Compiled and edited by Laura Drescher
A Thousand Deaths of Timothy Hunter
First story reprinted in ???
First published in 1999.
#1: Snicker Snacker
Writer, pages 1-4, 11, 12, 19, 28, 38: Peter Gross
Artist, pages 1-4, 11, 12, 19, 28, 38: Kelley Jones
Colorist: Sherilyn Van Valkenburgh
Separations: Jamison
Letterer: Comicraft
Cover artist: Charles Vess
Assistant editor: Cliff Chiang
Editor: Stuart Moore
#2: Artifical Heart Failure
Writer: Peter Gross
Artist: Gary Amaro
#3: Fish'n'Chips
Writer: Peter Gross
Artist: John Totleben
#612: The New Mystic Youth: Who Is Tim Hunter?
Writer: Mark Millar
Penciller: Phil Jimenez
Inker: Barbara Schulz
The Kite
Writer: John Ney Reiber
Artist: Temujin
Layouts, pages 29, 30: Peter Gross
Timothy Hunter and The Books of Magic were created by Neil Gaiman and John Bolton.
Disclaimer: The Books of Magic, The Books of Faerie, and all related characters and titles are copyrights and trademarks of DC Comics, Inc.
The Books of Magic, The Books of Faerie, and these annotations are intended for mature audiences only. Comments and additional information should go to Laura Drescher.
Reproduction in any form without permission of the editor (as agent for the contributors) is forbidden.
- Title
- The world that the Other visits was split off from Tim's world during the events of Issue 9, which is a part of the Artificial Heart storyline.
- Page 1
- Panel 1: It's odd that in the Other's reality, his father has a business. The real Tim's father, as far as we know, doesn't work. The blue figure is Barbatos, last seen in the Playgrounds story line.
- Panel 2: Barbatos loves junk food.
- Page 5
- Panel 1: In this world, Tim was unable to un-freeze Molly and Marya (which happened in Issue 9) and went crazy.
- Page 6
- Panel 5: As for how long Crazy Tim has been there, it's at least been long enough for him to have aquired new clothes... and to have redressed everyone else as well. Not to mention the pile of water bottles.
- Page 8
- Panel 3: Crazy Tim seems to have a collection of board games. There's Twister, Backgammon, Checkers, and something I think is Monopoly.
- Page 19
- Panel 1: John Constantine last appeared in the miniseries. The "magic box" the Other refers to is seen in Issue 61; the "cute little succubus" he mentions is of course Leah, who was last seen in Issue 50. The note for world #164 explains when the Other found out that gargoyles "know things," knowledge he put to use in Issue 56. In the note for world #228 we find out the Other's name for things he keeps from other realities- The Bent Things.
- Page 20-28
Sascha Segan posted this to the
mailing list on May 3, 1999:
I'm putting my comments about the rest of the Annual in another post, but this bit made me giggle, and I wanted to bring any non-old-time-comics people in on the joke, as well as getting answers to a few questions of my own. Please, help me with this if you know. I am now intensely curious about which covers are being dup'ed.
Let us think back ... back to the 1970s and '80s. One of the big superhero groups of the time was the Teen Titans. They originally formed in the 70s, a bunch of sidekicks to grown-up superheroes who got their own book together; people like Robin and Kid Flash and Speedy, Green Arrow's sidekick who later became a drug addict, kicked drugs and came back with the name Arsenal.
The second incarnation of the group was, well, what you're looking at here. The New Teen Titans. With that exact logo at the bottom of page 20; with an improbable T-shaped headquarters building on Roosevelt Island outside New York; and with, if I remember correctly, Mark Millar as one of the writers.
Let us travel into that world ...
Page 20, Panel 1: This is typical bombastic early-80s comic book prose, before Sandman made people get all serious and stuff.
Panel 3: Yes indeed. The Titans had their heyday in, uh, their first 20 issues. In my opinion. Then they went on for a while. A long while. Much too long a while. Eventually, they had to drop 'Teen' from their name, became the New Titans, and got involved in all sorts of things like messy relationships and single parenting. They're in their 30s now; the former Kid Flash is now the real Flash, and can someone tell me what's happened to
Donna and Dick? Didn't Kori get killed by her sister or something?
