Outside of a Dog: Gaiman, Neil: Books of Magic

Mely

Mely wrote on April 22, 2005 at 1:56 PM:

I'm given to understand that the subsequent series is not as good as the opening miniseries, which recommends it to me not at all. Actually, the subsequent series is much better--it gives Timothy Hunter greater depth and personality, develops an interesting cast of supporting characters, and has some lovely world-building. For a long time, it was the only comic I was reading regularly. Unfortunately, near the end of his run, the first writer John Ney Rieber completely lost it -- the last storyarc is a total mess. Some of it was fixed up by the following writer, Peter Gross, who was also the artist on the title, but he wasn't as good a writer as Rieber at his best, if considerably better than Rieber at his worst. I didn't read the subsequent renamed series by other people but heard that the first one was pretty bad.

Kate

Kate wrote on April 22, 2005 at 2:35 PM:

How far into the Books of Magic series proper would you suggest reading, then? And is it worth reading only that far and then stopping?

Mely

Mely wrote on April 22, 2005 at 2:43 PM:

I would say Book 6, The Burning Girl.

kate

kate wrote on April 23, 2005 at 2:16 PM:

I'm with Mely. I was reading it as it came out, so I can't tell you the TPB titles, but up until about #25 it's great, and even after that, parts of it are wonderful. It first starts to fall apart when there's an extended sequence in the 30s in Faerie that's, well, unfocused in the extreme. (Although I recently re-read it and it wasn't as bad as I remembered.) In any case, once the (completely charming and wonderful) Molly leaves the book, you can stop reading.

Kate

Kate wrote on April 23, 2005 at 2:18 PM:

Thanks for the _Books of Magic_ advice. I've got several volumes of _Lucifer_ upstairs waiting for my attention, and also some manga (*waves to Mely*), but next time after that I'm in the mood for graphic novels, I'll definitely keep it in mind.