3.5

Magic boy and his owl get to meet a cast of famous DC comic book characters to help him decide whether or not to accept magic and the price it comes at.
Was fun seeing all the cameos but I didn’t like the illustration style. ( )

Timothy Hunter is potentially most powerful magician in current era. As such he represents the ultimate weapon for both Good and Evil forces and whoever brings him onboard will gain the upper hand.

This is why four mystics - Constantine, Dr. Occult, Phantom Stranger and Mister E - decide to introduce the wonderful (and extremely dangerous) world of magic to Timothy and in doing that bring him to the Good side (although what exactly is good and what is bad is left for interpretations - Mister E is one very scary guy and proof that not everyone standing on side of Angels is actually an angel).

Story is collection of "travels" that Timothy takes with each mystic - to the past, present, world of faeries and finally trip to the future to the very end of the time and space.

Dialogs are great, and it is clear this was written by the novelist. While Timothy is amazed at what he sees and people and creatures he comes across it is clear he is very wary of responsibilities and possible high cost of messing with magic. This brings him in discussion with the four mystics (or as Constantine calls them TrenchCoat Brigade (since he considers them to be reckless as a famous charge of Light Brigade)) that reveal to him complexity of the magic worlds, rules that binds the magic world and great dangers lurking in the shadows.

I wont go into more details, I can only say if you want very rich narrative with gorgeous art (to be honest one of the reasons ..... scratch that, main reason I bought this graphic novel is because of John Bolton - quality of the story and ambient were a huge plus overall) filled with occult and mystery then this is book for you.

Highly recommended. ( )

Deluxe hard back edition, released in 2013 to mark the 20th anniversary of this story. It contains the 4 stories collected together, telling the story of Tim Hunter, who meets 4 mysterious men (John Constantine etc), who show him a path of magic, should he chose to follow it.

Each story is one of the men showing him a magical world, that dazes and confuses him. Some previous Gaiman characters (some of the Endless) make a special appearance.

Despite several different artists completing the graphics, there's a decent continuity between the stories, and Dream and Death look the same as normal. Dave McKean is nowhere near this, but it's very similar to his work too.

( )

This would be interesting to anyone with more than a passing knowledge of the magical characters in the DC Universe or fans of Neil Gaiman. I'm in the latter camp and made it through to the end, just barely. The story, such as it is, is just as random and unresolved as any Sandman book written by Neil. Each adventure is well done, a recurring minor character adds some cheekiness, but the framing story doesn't really hang together. Mostly interesting for a young potential magician and his owl that predates Harry Potter. ( )

Constantine and the Stranger are some of my favourite characters from the magical side of DC and I found these comics absolutely fantastic. The thought of John Constantine mentoring a kid did have me sniggering quite often though and as someone who was the same age as Tim when this was published, I appreciated his snarky responses. Often when adults try to write dialogue for children it comes off false and really lame, but this was spot on and as a result, felt really genuine. ( )