Houdini lives in 'American Dreams'

Houdini, Bess, and even Jim Collins play roles in the new comic series American Dreams written and created by Daniel Kalban. The series is two issues deep and can purchased in digital and print editions from publisher Short Fuse. Here's a description.

New York City. 1900. At the dawn of a new century, Jewish immigrant Jake Gold gets caught up in a mad experiment being done by Thomas Edison. Now gifted with new abilities, Jake must decide how to use them, especially as others affected begin to use theirs for evil. Set against the backdrop of an era very different, yet similar, to our own and with a grand cast of characters both fictional and historical, American Dreams is the story of one neophyte hero's fight for everyone's chance at the American Dream.

Creator Daniel Kalban has provided us with a special peek at some of the Houdini images in the first issues. When it comes to Houdini in comics and graphic novels, I am partial to artists who attempt to capture Houdini's actual appearance as opposed to a more square-jawed superhero take. As you can see, artists Dody Eha (pencils), Tebe Andry (inks) and Waenia K. Sahadewa (colors) do a nice job of capturing the 1900 Harry.

Daniel also sent this "pin up" of a variant cover from issue 1. Here we see Houdini has recruited hero Jake Gold as his own escape artist supreme. Now there's a superhero! Daniel is currently at work on issue #3.

Thanks to Daniel Kalban for sharing these images. You can check out more of his work via his Twitter @DanielKalban.

Below are links to a few more favorite graphic novels that opted for a realistic looking Harry.

Related:

• Edge of the Unknown throws Houdini into gritty action
• The Girl Who Handcuffed Houdini collected hardcover
• Harry Houdini by C.E.L. Welsh

'The Death Defying' limited graphic novel (2018)

The mighty Arthur Moses alerts us to this limited edition graphic novel, The Death Defying by Gavin Guidry, Marissa Louise, Micah Meyers and Christopher Sebela. It features Houdini, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Margery, H.P. Lovecraft, and Aleister Crowley.

It appears this was done as a Kickstarter in 2018. The edition Arthur discovered (right) was limited to 150 copies.

Related:

• Review: Edge of the Unknown
• Houdini meets Aleister Crowley
• "A Houdini for the Millennium"

Piper Houdini book 2 now available in print editions

Glenn Herdling's second Piper Houdini adventure, Piper Houdini: Nightmare on Esopus Island, is now available in hardcover and paperback. (It was released last year as an eBook.) The books tell the adventures of a fictional Houdini niece.

After running away from Houdini and his wife, saving wild animals from a raging inferno, and a breathtaking showdown with a vampire named Flapper, Piper settles in with the performers of the Coney Island freak show only to discover that she may be the greatest freak of all.

As the summer of 1926 heats up, Piper continues the quest for her dark legacy. Along the way, she will encounter a variety of real-life luminaries from the 1920s, including the erudite author H. P. Lovecraft, the occultist Aleister Crowley, and a Rudolph Valentino zombie. Piper will need to use all the valuable skills she learns from her new friends to confront the lunatic who has been murdering sideshow performers.

In this pulse-pounding conclusion to the tale begun in Piper Houdini: Apprentice of Coney Island, author Glenn Herdling takes readers from the rousing backdrop of the legendary Brooklyn amusement pier to a mysterious island on the Hudson River, where a sinister rite takes place that could enslave the human race--unless Piper and her unusual friends can stop it.

Purchase Piper Houdini: Nightmare on Esopus Island at Amazon.

Related:

• Piper Houdini is back
• 'Piper Houdini' now available in print editions
• Meet Piper Houdini: Apprentice of Coney Island

Houdini, Lovecraft and Tesla in action

Houdini is a regular character in the ongoing comic book series Herald: Lovecraft & Tesla by John Reilly with art by Tom Rogers and Dexter Weeks. The title launched in 2015 and is now six issues in. Along with Houdini, the book also features Amelia Earhart, Aleister Crowley and Thomas Edison. Here's a look at a Houdini page.

Individual issues of Herald: Lovecraft & Tesla are available from Amazon. The first six issues have also been collected in two volumes: Herald: Lovecraft and Tesla - History in the Making (issues 1-3) and Herald: Lovecraft and Tesla - Fingers To the Bone (issues 4-6).

You can keep up with at the series via their official Facebook and Twitter.

Related:

• Houdini meets Aleister Crowley
• Houdini makes The Tesla Connection
• Houdini joins the ROUGH RIDERS

'Piper Houdini' now available in print editions

Glenn Herdling's Piper Houdini: Apprentice of Coney Island is now available in hardcover and paperback. It had previously only been released as an eBook. This well-researched and charming children's book chronicles the (fictional) adventures of Houdini's (fictional) niece.

Piper Houdini: Apprentice of Coney Island is a young adult novel set in the Roaring Twenties against the hustling and bustling background of New York’s Coney Island—a time filled with silent movies, secret speakeasies, and an unscrupulous Spiritualist movement that is the unwitting pawn in a plot to bring about hell on Earth. Populated with a cast of actual historical figures—including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Dion Fortune, and Aleister Crowley—this spine-tingling tale will appeal to readers who enjoy urban fantasy and paranormal historical fiction as much as a jaunt on the Wonder Wheel.

Purchase Piper Houdini: Apprentice of Coney Island at Amazon.com (U.S.) and Amazon.co.uk (UK).

Related:

• Meet Piper Houdini: Apprentice of Coney Island
• LINK: Glenn Herdling on William Weiss

Houdini meets Aleister Crowley

In the wild world of independant film financing, posters will be created for films that don't yet exist. This is so producers can sell the concept for the film and use foreign pre-sales to fund that actual making of the movie.

Below is one of those posters for a Houdini movie called The Dead of Night. This appeared in the May 2, 1990 issue of Variety showcasing movies being shopped at the Cannes Film Festival that year.

As you can see, the idea here was to team Houdini and Aleister Crowley, the English occultist who was sometimes called "the wickedest man in the world." As far as I know, The Dead of Night never made it beyond this poster.

Hey, I kinda like this idea, and I really like this poster. Is it too late to invest? Probably.

Related:

• The saga of Ray Stark and Houdini
• The men who almost played Houdini
• Uncovering 'Houdini The Great'

The Man From Beyond comes back

Houdini: The Man From From Beyond is a new mass market graphic novel by Brian Haberlin, Jeff Phillips, and Gilbert Monsanto. It's relased today by Image Books.

Celebrate the anniversary of the death of a legend with his greatest escape of all! On the eve of the Wall Street collapse of 1929, Harry Houdini makes the ultimate escape: He returns from the dead in the guise of a young stockbroker and partners with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to prevent his wife Bess from being murdered. Their search calls into question Houdini's own demise and brings them into contact with such period luminaries as Aleister Crowley and Charles Lindbergh as they uncover a cult that threatens to unlock the secrets of eternity.

You can purchase Houdini: The Man From Beyond from Amazon.com.