Books of Magic #1
Publisher: Vertigo
Story: Kat Howard
Pencils: Tom Fowler
Inks: Tom Fowler
Colors: Jordan Boyd
Letters: Todd Klein
Cover: Kat Carpenter (variant cover by Josh Middleton)
The last of four Sandman Universe titles, Books of Magic is one that, so far, is least tied to the Dreaming, and acts as a semi-reboot of the Tim Hunter character. These two qualities make it easier to jump into as a new reader, and also serve to make the title slightly more conventional than the other three titles in the Sandman Universe.
To date, Books of Magic is the only of the four titles to show a connection to the larger DC Universe outside of the Vertigo titles, with the appearance of the so-called “Trenchcoat Brigade” (John Constantine, Mr. E., Phantom Stranger, and Doctor Occult). These four characters appear in a unique illustrated flashback (or perhaps a dream) sequence at the beginning of the story. The images for these scenes evoke a variety of influences, including ancient Egyptian designs, Medieval illuminated manuscripts and tapestries, a type of Asian script, Polaroid style photographs, and black-and-white newspaper cut-outs. The sequence is visually fun, and a nice change of pace from the typical flashback sequences done in comics, which tend to have the same art style as the rest of the story with just a subdued color palette to indicate their different status. Changing the flashback sequence in Books of Magic into a jumble of differing art styles all merging in and out of each other sets the tone of the story, keeps things interesting, and lets the reader know that things are different when dealing with magic.
Story-wise, the flashback/dream sequence serves to set-up what appears to be the main premise of this series: Timothy Hunter, a young teenage boy, is being given a chance to learn magic and become the most powerful (and potentially the most evil as well) magician in the universe, or to stay in the world of mundane. Timothy chooses, as would almost any teenager, to learn magic. He then wakes up in his classroom, unable to do magic and being subjected to bullies, shyness around girls, and other typically ordinary obstacles that plague the average teenager.
Writer Kat Howard, although having plenty of history to draw on in the character of Timothy Hunter, does have a lot of work to do in order to reboot the character for a new generation of readers, many of whom will have been exposed to another bespectacled dark-haired teenage boy wizard from fantasy literature. Timothy is of course nothing like that other character, but the visual similarities are difficult to dismiss once you think about it, so it’s up to the writing of the character to distinguish him in the minds of readers.
While this is just the first introductory story, other than Timothy’s small exposure to magic during the beginning of the story, he reads, so far, as not too different from an ordinary teenager, albeit one who has lost his mom at an early age. He has an estranged relationship with his dad, has to deal with the normal social politics of school life, and gets called into the teacher’s office for getting into a fight with the class bully. None of this sets Timothy up to be anything too special, but that’s part of the charm of this book, as it’s clear that he’s on the road to something important, but grounding him in the ordinary activities of everyday life help him to be more relatable. Future issues will need to delve deeper into Timothy’s character, however; as the main character who needs to carry the story, right now it’s unclear why a reader should care too much about him.
Much more interesting in the story, as initially hinted at in the segment from the Sandman Universe Special, is Ms. Rose, one of Timothy’s teachers. Long-time DC and Vertigo fans will know who this character is, but even without that knowledge, her character is intriguing and serves Timothy in multiple roles in the story: as a “mundane” school teacher, a magical guide, and perhaps, a protector? That last label may be a bit premature, but the set-up at the end of the issue seems to be heading this way, and makes for an exciting cliffhanger for the next issue.
Books of Magic helps to balance out the very dark Lucifer title most recently published in the Sandman Universe, and present a more relatable and approachable character. The story of the young, average teenager who gains fantastical powers is an old story-telling trope, but, based on its history, Books of Magic is much more complex than this. While the intricacies of the story are not yet evident in this first issue, the stage is set for an engaging, old-fashioned story of good versus evil to come in future issues.
Martin Thomas
martin@comicattack.net
