#timothy hunter

[omgshiftercat]

I have a friend whose ex, a minor celebrity in some circles, was abusive.

Shortly after she and some other women went public about it, there were some people who chimed in talking about other misdeeds of his.

Her ex was, and is, a loathsome waste of oxygen, and the words, "...who deserves every accusation leveled at him" would almost escape my lips...

...Except that some of the accusations people began throwing around because they (understandably) hated this guy weren't true.

This did not help my friend at all! It muddied the waters, and gave her awful ex ammunition for his claims that people were just out to get him, and were willing to make stuff up to smear him.

Switching gears: there's been a lot of discussion recently about how some brilliant and influential art has been created by objectively terrible people. Part of that discussion has been calling out people who say, "Their work always sucked," or "I never liked it." Not only are statements like this unhelpful, they provide cover for predators. If you insist that your tastes reflect your morality, you're giving yourself a huge blind spot, and making it easy to dismiss evidence of harm done by creators you happen to like.

This is one reason why I think exhibits like this one are important: they help teach that lesson.

Three notes on this: 1. by the time of that exhibition, Gill was long dead and therefore unable to profit from it.

2. This kind of thing isn't necessary for every artist, because not every creator does heinous things.

3. My friend's ex is nowhere near the artistic league of Eric Gill or any of the other creators I'll discuss.

Switching gears again...

If someone mentions a bespectacled British boy wizard with an owl familiar, in a modern setting with "secret world" magic, the name that springs to mind is most likely "Harry Potter", right?

But Timothy Hunter, from The Books of Magic, was published a full seven years before that. I was working in a bookstore when the novelizations for the BoM comics came out, and had to tell kids that no, this was not a HP rip-off.

I don't think the reverse was true, either: for one thing, The Books of Magic is set in the DC Universe, and I've never heard of JKR reading superhero comics. But also... sometimes completely separate creators will come up with strikingly similar ideas, utterly by coincidence. It's one reason why most authors tell fans NOT to send them ideas or fanfiction based on their work: there is rarely any good way to prove that you didn't steal a concept.

Now, obviously every creator is influenced by other people's works, and I completely agree that it's good to acknowledge that and to point fans towards your influences!

When Rowling began channeling her resources into making life worse for trans folk, I saw a lot of people saying, "Well, Harry Potter was just a mediocre rip-off of The Worst Witch anyway."

While I haven't read that series, I strongly doubt this claim. The idea of magic schools is older and more widespread than either of those series, and "British boarding school hijinks, but it's a magic school" was bound to be written more than once.

Now, some of you already know, and others have looked up, who originally wrote Tim Hunter. And... yeah, it's Neil Gaiman. *sigh*

In the last few days, I've seen some people saying, "The Sandman ripped off Tanith Lee's Tales from the Flat Earth." They cite a number of similarities: Azhrarn, the Lord of Darkness, is a pale-skinned, raven-haired Byronic figure with a sibling-like relationship to the Lord of Death and the Lord of Madness. Like the Endless, these beings are god-like, but specifically not gods. Apparently some people have mistaken fanart of Azhrarn for Morpheus. And Chuz, Prince Madness, has a bisected appearance, half his face horribly messed up, like the demoness Mazikeen.

But speaking as someone who was a fan of the late Tanith Lee years before I picked up an issue of The Sandman: I don't believe the latter was stolen from the former. Are there similarities? Yes, but they're superficial. If you've read both series, as I have, you'll know that the stories, settings, and characters are very different!

It's possible Gaiman was influenced by Lee's writing, and if so, I agree he should have acknowledged that. He did promote the work of other female creators, which is one reason why many of us thought he was "one of the good ones". But it's also entirely possible that these two authors independently came up with similar ideas.

When it comes right down to it, I think that statements like this -- "their best work was just a rip-off of something else" -- are just another variant of "their work always sucked".

It's often an easier accusation than "they've always been crap", because, as I said, writers come up with strikingly similar concepts all the time, and it's very hard to prove you didn't steal an idea. But it has the same problems, so -- barring the kind of case you could make with a college-level plagiarism-catching program -- I think it's best avoided.