Panel 5: Titan reference, ha ha ha.
Page 21, Panel 1: That's the Justice League of America satellite from the 1970s.
Panel 2: Mr. E has apparently been redrawn as Plastic Man, a rather bizarre comic-relief hero who infiltrated the JLA in the 70s and who nobody knew quite what to do with. Isn't that the Riddler's costume Terry Thirteen is wearing? Or is it Hobgoblin from Spiderman? Anyone? Bueller? In any case, the JLA were the grownups who the Titans all started out as sidekicks of.
Panel 7: Tim is being set up to be Robin, but you knew that. Dick Grayson's parents, circus performers, were killed by someone who Batman drove to ground; Batman adopted Dick.
Page 22, Panel 5: Bats in the corner, ha ha ha.
Panel 6: Cat reference, ha ha ha.
Page 23, Panel 1: I don't quite recall why Dick and Bruce split up; I think Dick was just getting too old to be Robin. In any case, after a complicated adventure involving the lost Kryptonian city of Kandor he ended up with the sobriquet Nightwing and a cool dark blue costume.
Page 24, Panel 1: THAT IS AN EXACT REPLICA OF A TEEN TITANS COVER. (Anyone remember which one?)The original layout of the NTT was ...
Panel 2: Raven, emotionally-disturbed empath, witch and daughter of Satan ...
Panel 3: Cyborg, Token Black Guy ...
Panel 4: Changeling ...
Panel 5: Kid Flash ...
Panel 6: and Wonder Girl, sorta Wonder Woman's adopted niece. She and Dick had a thing for a while, then he married some foreign chick.
Page 25, Panel 1: Exact duplicate of another Titans cover (which?)
Page 25, Panel 5: That big bad guy is Trigon, who was Raven's dad and was also Satan sorta. The glowing thing is Raven's 'soul-self' - she had one, trust me. Trigon is trying to lynch Token Black Guy. I think this was another cover. I have all of these in a box in New York.
- Page 21
- Panel 2: Dr. Thirteen, The Phantom Stranger, Mister E, and "Hellblazer" (John Constantine) all appeared in the miniseries.
- Panel 4-6: Alleatha, also known as Leah, last appeared in Issue 50.
- Page 23
- Panel 1: Anton Lavey's Satanic Bible:
The superheros listed seem to me to be parodies of real ones. Do you have any more information on who these might be? Tell me.
Mr. Fog:
The Beef-Eater:
Johnny O'Groats:
The Crossword Puzzler: The Riddler.
The Phantom Phantom: The Phantom Stranger?
The Court Jester:
- Page 24
- Panel 2: Alleatha, also known as Leah, was last sene in Issue 50.
- Panel 3: Jimmy died during the Artificial Heart storyline. He was Tim's best friend growing up.
- Panel 4: Tim met Davis Duvall at Bardsey. He was last seen in Issue 58.
- Panel 5: Danny was last seen being turned into a puppy in Issue 21.
- Panel 6: Molly was last seen in Issue 56.
- Page 27
- Panel 1: "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned";
- Page 29
- Panel 1: Crimple and Tanger were last seen in Issue 56.
- Panel 2: They're talking about the events of the Playgrounds storyline.
- Page 32
- Panel 2: Fellini: "join a gang that made you wear a top hat and dance about on stilts?" in new york the warrriors
- Page 34
- Panel 2: Notice that the bag reads "Circe's Gifts."
- Panel 7: Note the sign in the abandoned lot that reads "The Slaggingham Home for Wayward Youth." This world must have been quite a bit different. In the real Tim's world, that sign is for The Oak Park Hotel.
- Page 36
- Panel 3: Tam Lin died in the Bindings storyline, early in Tim's magical career.
Contributors include:
Greg Morrow is the editor of the Sandman Annotations, whose format and legal information I have used here.
Sascha Segan inspired me with his page, Suburban Mythos: The Books of Magic, and helped me begin these annotations. Sascha also posted the hefty Teen Titan explanation and annotations to the mailing list, which I have reposted here.