The Books Of Magic : Neil Gaiman

The Books of Magic is a four-issue English-language comic book mini-series written by Neil Gaiman, published by DC Comics, and later an ongoing series under the imprint Vertigo. Since its original publication, the mini-series has also been published in a single-volume collection under the Vertigo imprint with an introduction by author Roger Zelazny. It tells the story of a young boy who has the potential to become the world's greatest magician.

JOHN NEY RIEBER : Writer

GARY AMARO : Pencils
PETER GROSS : Inks
SHERILYN VAN VALKENBURGH : Colors
JOHN COSTANZA : Letters
CHARLES VESS : Covers
NEIL GAIMAN : Consultant

Neil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960 is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book. Gaiman's writing has won numerous awards, including Hugo, Nebula, and Bram Stoker, as well as the 2009 Newbery Medal and 2010 Carnegie Medal in Literature. He is the first author to win both the Newbery and the Carnegie medals for the same work.

John Ney Rieber is an American comic book writer. He has been writing for the comics The Books of Magic, Captain America, G.I. Joe and Tomb Raider.

THE STORY

Tim was born as a conduit for the raw magic that shared the name of the most famous magician to serve it. "The Merlin".

In order to increase his power and his legend, the Merlin arranged for Tim to have multiple, contradictory stories about his birth than nonetheless were each equally true. He was at one and the same time the illegitimate son of "Tamlin the Falconer" .

and "Titania" "the Queen of Faerie" .
The son of Tamlin and a beautiful human girl called "Mary" and any number of other possible origins.

His first storyline, Tim discovering that since the realm of Faerie had cut itself off from Tim's world (the Mundane world) it was withering and dying - something that Titania

hid from her people by using powerful glamours, but that Tim managed to permanently cure by "opening" the realm again to the Earth. However, this story was merely the backdrop to a more personal story for Tim, as he discovered that the Falconer Tamlin

was actually his true father, and that the Faerie Queen Titania might be his mother.
Bindings also brings Tim into conflict with a Manticore,

who attempts to convince Tim of the non-existence of magic before hunting and killing him.

Tim revives and releases a Unicorn

that has been similarly hunted, and destroys the Manticore - but not before he is poisoned by it. The boy nearly dies, until his father Tamlin performs a magic ritual which allows him to die in Tim's place.
The boy recovers and returns to Earth with Titania's curses in his ears, having to come to terms with the revelation that the people he thought of as his parents - a mother who died in a car crash caused by his one-armed, grieving father - might be no relation to him at all.

Rieber (The writter of the comic books) introduces a future version of the magician - Sir Timothy Hunter - who has tortured multiple versions of Molly all his life

, after coming under the sway of the demon Barbatos.

Sir Timothy is under the mistaken impression that he is Barbatos' master and that he lives in grand luxury, when in truth Barbatos is manipulating him for his own ends and Sir Timothy lives in a cardboard box in a back alley.
Sir Timothy and Barbatos return to Tim's time from 2012 because Tim is the last boy in the multiverse who could possibly grow up to be Sir Timothy, and they intend to ensure that he does. However, their plans are thwarted without Tim even being aware of them, as he has a guardian angel called Araquel.

Unfortunately, Araquel is chained between Heaven and Hell for having had a daughter called Nikki with Khara.

Khara defeats Sir Timothy on Tim's behalf. The intervention doesn't mean that Tim is safe, however, as he has come to the attention of the last member of the Cult of the Cold Flame,
a magician called Martyn.

Martyn attempts to seduce Tim into becoming his servant using a succubus called Leah,

using magic to make Tim's father spontaneously combust

so that the boy is alone and vulnerable.
Tim is saved once from Leah by the arrival of Molly, as the succubus is touched by the genuine love between the two... but in his grief and anger, Tim manages to push Molly away and cause Leah to think he is "just like all other men" and needs punishing.
Tim's salvation from Martyn comes in an unlikely form when Sir Timothy and Barbatos kill the magician to protect their own interests in the boy.

This leaves Leah without a master, a position that she attempts to make Tim fill before the young magician proves his worth by setting her free. She leaves England to see where her new freedom - and Martyn's car - will take her.
The next story arc followed on almost directly from the Arcana Annual, bringing back two of the children of Free Country: Daniel, the chimney sweep

and Marya, the girl who was sent

to bring Tim to Free Country but decided to stay in the real world after she did.
Marya has become friends with Molly, and gets invited on her and Tim's first date - but panics Tim when she tells Molly that her boyfriend is a magician, causing him to accidentally freeze them both with magic. He eventually manages to unfreeze them again, but fall prey to a monster of black, choking soot.

The monster is Daniel, expelled from Free Country and transformed by the Victorian era cyborg the Reverend Slagingham.
Slagingham is collecting an army of down-and-outs, capturing their souls in magical contraptions: one of his minions.

Gwendolyn

even manages to trick the Faerie King Auberon into surrendering his soul

leaving Titania's husband her helpless servant.
The Reverend falls foul to Tim thanks to the intervention of one of his childhood imaginary friends made real, Awn the Blink, who has an amazing knack for fixing broken things. Daniel, meanwhile, gives up his attack when Marya rejects his affections.
All that remains is for Tim to help return Auberon's

soul to his body and return him, changed by his experiences, to his wife's side.
For his trouble, Auberon tells Tim that Titania cannot possibly be his mother, since the boy has "not a drop" of Faerie blood in him.

Tim learns that he is an "Opener" and has unconsciously been making his fantasies real all his life , whether they be simple imaginary friends or entire worlds . Tim introduces Molly to some more of his imaginary friends made real, Tanger and Crimple,

who live in a tree on some wasteland near Tim's house. The wasteland opens out into an entire magical world created unconsciously by Tim's childhood fantasies, but unfortunately as Molly is exploring it with Crimple she ends up being kidnapped and taken to Hell.
Tim's family find themselves caught in the crossfire of the battle when his father's wedding to Holly is interrupted by the groom transforming into a ravenous beast with a taste for angel-flesh. It transpires that Mister Vasuki,

the surgeon who miraculously restored Mr Hunter to health after the fire, is in truth a demon hoping to force Tim to work for him.
He spends a lifetime there, talking to a tree

that grew from a seed that fell inside his patch of ground. When a fire starts to destroy the forest, Tim's anger puts him back in touch with his magic as he tries desperately to save his one tree...

Tim recalls Wouoblly . A strange kind of creature , that is like a big black smoke entity , and
asked to him to recall all the loosers and take them with him .

Wouoblly disappears away.

and Tim is standing alone with his father
who tries to speak with him . The final image of the issue, and The Books of Magic, showed Tim whole and complete, finally grown-up and ready to face whatever challenges the future held with "no more whining".

Tim says : I'll Count untill five or maybe Ten . Or not ? I'll Count untill Twenty .

These 7 Comic Books was released in Greece under licence of DC Comics , by Modern Times
Edit Group .

Book 1 : October 1997





Book 2 : December 1997
















Book 3 : February 1998

















Book 4 : May 1998

Book 5 : September 1998

Book 6 : November 1998

Book 7 : February 1999