Comparisons To Harry Potter
See also: Harry Potter influences and analoguesSince the 1997 publication (and subsequent success) of the first book in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, fans of The Books of Magic have noted some similarities between the two protagonists: both are normal, bespectacled teenage boys who have lost their mothers, and discover that they are destined to become powerful magicians while gaining an owl as a pet. The similarity was noted by a journalist from The Scotsman newspaper, who asked Gaiman if he thought Rowling was aware of his 1990 comic, to which Gaiman replied that he "wasn't the first writer to create a young magician with potential, nor was Rowling the first to send one to school".
The story eventually moved south of the border, with a story in the Daily Mirror reporting that Gaiman had accused Rowling of plagiarism being repeated in the Daily Mail. Gaiman has stressed "This is not true, I never said this", and when asked, repeats his belief that Rowling had not read The Books of Magic and that the similarities most likely result from both being inspired by similar works, in particular those of T. H. White. Hunter: Age of Magic author Dylan Horrocks has pointed out that neither Hunter nor Potter was truly an original idea, with another boy wizard preceding Hunter in comics, and they should be considered more as part of a genre:
| “ | the superficial similarities are striking - but no more so than any number of other stories in the genre. As Gaiman has repeatedly said, he and Rowling were merely drinking from the same well. In fact, there was even a story in '2000AD' (called the Journals of Luke Kirby) which came out a few years before the 'Books of Magic,' which was extremely similar to both the 'BoM' and 'Harry Potter.' This is a genre - and Gaiman and Rowling are both playing with the conventions of the genre, to different ends. | ” |
In the ongoing The Books of Magic series, writer/artist Peter Gross played on the similarity to Potter, showing Tim's step brother Cyril putting on a glamor stone that made him look like Timothy. Cyril then caught a train at platform 9½, implying that he was an alternate version of Harry Potter.
As previously mentioned, Tim's physical appearance was based on the oldest son of artist John Bolton.
DC Comics (who own Tim Hunter) is a Warner Bros. Entertainment company. Warner Bros. Pictures distributed the Harry Potter films. Thus, for practical reasons, no legal action was or is likely.
Read more about this topic: Timothy Hunter
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