# Books of Magic vs. Harry Potter **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 19, 2003, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-of-magic-vs-harry-potter/182894 "2003-06-19T11:01:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Odinoneeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/97f17d/32.png) [@Odinoneeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinoneeye)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2003, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-of-magic-vs-harry-potter/182894/1 "2003-06-19T11:01:02Z")
Anybody ever read the Books of Magic comic books? I read the original mini-series by Neil Gaiman and a few of the regular series. Here’s my question. Has anyone else noticed the similarities between Tim Hunter and Harry Potter? They are both young boys who suddenly find out they can do magic, that they have magic parantage and start their training in the magic arts. Also, they look the same and both wear glasses. Also, the part in Harry Potter where they go shopping in a part of London that most Londoners can’t see brings to mind another Neil Gaiman book, Neverwhere. Anyone else get that impression? ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2003, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-of-magic-vs-harry-potter/182894/2 "2003-06-19T13:39:06Z")
Harry potter books are like a LOT of other books. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2003, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-of-magic-vs-harry-potter/182894/3 "2003-06-19T13:40:09Z")
Oh yeah. _Lots_ of people publicly accused Rowling of ripping off Neil Gaiman’s _Books of Magic_ when she made Harry Potter. There was a minor literary controversy over it. Gaiman himself refused to accuse her of plagarism, however, and was actually extrememly gracious about it, saying something like “we all draw from the same sources when we write, so similarities are bound to occur,” or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![ArrMatey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrmatey/32/3522_2.png) [@ArrMatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArrMatey)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2003, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-of-magic-vs-harry-potter/182894/4 "2003-06-19T14:36:13Z")
Right, young boy of questionable parantage with mystical powers sent into odd parts of the world that others cannot see is a pretty standard story-element. Goes everywhere from greek myth to Books of Magic to Harry Potter to Star Wars. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2003, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-of-magic-vs-harry-potter/182894/5 "2003-06-19T15:48:18Z")
You forgot about the fact that they both have magical owls. In fact, on the DC Comics Message Board, when DC Direct came out witha Tim Hunter action figure, someone commented “Why does that Harry Potter look so angry?” ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2003, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-of-magic-vs-harry-potter/182894/6 "2003-06-19T16:08:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Odinoneeye \* > \*\* > Has anyone else noticed the similarities between Tim Hunter and Harry Potter? \*\* I’d never heard of Tim Hunter until Harry Potter become popular. I have heard people comment on the similiarities though. > [@](#): > > \*\* > They are both young boys who suddenly find out they can do magic, that they have magic parantage and start their training in the magic arts. Also, they look the same and both wear glasses. \*\* Young people who suddenly find out they can do magic, have some sort of mystical origin, and begin training in some far away school is in many a fantasy novel. Let’s not forget that Potter is the “chosen one” found in so many other fantasy novels. They may look alike but does Tim Hunter have that nifty scar? > [@](#): > > \*\* > Anyone else get that impression? \*\* Maybe it was kind of like the Munsters and the Adams family or the Matrix and Dark City. Marc ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2003, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-of-magic-vs-harry-potter/182894/7 "2003-06-19T16:20:35Z")
Here’s a link to an [interview](http://www.januarymagazine.com/profiles/gaiman.html) in which Neil Gaiman addresses rumors in the UK press that Rowling stole her ideas from him. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2003, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-of-magic-vs-harry-potter/182894/8 "2003-06-19T16:32:12Z")
Actually, the original _Books of Magic_ has nothing to do with a boy learning magic, but was, rather, a tour of the DC supernatural universe. Tim Hunter goes around and meets all the supernatural characters who appeared at one time or another in DC comics, and most of the fun was for older fans getting the reference. But he did not learn any magic, just observed others doing it. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Kumquat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gary\_Kumquat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Kumquat)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2003, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-of-magic-vs-harry-potter/182894/9 "2003-06-19T16:40:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RealityChuck \* > \*\*But he did not learn any magic, just observed others doing it. \*\* You do recall he brought his owl, yo-yo, back to life at the end? ---
**Author:** ![Avalonian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee7513/32.png) [@Avalonian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avalonian)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2003, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-of-magic-vs-harry-potter/182894/10 "2003-06-21T19:51:03Z")
Has anyone else seen the new _Books of Magic_ book series just recently put out? If it’s not a blatant marketing ploy to sell more books like _Harry Potter_, I don’t know what is. I had a chance to ask Gaiman personally about the similarities between Tim and Harry, and his answer was basically the same as in **pravnik** ’s link above. He was very gracious about it, and one gets the feeling that he really doesn’t have a problem with it at all. And I agree, the similarities between the characters are mostly superficial. The stories themselves are pretty much completely different. Gaiman also mentioned that Warner Brothers had supposedly purchased the movie rights for _Books of Magic_, so make of that what you will. I was bummed to hear that a screenplay had already been completed, as it crushed my half-finished screenplay of it. One last thing… Peter Gross, in the last issue of the extended _Books of Magic_ series, made a little 3-panel nod to Harry Potter, implying that one of the multi-dimensional versions of Tim actually _was_ Harry Potter. I thought that was pretty cool.