Featuring characters created by Neil Gaiman and John Bolton, The Books Of Magic is the story of a young teenage magician, who's only just learning about his abilities. Tim Hunter is a lower-class British kid with plenty of problems of all different varieties, including the wrath of Titania, the Queen of the Fairies.

The book (written by John Ney Rieber, with art by Peter Snejbjerg and Peter Gross, and absolutely stunning covers by Charles Vess) is not quite as well-written or thoughtful as Gaiman's Sandman, and often seems to lack direction (the Doom Patrol syndrome). However, it is quite clever in its own way, and over the long haul it's clear that Rieber is slowly moving TIm's magical development forward. The first five issues have been collected into paperback, and they're probably the best introduction to the series. However, the paperback collection of the original, Gaiman-written, mini-series is even better.