Won't the real Harry Potter please stand up?

[vernard]

Is it just me or does Harry Potter seem like a very bad ripoff of Tim from The Books of Magic.I know that Tim came before Harry. Its a known fact that Tim predated Harry by quite some time.

I must say that I like Neil Gaiman's take on a young English boy being a wizard a bit more than Ms. Rowling's version. That being said, I do think that Harry Potter is wicked clever. But for some reason, I'm just not as fascinated with it as other folks seem to be.

Ona side note, has J.K. Rowlings announced what she is going to do after the last Harry Potter book?

Comments

[weaktwos.livejournal.com]

According to the Leaky Cauldron, she has not committed to what she'll do after book 7. She says she'll do whatever she wants, and that the world is her oyster.

[plutosonium.livejournal.com]

Really. The richest woman in Britain can do whatever the heck she wants with her time. She's set for life.

[weaktwos.livejournal.com]

Yup, she sure can. I wonder if she'll write more, or just live off her fortune?

[mathslut.livejournal.com]

I'm certain she'll keep writing, as she's always been very outspoken about how there's nothing she'd rather do, but she has mentioned the possibility of writing under a pseudonym, to relieve the pressure of everyone comparing something quite different (she's also said that she's done with fantasy after book 7) with Harry's success.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Ah. Timothy Hunter! I had been following Hunter: Age of Magic but lost track... you don't have any of the later books, do you? Was it ever published as a GN? Or am I going to have to go track it down myself? :)

As far as Potter being a rip of Tim Hunter... judging only by H:AoM, I don't think so. Has a whole different feel to it. The original books? Dunno. But now that you've alerted me to them, and knowing that I like Neil Gaiman, what little I've managed to read, I shall have to go and track some of this stuff down...

If I were Dame Rowling? if I had more money than my own head of state, and were as serious a writer as she, I think I'd go shopping for castles in Ireland. Or maybe Scotland. Castles make for good writing environments, see also McCaffrey and Katherine Kurtz...

[vernard.livejournal.com]

Some of H:AoM has been published as trade paperbacks but not all of them. I'll dig up the rest of the info and get back to you later via email.

I guess only at first glance are they similar. But I guess the similarities were enough to be annoying to me. Its kinda like the character Icon from the Milestone comics. He was obviously their version of Superman. Even had most of the same abilities and a very simialr powers.

Harry Potter is good stuff. Definitely child friendly. Whereas I Timothy hunter ain't close to that by any stretch of the imagination.

And as far as money goes, a true writers keeps writing no matter how much money they make.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

"Some call him ... Tim."

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Well, sometimes they get sidetracked by editing or producing or even directing (Shhhh.. the Great Maker is Directing)... but they do tend to keep their hand in the trade, yes.

[communistgnome.livejournal.com]

Harry Potter is described as and looks physically pretty much exactly the same as the early Timothy Hunter. Same hair, same glasses, kinda screwed up family life, jaded with the "mundane" world and open to something greater, supernatural father figures, fated to be the world's greatest wizard, etc. I would go so far as to say someone that didn't know better might pick up a Books of Magic trade paperback and think it was Harry Potter on first glance. There are even pretty significant similarities in betrayal themes and whatnot.

Obviously, since Timothy Hunter's storyline went with Vertigo, it's going to be more adult themed, and as such, Harry Potter isn't going to really seem to draw from it. But the early stuff...boy howdy.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Retire and live a life of leisure and ease, I assume.

[ellimayhem.livejournal.com]

While there are similarities in theme, Rowling's characters, tone, setting, and edge are far more reminiscent of the works of the late Roald Dahl, IMO.

[sharrainchains.livejournal.com]

I have always found the HP world to be even more closely related to Dianna Wynne Jones's (Charmed Life, Witch Week, A Sudden Wild Magic, etc.) - even if Jones did lose her copyright lawsuit against Rowling...

