Tim Hunter (DC Comics)
A boy destined to become the world's greatest magician.
Tim Hunter is a fictional character from DC Comics, first appearing in The Books of Magic #1 in 1990. Created by Neil Gaiman and John Bolton, he is an English boy whose immense magical potential makes him a figure of interest to various factions, as he navigates journeys that test whether he will align with good or evil.
Quick Facts
- Character name
- Tim Hunter
- Real name
- Timothy Hunter; Tamar (birth name)
- Publisher
- DC Comics; Vertigo Comics
- Debut
- The Books of Magic #1 (January 1990)
- Creators
- Neil Gaiman; John Bolton
- Species
- Human
- Homeworld
- London, United Kingdom
- Partners
- John Constantine; Rose Psychic
Facts from the source article.
Publication history
Tim Hunter was created by Neil Gaiman after DC Comics asked him to produce a four-issue prestige-format series about their magic characters. Drawing on childhood reading of fantasy stories such as T. H. White's The Once and Future King, Gaiman modeled Tim on the character Wart, but with a destiny to become the world's greatest magician rather than a king. The first issue's artist, John Bolton, designed Tim's appearance based on his own son. The Books of Magic was released over 1990–91 and proved popular, leading Vertigo Comics executive editor Karen Berger to launch an ongoing series under editor Stuart Moore. Finding a writer proved difficult because Tim's original role was to witness magic's past, present, and future, leaving little character detail. Berger eventually chose John Ney Rieber, who expanded Tim using his own memories of being fourteen. Rieber introduced Tim's first girlfriend, Molly, as a counterpoint—someone who had already decided that living life fully was the best course.
Reception
After the 1997 publication and success of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, fans noted similarities between Tim Hunter and Harry Potter: both are bespectacled teenage boys who lost their mothers, discover they are destined to become powerful magicians, and gain an owl as a pet. A journalist from The Scotsman asked Neil Gaiman if he thought Rowling knew of his 1990 comic; Gaiman replied that he was not the first to create a young magician with potential, nor was Rowling the first to send one to school. A Daily Mirror story claimed Gaiman had accused Rowling of plagiarism, repeated by the Daily Mail, but Gaiman stressed this was untrue and believed Rowling had not read The Books of Magic, with similarities likely stemming from shared inspiration from T. H. White. Dylan Horrocks noted that neither character was truly original, as another boy wizard preceded Hunter in comics. In the final issue of the second ongoing series, writer/artist Peter Gross included references to Rowling's stories, such as Tim's stepbrother Cyril using a glamour stone to appear as Tim, reminiscent of Polyjuice Potion, and walking through a wall between train platforms.
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