Does anyone think Harry Potter was "influenced" by Tim Hunter (BoM)?

Question

Dispite what Neil Gaiman has said the similarities seem a bit much! He even has a pet owl!
I am a fan of both though!

For those who don't know what I'm talking about:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Hunter

Hi treehuggingveganhippy, Gaiman say that HP was just drawn from the same Archetype...
I think the issue is the amount of similarities"
Dark haired English boy with glasses, family troubles, pet owl, destined to be a great magician etc.......

Answer 1

Ooh, Books of Magic- I must remember to read them! On topic, though...Well, they look quite similar. I saw the picture of the character, and they even appear similar! But I don't think that it matters much overall, does it? Seeing how Gaiman doesn't seem likely to sue, it looks like it falls under the same category as the Wizard of Earthsea's "influence"- might be true, might not, but no one can do anything but hate JK for being a dirty rotten plagiarizer. ENjoying the books is an option as well!

What did Gaiman say?

EDIT: Hehe, looked more into it and found this site, it may be of interest to you. http://www.geocities.com/versetrue/rowling.htm. I for one am really interested in knowing whether Rowling has ever actually read the BoM, because there're obviously so many similarities! But anyways, this site claims that at first Gaiman was saying that it was plagiarism, until they offered him a movie deal- conspiracy theory or true, I wonder?

Answer 2

I think two people can come up with similar characters without having been influenced by one another. I sincerely don't know if J.K. Rowling was familar with Tim Hunter or Neil Gaiman's work before hand, so I'm just speaking from my own experience.

As human beings we all have similar experiences, whether we like to admit it or not. I've written out character sketches before, then I read a book in the genre similar to what I was writing, and found that it seemed these characters had already been written.

Now I've been studying characterization and archetypes - also plotting. What I'm learning is that there is nothing new under the sun. The way you come up with an original story is in the details, and I'm willing to bet that the details of each are quite different - thus making them legitimately different tales.

Answer 3

At the very least, whoever did the cover art for the Potter books was. The resemblance is plain to see. That said, I don't think JK was directly influenced by Gaiman's writing. Good reference to a highly underrated series.

Answer 4

what is Tim Hunter (BoM)?

Answer 5

kool