The following is a blub I saw on Penguin Magic regarding a comic book test. It sells for $99.00. While I like the idea of using a comic book, I have several reservations. First, no one will recognize the title of the comic book as a real, legitimate comic book thus immediately implying that is a magic/mentalism prop specially made for the effect. Second, there are only 48 pages whereas a standard book test would have approxiaamtely 200 pages. While the pictures an be used as part of the routine, perhaps in even a drawing duplication, there may be too many negatives compared to a typical book test using a soft or hard cover novel. The idea of using a comic book is certainly appealing especially if done with a younger, teenage crowd. What do you think?

Michael

Yoan & Guillaume have done it again! Comic Book Test is absolute wonderful! First, the props are top class. Even though they are comic books, they are made really strong. They will last you for years. As for effects, these books are packed with them! You can read minds, do predictions and all kinds of cool stuff. I love this type of prop because it gets me thinking and I know I can use the effect for many different routines. It is a beautiful utility prop. Kudos to these guys. They are adding immensely to the mentalism fraternity!" - Richard Osterlind

A complete mentalism routine using a comic book!

Perform amazing feats of memory and telepathy and create utterly impossible coincidences.

It took more than two years to conceive and produce this unique COMIC book test!




•Soft Cover


•48 pages


•Printed in color

My first thought is that the best audience for this, young people, would be the most likely to suspect that the comic wasn't a real publication.

"It took more than two years to conceive and produce this unique COMIC book test! "

And only 30 minutes for someone who hasn't seen it to come up with a criticism!

Ha! Well played, sir...well played.

I had the same concerns as magicinsight. I am probably more concerned with the amount of pages/words than I am with the appearance of the comic. When I think of book tests, the main appeal is giving the spectator the choice of countless words from hundreds of pages. Being that this is less than 50 pages and is in comic book format (i.e. not a lot of text on the page), I fear that it can't stand up to other book tests currently available.

Having said that, I'm sure there are performers who will find that this works well for them. I will probably stick with more traditional book tests.

You're probably thinking of graphic novels. Regular single issue comic books are still in that page range (32-48).

I dunno - it seems like it should more fairly be compared with other Magazine tests like Tru-Test of Glance then with a MOABT of some Larry Becker test etc.

That being said, this sounds like a cool possibility and I await feedback from those who get it.

Tru-test is only a single two sided page - with a good array of targets mind you. Glance has less target but free reign on choosing any magazine and any ad or page.

There are so many comics out there - many people now are into anime or lord knows what... so in a way maybe it's better that it isn't Superman or Batman, etc. When I go to any local comic store these days I don't recognize most of the new stuff in the store.

I wouldn't have a clue about comics nowadays so it would work with me LOL!. Modern graphics they use in comics today is a very different style than when I was young. I'm interested in these,
Thanks for the heads up, I'll be checking this out

Regards

Sheldon Cooper

Comic books/Graphic novels are huge right now; a great deal due to the amount of movie adaptations out there. I completelty agree, a person who would respond to using a comic for a trick, would most like be suspect of this book. It is not a known title, and more importantly it is not being released by a comic company (DC/Marvel/IDW/Dark Horse).

The book doesn't look bad, but it doesn't look like any graphic novel I have read, there is just something "off".

Take a graphic novel Batman or whatever, rip it up and do Spineless...

Welcome to the boards "Sheldon"

I saw this thread and was immediately reminded of this video of something called "Monster of All Book Tests":

http://m.youtube.com/index?&desktop_uri=......3Nfhx_lA

It appears to have a very similar theme.

This is actually a very ingenious book test using comics. Believe me, people will not suspect it as it is gorgeous, and because there are so many different comic books. You can reveal for each page a huge number of informations. And you don't have to know (apparently) the page number the spectator is looking at (bottom line: there is a way to secretly know her page, so that you can proceed).
And furthermore, the comic in itself is very funny for us to read, because each caractere is a famous magician, or is connected to magic. All in all, a very good product - which is not reserved to children, because you can use it to reveal drawings, hours, numbers, and so on...

Plus you can use it in front of an audience that normally doesn't read anymore... Jan

Jjsanvert (or anyone else that has it or knows about it)...can you say whether this allows for, or has, a hands-free handling? (How oxymoronic does that sound?)

Hands-free as in the way MOAB and Glance can be done without the performer having to handle the booker magazine as the word/picture/whatever is being selected.

I use comic books to do my "Torn and Restored Comic Book." Thinking of this as "Mental Magic" rather than as the purer form of "Mentalism" I can think of lots of ways to include a Comic Book Test and combine it with the Torn and Restored ending. I use comic books purchased by the bag (four or five different titles) at the Dollar Store (where else?). They are all comics that kids actually buy and read and know inside and out. For my TR Comic, I have a display of comic books and have a spectator choose one, and then select a page to tear out. He then signs the torn page, I rip it up and then restore it, complete with his signature. But seeing this thread gave me the idea of having him tear out the page, then do the choosing of a word or a picture by having him continue to tear the page and hand me the pieces he is discarding as in the newspaper tear test. Finally, when he ends up with one piece as his choice, I would first reveal the word or draw the picture, then I can end by taking his piece and restoring the comic book page as a finale. Not for the mentalist, but for the mental magician and a teen-age crowd, I think that would be a real crowd pleaser.

You can perform the first effect hand-free (= you explain to the spectator that the story is about a murder, and you make the spectator herself "discover" how this murder was done). It is very easy and very natural.
Jan: This is SO true!

The need to riffle the pages, a feature of many a book test, means it is not a version that suits a hands free approach.

But it sounds (and looks) very good.

I have this comic book test and I don't think it was thought out well. When I first received it, I was flipping through the pages and the first page I opened to had an image of a naked woman riding a stripper pole. I'm not a prude, but this just eliminated nearly all potential venues for this. IMO, it can't be used for kids, young adults, corporate settings, family settings, etc... are there any settings left? Perhaps a bar setting, but who brings comic books to a bar setting?

I think that this could have been a good idea, but they missed the mark. IMO, two years of development wasted. Maybe they can come up with an updated version that looks more like a real action hero comic book without the nude images.

KJ