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. 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 text 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. This will satisfy more sophisticated readers, but is likely not a good
starting point for the beginning magician (child or adult). This is a graphic novel version, not a
simplified version of the old text.
Second caveat: 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. So unless they
are graphic novel fans, this is not the book for card veterans.
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 just works. Combine
this with the fact that every word that Erdnase wrote is contained within the speech bubbles and
that every drawn by M.D. Smith is replicated in 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 will 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 (for example he adds figures 30 b and 30 c to better show
hand position) and adds frames to show placement of hands and cards. This is probably best
illustrated in the Three Card Monte section where there is only one figure (62) in the entire
section. 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 view of 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.
So why did I regret buying this book. Well, 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. So, I did a web search and found a post by the
authors former wife and partner Sarah Trustman.
The allegations are that they worked on
this book together, collaborated as they had on previous publications, and then had a falling out.
David Trustman, the author of this book, then expunged Sarah's name from the work and self published
the book. She has quite convincing evidence of extensive notes and preprints that show her
contribution to the work.
Here's my take. I have no idea who is right in this situation.
I certainly do not want to get 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.
That said,
intellectual property is of paramount importance in magic and stealing methods, not giving credit,
or presenting others work as your 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 books release. Sadly, although this is my favorite version of Erdnase to date, it still
leaves an unsettling knot in my stomach. I do hope that the Trustmans can work out these issues.
It is a most excellent book, but, sadly,--given the questions regarding intellectual
property--I regret buying it.
While I am quite glad to hear that you find the book so helpful, I am disappointed that you chose to post about things you admit to not understanding. As the creator , and artist of the book, I hold both the copyright and isbn. There is no question legally as to who created the book. If you look at the art, any of my art paired against any of hers you will see an unmistakable difference. In Sarah’s own writings she very clearly didn’t even understand the timeline in which I created the book. While she credits me with the sole idea, she then isn’t sure if I began working on it 1, 2, or 3 years ago. Sarah also does not understand how the pages were crafted, as they were made in a totally unique manner that I had to create in order to accommodate all the original artwork.
As to how any of our previous work was created, I built the book, designed the images, structured what needed to be written, and then had Sarah do things like write a story about an image I had created. This is known as “The Marvel way”. On The Expert, Sarah was supposed to be a proofreader and background artist making 4 background images that I would populate throughout the book. When it became clear she could not live up to the expectations, just as on any comic book, she was removed with plenty of notice.
I took great pride in creating all of the images in this book, especially reproducing the 101 original hand drawings along with nearly 200 more. I took great pride in designing an era appropriate Erdnase. I designed an era appropriate room down to even the type of hardwood floors and wall paper.
Once again, I am very glad you find my work so beneficial, but disappointed that you would post so recklessly about a topic that you are admittedly very unfamiliar. So try to enjoy the book guilt free, because there’s none to be had.
David Trustman
There is now way to edit the above review, but it is good to have your addition to this as well. I felt that just buying the book put me in the middle of a maelstrom and made me feel awkward--that is my regret.
That said, there is absolutely no question that you have done an incredible job. I would never in a million years have even thought that a comic book version of Erdnase would be made and would never have thought of such a version working. However, as stated in the review, you have more than made this work--you have elevated the book and made it accessible to a wider audience.
I cannot un-know what I read on Sarah Trustman's website. I could not discount that in the review but I also made sure not present her side of the story as uncontrovertible fact. I will contact Penguin, though, and see if I am able to revise the review and the title.
My purpose was not to steer people away from buying the book, just to share my experience. I certainly bear you now ill will.
Sorry for the delay in answering--I did not see your response until today.