Hocus Pocus - Richard Wiseman, Rik Worth, Jordan Colliver and Owen Watts - $
$49.95
https://www.vanishingincmagic.com/magic-books/hocus-pocus-book/

The Hype:

Professor Richard Wiseman welcomes you into a totally new world unlike anything else the magic community has ever seen with Hocus Pocus.

This page-turning collection of five magic-themed comics interweaves incredible tales with amazing interactive magic tricks and stunning artwork that will keep your eyes glued to the page. And to create this perfect collection, Richard teamed up with a group of award-winning comic artists to bring this vision to life.

The result is a breathtaking, hardback collection of fifteen amazing, magical tales about the curious history and psychology of stage magic and the paranormal published right here at Vanishing Inc. Nominated for the prestigious Eisner award, this is one of the most original and captivating adventures through the history of our art ever published.

Each story explores a topic featuring strange-but-true tales of scientific discovery and exploration of the unknown, hosted by a cavalcade of real life charlatans, sorcerers and skeptics from history. You’ll delve deeply into the world of levitation, prophecy, mind reading, seance, and ghosts …

Discover how Nostradamus became the crown prince of prophecy, the story of the dreaded Borley Rectory, the most haunted house in England, and even how Alexander “The Man Who Knows” … actually knew.

With Hocus Pocus, you don’t just read the story, you become part of it. Along the way, you’ll uncover special mind-bending interactive elements and hidden secrets, including tests of your paranormal abilities, psychic readings and more. And you’ll almost certainly learn stories from magic’s history that you’ve never heard before.

This is the first time these amazing tales have been lovingly placed in one stunning hardbound collection and we’re delighted to let you know it’s available today.

My Take:

It's official. I have a new favorite magic book. I first learned  about this comic in an article in the May 2020 issue of Genii where around 10 pages of the original comic were published in full color. I was happy to see that they gave full credit to Mark Horowitz for his assistance using his incredible collection of magic themed comics. Of course, if you know Mark, his most amazing production was his son, magician Lee Asher. You might not catch it, but there is an illustration of a police line-up in the first section and one of the suspects is none other than Mark and he is even reading a comic. If you are a subscriber to Genii, you can go back into the archives and read the article. At this point only the first chapter had been released and sold out. It has the look and feel of many of the popular graphic novels. (Don't forget that The Walking Dead" started as a graphic novel.)

The whole package is present by Professor Richard Wiseman.  (no, not wise guy) Richard has a website you must check out his YOutube Channel called Quirkology which is very quirky coincidentally. This has some must see videos that really are both brilliant and hilarious. https://www.youtube.com/@Quirkology

I'm sure that most of you grew up with comic as part of your life. Over the years, they really have not gotten better. Just too much politics and too many super heros. I was even fortunate to have as a roommate Dr. Toon who wrote reviews of animation for Toon Magazine. And another buddy did the lettering for the Tick comic.

When I was a kid, I used to order some really cool stuff off the back of cereal boxes then haunt the mailbox every day waiting for it to arrive. It happened again with this book, I had fallen in love with it back in the original Genii article. I never realized that I would have to wait two and a half years to get my hands on the completed project.

Apparently five comics were released, each on a different aspect of the paranormal. This tome is a compilation of all the issues under one cover. Each subject gets its own full color chapter.

Here is a little of what to expect.

Mind Reading -

You are introduces to someone I was not familiar with. A famous mind reader named Washington Irving Bishop and shows his act (in comic form, of course). It also tells of his tragic end. (One that Edgar Allen Poe would have loved). You are given a brief write up on muscle reading and told to try an experiment that is described. You probably will give it a shot. The next name should be more familiar. J.B. Rhine, the esp investigator from Duke University. One of his associates was named Zener and created the Zenr deck which we have all used for tricks. He finishes with a small section of Alexander, the Man who Knows. Make sure to pay attention to the backgrounds in the panels where the boys Throw in some humor and thinks you would expect to see in something like this such as picturing two men talking at a urinal.

Seances -

There is a nice section on the Fox Sisters who created a stir back in the mid-1800's by having spirits answer questions. f course, it was all fake (read the book for the explanation) but a lot of people bought into the story until the secret was revealed in 1888. You may have heard of the Davenport Brothers who made a fortune with their spirit cabinet, which is still performed today, most notably by Penn and Teller. This section finishes with another new name but who seemed to be very important ad debunking spiritualist frauds, Rose Mackenberg. Houdini and Arthur Conan Doyle are also mentioned briefly. They started as great friends but that fell apart because Doyle was a true believer is spiritualism and his wife was a professional spiritualist. As we all know what Houdini did with that profession there were some hard feelings. The funny part of this was that Doyle refused to believe that Houdini's tricks were tricks. He insisted that they were real magic and that Houdini was lying when he said they wre just tricks.

Ghosts -

You get to visit Borley Rectory, the most haunted house in England.You will learn of a scientific explanation of strange noises in old houses, and, no, it isn't just old creaking boards. This is a principle I had never heard of but it was fascinating. And, of course, Pepper's Ghost made an appearance. What would the haunted mansion at Disney World would be without Pepper?

Prophecy -

You are taught a trick you have all seen. Think of a 2 digit number where both digits are odd and different from one another and draw a geometric object inside of another. Real basic stuff. You are walked through several simple tricks in your journey through the book. Of course Nostrademus is introduced and you learn the value of making predictions so vague that they can be twisted to mean pretty much anything you wish. (Make sure you check out the panel background in this section to see the four Beatles doing their Abbey road walk across the street.)You are shown a card trick featuring the Zodiac symbols and a big nod to Max Maven for the working of this one. The chapter ends with one of my favorite prognosticators, Paul the Psychic Octopus who would correctly predict the outcome of games.

Levitation -

Quite a few examples of levitation are mention. Madame Adelaide Hermann the Indain Rope Trick, Robert Houdin and John Nevil Maskelyne. Maskelyne's levitation was a huge success and everyone tried to buy the secret but he was not selling. But that sneaky Thurston hired Maskelyne's assistant, stole the trick and claimed it for his own. And one of the most amazing levitations of all time. David Copperfield's.

You are offered a few different covers that were onsidered and one will even double as A Ouija board. The Rose Mackenberg cover really brings back the old EC Comics such as "Tales from the Crypt". The art work in this section is wonderful.

And the book ends with a bonus comic section on the Davenport Seance.

This is a brilliant, beautiful book in the usual well produced style of Vanishing Inc. Usually when I review a book, I make notes as I go through it so I have something at the end to stir my memories. I tried to do it with this one but couldn't. Once I started reading, it was impossible to put down and reading through it a second time to write this up was just as much fun as the first time.

In case you haven't figured it out. This is extremely highly recommended. It is a must have but one word of warning. Don't just leave it out on the table. Your kids will steal this book and you may never see it again. Thank you Josh and Andi for allowing me to review this treasure.

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