The Books of Magic Annual #2
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeAnnual #2 is the middle chapter of the Vertigo ongoing's three-annual run, landing squarely in the transition between John Ney Rieber's original tenure and Peter Gross's subsequent stewardship of the series. Titled 'Horn,' it uses a mythological antagonist — the Minotaur, relocated to a modern American nightclub — as the vehicle for one of Vertigo's more unflinching depictions of child abuse and trauma, demonstrating the mature-readers mandate that made the Vertigo imprint distinctive in late-1990s mainstream comics. Its narrative placement between issues #42 and #43 made it a required piece of the ongoing's 'Rites of Passage' arc that readers following Tim Hunter's American odyssey could not skip without losing story continuity. The fact that the annual was never collected in any of the individual trade paperback volumes — only finally reprinted decades later in the Books of Magic Omnibus Vol. 2 — meant it remained one of the more elusive chapters of the Tim Hunter saga for collectors and readers of the original run.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
The annual arrived partway through Peter Gross's expanded role on the series, at a moment when original writer John Ney Rieber had already announced his intention to leave the book. The bulk of the issue was written by Gross, with additional contributions from John Ney Rieber and Mark Waid — making it a genuinely collaborative production rather than a solo effort. It carries a cover date of February 1998 and was published by DC Comics/Vertigo as part of the ongoing Volume 2 annual sub-series. Like its companion annuals, it was bypassed when DC assembled the original trade paperback collections, a gap the Books of Magic Omnibus Vol. 2 (which collects Annual #1–3 alongside issues #33–75) eventually addressed.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Story title: 'Horn' — cover-dated February 1998, published by DC Comics under the Vertigo imprint.
- Narrative placement: the story takes place in continuity between The Books of Magic Vol. 2 #42 and #43, within the broader 'Rites of Passage' arc.
- Primary antagonist: the Minotaur of Greek myth, transposed to a modern-day American nightclub called The Labyrinth.
- Single-appearance character Tyler (also called 'Tiger' and 'Judith') is the child abuse victim at the center of the story; antagonist Jack, Tyler's abusive stepfather, also appears in flashback only.
- Written primarily by Peter Gross, with contributions from both John Ney Rieber and Mark Waid — the only annual in the series not written solely by Rieber.
- The Minotaur dies in the course of the story, making this issue its definitive Vertigo-era appearance.
- Like Annual #1, this issue was not collected in any of the original DC/Vertigo trade paperback volumes; it was first reprinted in the Books of Magic Omnibus Vol. 2 (ISBN 9781779513205), which collects Vol. 2 #33–75 and all three annuals.
- The ongoing Vol. 2 series ran 75 issues from 1994 to 2000; the annuals are among its least-documented chapters, with the DC Database wiki still listing Annual #2's synopsis as unwritten.
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