Since the 1997 publication (and subsequent success) of the first book in
J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, fans of
The Books of Magic have noted some similarities between the two protagonists: both are normal, bespectacled teenage boys who have lost their mothers, and discover that they are destined to become powerful magicians while gaining an owl as a pet. The similarity was noted by a journalist from
The Scotsman newspaper, who asked Gaiman if he thought Rowling was aware of his 1990 comic, to which Gaiman replied that he "wasn't the first writer to create a young magician with potential, nor was Rowling the first to send one to school".
[11]
A story in the
Daily Mirror reported that Gaiman had accused Rowling of
plagiarism, and was repeated in the
Daily Mail. Gaiman has stressed, "This is
not true, I never said this", and when asked, repeats his belief that Rowling had not read
The Books of Magic and that the similarities most likely result from both being inspired by similar works, in particular those of
T. H. White.
[3][11] Hunter: Age of Magic author
Dylan Horrocks has pointed out that neither Hunter nor Potter was truly an original idea, with another boy wizard preceding Hunter in comics, and they should be considered more as part of a
genre:
The superficial similarities are striking - but no more so than any number of other stories in the genre. As Gaiman has repeatedly said, he and Rowling were merely drinking from the same well. In fact, there was even a story in
2000AD (called the
Journals of Luke Kirby) which came out a few years before
The Books of Magic, which was extremely similar to both the
BoM and
Harry Potter. This is a genre - and Gaiman and Rowling are both playing with the conventions of the genre, to different ends.
[12]
In the last issue of the ongoing (second)
The Books of Magic series, writer/artist
Peter Gross played on the similarity to Potter, showing Tim's step brother Cyril putting on a glamor stone that made him look like Timothy. Cyril then walked through the wall between platforms 9 and 10 at a train station.