Now, telling people, "Hey, are you sad about this creator turning out to be an awful person to whom you don't want to give any more money? Try this other person's work instead!" This is good! Let's have more of it!

Addendum 1: I think "separate the art from the artist" should mean, "you don't have to treat books already on your shelf as if they're suddenly coated in poison", not "I'm going to ignore this creator's actions and keep buying their products anyway."

Addendum 2: I just posted a version of this to Bluesky.

[x-ref]

“Us hedgepiggies don’t hold with that fancy stuff.” — A pretty perfect comic page from The Books of Magic, issue 3 by Neil Gaiman and Scott Hampton. I don’t know how I missed this book before. John Constantine, Zatanna, and all the DC mystics.

[somewherefornow]

ZATANNA ZATARA & JOHN CONSTANTINE in BOOKS OF MAGIC (2005)

[momachan]

"Once upon a time... there lived a boy named Timothy Hunter. He seemed like a very usual sort of boy. Except. There was one thing that was not usual..."

Books Of Magic (2018): Vol. 1: Moveable Type. What's Past Is Prologue.

[funnypages]

The difference between science and magic in the DCU 

Book of Magic #1

[rollforjackass]

the way he manages to juggle a teacher-student friendship and ongoing beef with the same fourteen year old is everything to me.

[balu8]

The Books of Magic #4: Lost Causes

by John Ney Rieber; Gary Amaru (pp. 2-6, 13-15, 20-23)/Peter Gross (pp. 1, 7-12, 16-19);Sherilyn Van Valkenburgh and John Costanza

Cover by Charles Vess

DC/Vertigo

Source: William T. Vuk

Books of Magic 4 page 3 featuring Death from Sandman, in William T. Vuk's Sandman and Death Comic Art Gallery Room (comicartfans.com)

[venturing-crystal-guardian]

You know I've seen a post and probably reblogged it, recommending Terry Pratchett novels as an alternative to Harry Potter novels but I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone point out Neil Gaiman's The Books of Magic comic series, which came out way before Harry Potter's original book run way back in 1990. I haven't read any of the issues yet but it looks interesting, and maybe if people get more eyes on it, it could start to become more popular and there could be a demand to see an alternative to the Harry Potter series with a show or movie based on Neil's Timothy Hunter character.

[nfcomics]

BOOKS OF MAGIC no.1 • sketch cover art • Frank Cho [Oct 2018]

Timothy Hunter may be destined to become the most powerful magician in the universe, but he’s still a London teenager, and having magical abilities complicates things more than it helps. It’s not like he can use magic to pass his exams, stop being bullied or convince his cute friend to date him. And while Tim’s trying to live his life, there are cultists who want to kill him, believing his power will eventually corrupt him into becoming a merciless mage. Oh, and those are the good guys. Luckily, his new substitute teacher is more than she appears, and may be able to help Tim discover the mystery behind the Books of Magic…

Comic • 32 pages • $3.99

[syntactition]

I WELCOME MY NEW BEAUTIFUL GENDERQUEER DC COMICS TIM

[venus-of-the-hrdsell]

Spirit World (2023) #2 || Hellblazer/The Books of Magic (1997) #1

[aliteralchicken]

i hope we get to see Timothy hunter in dbd because every interaction in the comics is so funny, he does not respect them as detectives and honestly he’s got good reasons, they always cause him problems and I’m pretty sure Charles still has no idea he was flirting with him

[worlds-worst-ships]

Do you ship it?

Timothy Hunter first appeared in The Books Of Magic #1 in 1990. Harry Potter was first released in 1997. Here's a direct copy-paste of a synopsis of Timothy's character;

Timothy Hunter is an ordinary English school boy who is destined to become the greatest magician in all of history. He learns magic through the mystical Books of Magic.

[somewherefornow]

THE SPECTRE + BEING JIM CORRIGAN’S “OTHER HALF” in BOOKS OF MAGIC (1990)

[momachan]

"Nobody touches that boy. That's right. That boy's mine. And in thirty seconds, me, and him, and the witch, are going to walk out of here. You know who I am. Or you ought to. You know my reputation, now... does any one here really want to start something? Right. Come on, you lot. We're leaving."

The Books of Magic. Book II. "The Shadow World."

[thedemonconstantine]