1500 pages, probably the largest omnibus I’ve read, and own in one volume. I was pretty careful stretching the spine on this one. It’s a wonderful resource too. I actually tried to read this series before the omnibus was out and it was all but impossible. Not even comiXology had the trades or single issues, and scans were around, but were terrible. I think this omnibus actually touched up quite a bit, based on what I’d seen. It’s a gorgeous presentation.

As for the story, in so many pages, as you might imagine, it vacillates between being pretty exceptional—mostly when it’s centred on the Our young Tim’s growth from a regular skateboarding loaner child, to the eventuality purposed by the shady magic users that shepherd Tim on his way in the opening few issues of the book, which was penned by Gaiman as a mini series to introduce the character to the Sandman universe. He looks like Harry Potter, it must be said, and also has an owl (though, this owl was transformed out of a yo-yo). The similarities stop there. The story is much darker than Harry and is kind of a weird character. This must have been the Veritgo line, but who was into a child magician in that line of comics? It’s seems odd.

It probably was weird. Because after the miniseries it bounces around to a lot of different titles related peripherally to Tim, before finally settling down into the books of magic proper. And after that there’s some crossovers put into the volume too. As an omnibus it’s exceptional, as mentioned, just for collecting all of this stuff specific to Tim’s journey in one place. It must have been hell to get ahold of previously.

Taken as a larger, full story, like I said: it vacillates. When it’s not exceptional it’s still quite good. But does feel like it loses its way sometimes. It defaults a lot to the fae realm or Free Country and when it gets away from it, it seems like the writer is flying by the seat of their pants, really. Its unfocused and drawn out, and begins to be about Molly and Tim, only most of the time it doesn’t go anywhere and they’re teenagers, so it’s not that interesting, certainly not enough to be the central tension. And the last arc sees Tim take a roadtrip with someone else, again with Molly being in fae, yet again!

It’s a bit of a lacklustre final arc. I think this will be relegated to remaining on my wishlist, as this was. I got it for Christmas from my brother. It’s very cool as a gift, but I don’t think, based on this, I would spring for volume 2 (especially with these post-Covid prices being wildly expensive). But if I were to get it as a gift I’d be very happy to keep reading it and it’s mostly a value proposition with these huge chonkers that balk me.