I've just finished a blogpost examining the 1990-91 BOOKS OF MAGIC mini-series as a "mythcomic," and I would be remiss not to mention that it's also one of the best "continuity-fests" ever served up by DC comics.
As noted in the post, the narrative focuses on giving Tim Hunter-- a British teenager with the potential to become a "super-magus"-- a tour of DC's magical universe with the help of four major occultists: the Phantom Stranger, Mister E, John Constantine, and-- barely seen in comics since the Golden Age-- Doctor Occult.
What I want to note here, though, are the narratives many continuity delights, such as:
Tim's encounter with Golden Age characters Zatara and Sargon the Sorcerer, both slain in one of Alan Moore's SWAMP THING stories.
His meeting with Constantine's apparent romantic conquests, Zatanna and Madame Xanadu, and an amusing tete-a-tete between sorcerer-villains The Wizard and Felix Faust. (I'm still geek enough to remember protesting, "But Faust is so much more powerful than the Wizard!")
The appearance of characters as obscure as Nightmaster in Book Three, and a complicated future history involving everything from the Legion of Super-Heroes to FLASH-foe Abra Kadabra.
An insider's delight, to be sure, but no less a delight.
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