John Ney Reiber

The character of Timothy Hunter--the original black-haired, bespectacled British boy wizard--was introduced in a Neil Gaiman-penned miniseries in 1990, and DC's Vertigo Comics has trotted him out like a show pony every few years since. Of all of the incarnations of Tim Hunter, my favorite is the confused teenager with the smart mouth that readers met in John Ney Reiber's series The Books of Magic. Reiber's version of the story ran from 1994 to 2000, and while the narrative began falling apart less than halfway through the 75-issue run and Reiber never really got a handle on Gaiman's unique knack for writing poetic metaphysical gibberish, his version of Timothy's story made up for it by actually including some excellently written female characters.

Aftertaste:
Just that so much was left UNRESOLVED that I am now forced to break my long-standing rule to avoid anything with the word "Magick" in the title and read Books of Magick: Life During Wartime in an attempt to find closure.

ADDITIONAL NOTE: I didn't find it. Man, BoM: Life During Wartime totally blows. Look for closure elsewhere.

Availability:
Limited. If your local comic shop doesn't have any back issues, check eBay.

Other Recommendations:
Anything by Neil Gaiman.

The ongoing Fables series, by Bill Willingham