[teague.livejournal.com]

You also have to realize that Angsty Young Hero, Imbued with Gifts is kinda an archtype. Harry is The Boy That Lived. That makes him the Fated Hero. In that aspect, that makes him similar in character to Luke Skywalker, Hercules, Merlin (if you ever read any tales of his childhood), or even Batman. The personality of the hero can differ, and the details of their childhood can as well, but basicly what you get is the Hero Not Afraid To Use Force Against Evil. The hero that is in many ways like the Antihero because they think evil must be fought by any means needed. There is always an amusing tension in these characters because they get so angry. Unlike Fated Champions like Clark Kent/Superman, they don't have the same inner moral compass. There is always that chance that they will use their gifts in a dark manner, and become lost. Anakin Skywalker is a good example of the same sort of character, who looses his own fight, and becomes the villain.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Too true. My favorite angsty young hero is Garion from the Dave Eddings' ... ummmm, I'm not sure even "saga" does that justice; two sagas and two huge backstories to go with it. (Just as glad that one's over, though.)

Merlin as a kid? Where? Too cool...

[teague.livejournal.com]

There have been various sources that detail afew of Merlin's youthful exploits, particularly a scene where he predicts, I think, Arthur's father's rise to power by forseeing a battle between two dragons in a pit, and one dragon devours the other. But for a particular work of fiction that I know of that tells more of Merlin's early life, and how it was intertwined with, and impacts Arthur's, try Mary Stewart's Merlin Trilogy. I can't remember alot of detail about it. It's been years since I read it, and I need to pick it up again, but I seem to recall that one of the points it makes is that Merlin and Arthur are actually cousins, though Arthur is much younger. This helps make sense of why it was so easy for a smelly wizard was able to just up and take a royal child away with no arguments. Also it makes abit more drama of Merlin's talent for seeing the future, and how he finds himself helpless to change it, even welcoming the knowledge that one day a pretty Fae is going to seduce him away, and trap him. He kind of looks forward to it.

[jilara.livejournal.com]

One of the early aspects of Tim Hunter was the potential he had for becoming the shadowed...I think Evil is too strong...darker aspect of his soul, which was a bit more Anakin-like. And the Otherworld doesn't really operate by our perceptions of good/evil.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Can I quote that? :)

[seantaclaus.livejournal.com]

You know, when TBoM limited series came out, I was still firmly entrenched in comic collecting (everyone's got a vice, that was mine for many years), and from what I recall, it was very well written. Of course, the frequent interaction with some of the other Vertigo and DC characters made for a rather entertaining story as well.

Having never read any Harry Potter, nor having seen the movies, I've often wondered how close it tread upon TBoM. Will I read Harry Potter? Yeah, I probably will some day, just not yet.

Harry vs. Tim

[zeekar.livejournal.com]

Those two aren't the only bespectacled precocious young British wizards in lit'rature, and somehow I don't think Dame Rowling is a comics fan. So I find it unlikely that Harry was based on Tim. They share a common archetype is all.

Someone in another 'blog said something about Rowling purchasing a small island off the cost of Britain to retire to . . . called "Ireland" or some such name.

[becket.livejournal.com]

I've been ranting about this for years. I don't even care very much for Books of Magic, but the clarity of the rip off, the stark, stark difference in subtlety, soul, and depth between the two properties, and the vast difference in writing ability between the BoM writers (Gaiman, Delano) and that hack Rowling all combine to make me see red.

And we all know what happens when SuperFuzz sees red.

[libidoergosum.livejournal.com]

I still, to this day not read a SINGLE page of harry potter, and I have no intention of reading it.

all of the obsessed fans should seek therapy... this goes for extreme fans of ANYTHING. To include my own addiction to Transmetropolitain.

[becket.livejournal.com]

I thought very seriously about titling my journal '2 tugs of a dead dogs cock about truth'. It may still happen. I shall consider it whilst I consume a bucket of cold caribou eyes and smoke black russian cigs with my double-faced bitch-cat.

[libidoergosum.livejournal.com]

all hail the addiction!

[libidoergosum.livejournal.com]

can you get me some jumpstart while your at it?

[becket.livejournal.com]

No, but I do have a line on a Godti Maker that may or may not be on step 9 of of a 144 step-program designed to ween it off of, among other things, extreme masochism and jumpstart addiction. If you can beat back the Steinem-Class deprogramming droids that have been chained to it by the program dominatrixi, it should make some pretty damn good jumpstart.

[libidoergosum.livejournal.com]

WRONG.... just WRONG!