second.
Sacrifices is the next arc, which brings in some new characters as well as a huge development in Tim's home life, while The Artificial Heart revisits the Free Country and those characters for a very Manchester Gods-esque (see Journey Into Mystery) look at happiness and its division.
Finally, Small Glass Worlds is the last arc, which flips Tim's parentage all over again as well as focusing more on Auberon and Titania, who have been flitting in and out of the series by this point, and leaving everything on a very dour note.
The art is mostly shared between Peter Gross and Gary Amaro, and they both feel very 90s Vertigo - Gross's characters are often a little more exaggerated, but there's no mistaking this for a 'normal' 90s comic book. It's high concept, unapologetic about the story it's telling, and yet extremely compelling. I wish the side characters got a little more exposure since they're even more interesting than Tim - especially Molly, but from the look of Amazon we are going to be getting more volumes of the series to follow.
I'd also like to shout out to DC's trade department because the binding and presentation on this book is gorgeous. The card cover is embossed with magic effects, there's a beautiful contents page, and all of the relevant issue covers and trade designs are included in the back. There's a real sense of care in this one that I haven't seen in a trade for a long time.
Tim's not the easiest character to like. He's very down on his luck, and quite petulant when things go wrong (which is all the time), but when you look at his circumstances, it does make sense. That said, it takes a little while to warm up to him as you read these, which makes the first few issues a bit of a slog.
We open with the Arcana Annual which sets up the series (as well as the Free Country mini, which gets a lot of reference as the series goes on - I've not actually read it, so I did feel a little lost at parts, but it's not massively off-putting. You can understand what's going on overall if not all the nuances), before the first story arc, Bindings.
This story reintroduces Tim Hunter and the realm of Faerie, and plunges them both into journeys of rediscovery, as Tim's world is shaken by a revelation about his parentage, and Faerie itself has to come back from the brink of death. This is probably the most straightforward the series gets, and then it's all down wacky magic lane from here.
The Lot and The Hidden School introduce a future version of Tim, master (?) of a demon named Barbatos that looks to be manipulating the past to try and ensure he continues to exist in the future. These characters pop up again in the next few arcs, and look to be major players as the series goes on, but the concept is kind of just dropped on the reader, which means you're playing catch-up for a second.
Sacrifices is the next arc, which brings in some new characters as well as a huge development in Tim's home life, while The Artificial Heart revisits the Free Country and those characters for a very Manchester Gods-esque (see Journey Into Mystery) look at happiness and its division.
Finally, Small Glass Worlds is the last arc, which flips Tim's parentage all over again as well as focusing more on Auberon and Titania, who have been flitting in and out of the series by this point, and leaving everything on a very dour note.
The art is mostly shared between Peter Gross and Gary Amaro, and they both feel very 90s Vertigo - Gross's characters are often a little more exaggerated, but there's no mistaking this for a 'normal' 90s comic book. It's high concept, unapologetic about the story it's telling, and yet extremely compelling. I wish the side characters got a little more exposure since they're even more interesting than Tim - especially Molly, but from the look of Amazon we are going to be getting more volumes of the series to follow.
I'd also like to shout out to DC's trade department because the binding and presentation on this book is gorgeous. The card cover is embossed with magic effects, there's a beautiful contents page, and all of the relevant issue covers and trade designs are included in the back. There's a real sense of care in this one that I haven't seen in a trade for a long time.
September 7, 2019
Interesting stuff. This series never quite worked for me the way I wanted it to, although at least this time I could follow the story better since I wasn't missing issues in the middle.
February 15, 2019
Neil Gaiman wrote a four part miniseries titled the Books of Magic that was incredible and a great start to a new character that had lots of potential.
Then Rieber came along to continue that story...
There are really good points of inventiveness in this book.
But the drawbacks are what hurts it:
- There’s things that happen with no explanation. I still can’t tell you how the first story arc was resolved. Things just happen because magic.
- There’s unclear rules.
- The editors of this series were hopefully fired. The publishing is all over the place and confusing, even in this volume that finally put things in order.
- Dialogue often makes no sense, or rather doesn’t feel like the way someone would actually react. Scenes and lines just follow the flow of where the author wants to go, regardless of whether they feel organic.
- Worst of all though, the series as a whole seems to have no clear goals given Gaimans original premise.
He’s supposed to become a powerful magician and learn...but instead we have him falling ass backwards into one situation after another with seemingly no realistic reactions to any of it. Where’s this all headed?
I don’t know...it’s tough to rate this so low because it has parts that are genuinely great. But I was tired of reading a convoluted confusing mess and would rather jump to a different author with hopefully more focus.
Then Rieber came along to continue that story...
There are really good points of inventiveness in this book.
But the drawbacks are what hurts it:
- There’s things that happen with no explanation. I still can’t tell you how the first story arc was resolved. Things just happen because magic.
- There’s unclear rules.
- The editors of this series were hopefully fired. The publishing is all over the place and confusing, even in this volume that finally put things in order.
- Dialogue often makes no sense, or rather doesn’t feel like the way someone would actually react. Scenes and lines just follow the flow of where the author wants to go, regardless of whether they feel organic.
- Worst of all though, the series as a whole seems to have no clear goals given Gaimans original premise.
