![]() ![]() Lutes cleverly sets the entire book around the single stunt of Houdini jumping chained into Boston’s Charles river. Really transmitting his character, Bertozzi’s Houdini is bustling, all-action, almost always on the move, and definitely always thinking, the thought balloons here containing visual representations rather than words. He was one of the world’s foremost authorities on locks, and how to pick them, and the opening pages show him studying one, before detailing what’s presumed knowledge about one of his methods, and then showing his creativity equally applied to promotion. Being the world’s greatest escapist was down to hours of study and practice. ![]() Houdini made no secret of how he achieved his miraculous feats, stressing nothing supernatural was involved. Anyone with an interest in stage magic can’t go wrong with Gold’s novel Carter Beats the Devil, about a later magician. Novelist Glen David Gold’s place-setting introduction notes that Houdini’s escapist skill raised magic to a global phenomenon, comparing his influence to that of Michael Jordan on basketball. Additionally, they convey what it must have been like to be present at one of Houdini’s performances. Jason Lutes and Nick Bertozzi explain how he achieved this, bringing through the strength of his personality and how his physical skills meant no-one could devise a trap he couldn’t escape. Even a century later some of his feats can’t be definitively explained. Has Houdini’s fame survived into the 21 st century? In his early 20 th century era he was known across the globe, his vast creativity constantly devising remarkable new tricks that kept him the pre-eminent stage and street magician. ![]()
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