Houdini the action figure!

A Houdini Action Figure has been released by Accoutrements -- "Outfitters in Popular Culture" -- who specialize in off-beat action figures of historical figures like Jesus, Einstein, etc.

The figure comes with hand and leg shakles, a chair with rope, and even a straight-jacket in which you can thrust old Harry up. The package notes our hero's "weapon of choice" -- MAGIC!

The Houdini Action Figure can be found in novelty stores and on Amazon.

Where was this when I was ten?

Houdini & Doyle redux

A new novel by by Gabriel Brownstein, The Man From Beyond (not to be confused with the recent graphic novel of the same name), is based on the real-life friendship between Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

From the winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award, a debut novel featuring Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 

It is April 1922. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle arrives in New York on a spiritualist crusade. To packed houses at Carnegie Hall, he displays photographs of ghosts and spirits; of female mediums bound and gagged, ectoplasmic goo emerging from their bodies. In the newspapers, he defends the powers of the mysterious Margery, one of the most famous mediums of the day. His good friend Harry Houdini is a skeptic, and when Doyle claims Margery's powers are superior to Houdini's, the magician goes on the attack. Into this mix of spirit-chasing celebrities enters Molly Goodman, a young reporter whose job is to cover the heated debate. As she wanders into this world of spooks and spirits, murder and criminal frauds, Molly discovers herself: her true love, her place in the world; even her relationship to her beloved dead brother, Carl.

Would have been kind of cool if they had called this book The Men From Beyond.

You can purchase The Man From Beyond by Gabriel Brownstein from Amazon.com.