He’s supposed to become a powerful magician and learn...but instead we have him falling ass backwards into one situation after another with seemingly no realistic reactions to any of it. Where’s this all headed?
I don’t know...it’s tough to rate this so low because it has parts that are genuinely great. But I was tired of reading a convoluted confusing mess and would rather jump to a different author with hopefully more focus.
May 15, 2024
A scatter of thoughts and appreciations:
Love Death as a character and the talk she has with Tim about
I like that Tim talks to himself.
I like Fairie as an established realm, as well as the use of Titiana, Oberon, and Tamlin.
The unicorn and manticore were well done.
References to dreams and characters from the other books.
Love Death as a character and the talk she has with Tim about
I like that Tim talks to himself.
I like Fairie as an established realm, as well as the use of Titiana, Oberon, and Tamlin.
The unicorn and manticore were well done.
References to dreams and characters from the other books.
June 3, 2020
Faz muito tempo que eu queria ler os Livros da Magia, uma daquelas séries que sempre tive curiosidade, mas nunca tive tempo. Agora eu consegui, finalmente, ler, e é muito bom.
A primeira história, sobre quem é o pai do Timothy Hunter, eu não gostei muito, essas histórias de famílias e segredos não funcionam muito para mim; porém o Coração Artificial e o Pequeno Mundo de Cristal são histórias muito boas. Eu admito que é um pouco confuso, um monte de personagens entrando e saindo, mas tem uma ou outra passagem que faz parar a leitura e pensar em todos os significados do que se lê.
Esse pequeno momento de reflexão é o que faz um livro, de magia ou não, ser especial, nessa reflexão que um livro pode transformar alguém, quando um personagem explica para o Rei das Fadas: "Amor não é desejo. Amor é trabalho. E nenhum de vocês dois sabe absolutamente nada sobre trabalhar."
Eu li esse quadro várias e várias vezes, e voltei outras tantas, quando, com o desenvolver da história, esse tal de amor voltava a aparecer, algumas coisas, inclusive a leitura, dá trabalho mesmo.
A primeira história, sobre quem é o pai do Timothy Hunter, eu não gostei muito, essas histórias de famílias e segredos não funcionam muito para mim; porém o Coração Artificial e o Pequeno Mundo de Cristal são histórias muito boas. Eu admito que é um pouco confuso, um monte de personagens entrando e saindo, mas tem uma ou outra passagem que faz parar a leitura e pensar em todos os significados do que se lê.
Esse pequeno momento de reflexão é o que faz um livro, de magia ou não, ser especial, nessa reflexão que um livro pode transformar alguém, quando um personagem explica para o Rei das Fadas: "Amor não é desejo. Amor é trabalho. E nenhum de vocês dois sabe absolutamente nada sobre trabalhar."
Eu li esse quadro várias e várias vezes, e voltei outras tantas, quando, com o desenvolver da história, esse tal de amor voltava a aparecer, algumas coisas, inclusive a leitura, dá trabalho mesmo.
August 8, 2019
The first four comics in this series, written by Gaiman, create a story with a lot of potential. This collection takes that premise and fulfills some of the potential, but leaves a lot of things unresolved. The writing is good (gets a little abstract at times, which tends to make me skim), and the artwork is good. As for story structure, pacing is ok, but sometimes scattered, and the reader has to work pretty hard to figure out what's going on (or where characters came from) at times.
Unfortunately, I don't think this story ever gets completed; I'm pretty sure Kat Howard's new collection reboots the original premise, rather than picking up where this one left off.
Unfortunately, I don't think this story ever gets completed; I'm pretty sure Kat Howard's new collection reboots the original premise, rather than picking up where this one left off.
November 2, 2017
Mostly well done. The art was consistently good. The writing was good but the story was occasionally quite stupid. Mostly good though. I picked it up because someone told me it was better than gaiman’s. I do not agree with that statement.
January 3, 2020
meh, and that only because of the midsummer night’s dream and my looking up
the origins of characters than the books’ own merit. some good ideas, but it never came together like gaiman’s original story. the “british english” was simply appalling.
the origins of characters than the books’ own merit. some good ideas, but it never came together like gaiman’s original story. the “british english” was simply appalling.
January 22, 2023
My review is likely prejudiced by nostalgia. I read a bit of this in high school and always have enjoyed Vertigo books from that era. I think the writing holds up well but the art is a bit uneven. Very enjoyable and makes me want to read the rest of the series.
February 18, 2018
wasn't my favorite. review to come.
August 8, 2018
Not as good as Gaiman's, but no surprise there. Artwork didn't hold the same power either.
November 18, 2019
Loved it!!
August 30, 2020
3.5 stars !
September 23, 2020
Fantastic book
November 5, 2021
feels so much more convoluted compared to the other run i've read
September 14, 2025
DNF 50%. Half the book is nonsense words that add no value to the story.
October 7, 2025
Very strange and disjointed. Hard to get through.
Read
February 5, 2018Letto nell'edizione italiana di Magic Press. Qui compare Death, il personaggio celeberrimo di Neil Gaiman. Notabili le copertine di Charles Vess, anche in questo caso. Il resto della storia è privo di alcune delle caratteristiche prettamente fantasy del ciclo narrativo scritto da Gaiman, ma ne mantiene lo spirito onirico.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews