Artifice, Ruse, and Subterfuge. The Expert at the Card Table Graphic Novel

Imprescindible para los fans de Erdnase.

The Expert at the Card Table--The Graphic Novel is an amazing take on S.W. Erdnase's classic magical text. The book will likely have a limited audience (will explain below), but for those of us who need a more accessible edition of Erdnase (at a reasonable price), this might just be the one. That said, after purchasing the book, I feel compelled to say that there are severe allegations of intellectual property issues regarding the authorship (more explained at the end of the review) that made me regret buying this edition.First caveat: do not buy this for your tween niece or nephew that is interested in starting off in card magic. Given the archaic language and terse nature of the text, there are a bunch of more modern books that might be better in this scenario. Joshua Jay's Magic the Complete Course or Jay's Amazing Book of Cards might be a more accessible starting point. If you want to go vintage, Hugard and Braue's The Royal Road to Card Magic is a classic that has stood the test of time and is suitable for any beginner.So, unless your niece or nephew is a budding Dai Vernon or Richard Turner, Erdnase's 1902 classic is not going to be a good starting point (whether you get the standard version or this one). That said, one of the major charms of this graphic novel version is that he keeps 100% of the old text and every figure from the original has been replicated in fine detail. This will satisfy more sophisticated readers: this is a graphic novel version, not a simplified version of the old text.Second caveat: unless they are a graphic novel fan, this is not for the seasoned card veteran, already steeped in Erdnase. They probably already have Dai Vernon's Revelation, Ortiz's Annotated Erdnase, David Ben's The Expert at the Card Table, Marlo on Erdnase, etc.Making Erdnase into a graphic novel is probably something of a heresy for those in the card magic set who consider this the 'bible' of card magic, but you will have to trust me when I say that this just works.Trustman's sketch-type style just somehow fits and there is no dissonance in the juxtaposition of the 1902 text and the modern, comic book format. For whatever reason, it's a perfect fit. Combine this with the fact that every word that Erdnase wrote is contained within the speech bubbles and that every original figure drawn by M.D. Smith is replicated within the frames.The thing that truly sets this version apart for me and probably the reason why I have gotten much farther with this version than the standard, printed version of Erdnase, is that the text is artfully broken down into bite sized phrases. This makes the text far easier for me to understand than in the original. Additionally, having the illustrations correlate so closely with the text is helpful.As above, every figure from the original is contained within this text. Trustman also adds additional figures to give a view from a different angle and will often take figures from an earlier part of the text, repeating them if they are helpful later on. This prevents you from having to go back to figure out the initial position and adds frames to show placement of hands and cards (for example he adds figures 30 b and 30 c to better show hand position) . This is probably best illustrated in the Three Card Monte section where there is only one figure (62) in the original text for this entire section. Trustman's extra frames add clarity. There is also helpful in the Legerdemain section where the original had few figures to show how the cards might look when placed on the table.There are times, though, when I thought that the artist could have clarified things a bit better. There might have been a more close up views in some figures to better show hand position and in certain moves (palms, shifts, etc.) there could have been more clarity in showing how the cards move, either with arrows or shadows within a given frame or multiple frames showing a more stop action type of view.All in all, though you can see that Trustman truly loves this book and this graphic novel is truly a homage to Erdnase. It's really quite an incredible accomplishment and I have enjoyed it greatly. No doubt, so will you.Part of me, however, regrets buying this book. After seeing a video review by Steve Faulkner, I was intrigued. At the time I received this there were no reviews on Amazon and you couldn't purchase it on the usual magic store websites. After buying the book and enjoying it thoroughly, I started canvassing for more reivews. I did a web search and in doing so found a blog post by the authors former partner Sarah Trustman.The allegations in Sarah Trustman's blog is that they worked on this book together, collaborated as they had on all their previous publications, and then had a falling out. David Trustman, the author of this book, then expunged Sarah's name from the book and self published it. She has quite convincing evidence of extensive notes and preprints that show her vital contributions to the work.Here's my take. I have no idea who is right in this situation. I certainly do not want to get in between two former partners in the process of a break up. For the record, I do not know either David or Sarah Trustman nor have I bought any of their previous books or used their memory aid services. My goal is NOT to take sides--I have no skin in this game and have no idea who is right and wrong and who did what, when, where, or how. I do feel, though, that by purchasing the book I inadvertently was swept up in a maelstrom.Intellectual property is of paramount importance in magic and stealing methods, not giving credit, or presenting others work as one's own is not something I really want to be part of. If Sarah Trustman had a major role in this endeavor, credits and monetary issues should have been ironed out before the book's release. Sadly, although this is my favorite version of Erdnase to date, it still leaves an unsettling knot in my stomach. Of course, I would not pretend to know the truth here. I do hope that the Trustmans can work out any issues regarding this book. Until then, you will have to decide these issues for yourself.It is a most excellent book, but--given the questions regarding intellectual property--part of me regrets buying it. However, it is the only edition of Erdnase that I have ever been able to read cover-to-cover and it is a simply brilliant take on a classic in magic.