Ibidem 1-3 Ebook

Ed Marlo. Stewart James. Martin Gardner. The Amazing Randi. Alex Elmsley. Neal Elias. Ross Bertram. Roy Walton.

If you're serious about magic, you’ve likely already read material from these names. But some of their most intriguing work appeared in the pages of a magazine that was never widely circulated. It was within these pages that the classics we all know were first born. For decades, Ibidem has been one of card magic's best-kept secrets, with original issues becoming increasingly difficult and expensive to find.

From 1955 to 1979, P. Howard Lyons published Ibidem from his home in Canada, bringing together some of the most brilliant contributors in magic. Across thirty-six issues, it became legendary among serious close-up and card magicians, offering inventive methods, unusual plots, and ideas that were often ahead of their time.

Now, for the first time, all thirty-six issues have been fully restored and professionally digitized in three ebook volumes. That's more than 800 pages of rare card magic, preserved exactly as they originally appeared, but now crisp, high-resolution, and fully searchable.

The contributor list is extraordinary. Alongside the names above, you'll find Simon Aronson, Elmer Biddle, Russduck, Faucett Ross, Bill Simon, Harry Lorayne, and many, many more. These were the pages where ideas first appeared in print, including material that would go on to become classics. Reading Ibidem is like watching card magic evolve through the work of the people who helped shape it.

And there's plenty here to study. Explore Ed Marlo's early memorized deck work, his Mexican Solitaire, and an entire issue devoted to his gimmick deck routines. Discover all twenty-five of Stewart James' handlings of Open Prediction, along with dozens more handlings by Howard Lyons. Ronald Wohl's fascinating treatise on delaying the setup deck offers another deep dive, particularly for memorized deck workers. And that's just the beginning. Across the collection, you'll find more than 1,000 tricks and ideas, ranging from self-working effects to deeply technical routines that still offer plenty to explore.

Part of Ibidem's appeal is its personality. The typewritten pages, hand-drawn graphics, and quirky jokes capture the character of a publication created by people who were deeply immersed in their craft. It feels less like reading a conventional magic magazine and more like getting an inside look at a community of brilliant minds sharing ideas and pushing card magic forward.

Expect clever plots, practical methods, surprising approaches, and ideas that can change how you think about a familiar sleight or handling. Some will give you material to perform. Others will send you down a rabbit hole of card magic you never knew existed. All we can say for sure is that you, and your magic, will be better for it.

We even include, Aziz & Beyond (pronounced "As Is and Beyond"). In 1979, after a ten-year gap before its thirty-sixth issue, Howard planned a “no frills” successor called *Aziz*(pronounced "as is"). It would print contributions exactly as they arrived, typos and all, so he could finally publish on a sensible schedule. The first issue was ready by June 1980 and then stalled, and it stayed stalled through Howard’s death in 1987 and three publishers after that. Max Maven edited it into print at last.

This edition, edited by Stephen Minch and Andrew J. Pinard, opens with that lost issue: card magic from Phil Goldstein (Max Maven), Bill Elliott, J. K. Hartman, Mel Stover and Tom Ransom, with Howard’s dry “Publisher’s Palaver” and Max’s bracketed annotations.

The “& Beyond” half is a scrapbook of Howard’s magic life outside the magazine, framed by short essays from Max. It includes Howard’s earliest Linking Ring contribution from 1949, his long essay on the Si Stebbins System, and tricks he placed in Genii and The Servante. There’s also a run of material from his circle: Ken Beale, Stewart James, Martin Gardner, Robert Neale’s essay on the self-locating stack, and Paul Swinford’s full manuscript on the three-pile problem. At its centre is the rest of Ravelli’s faro shuffle manuscript, which started in Ibidem 36 and was hoarded for decades. It covers diminished and enlarged deck faros, backward faros, the Faro Peek and Australian faros, and it delivers the “fifty-two-card double predictomatch” on its own. Acerbic bits from Howard’s 1960s club newsletter, The Magic Square, are scattered throughout as “Squaring Up.”

Max Maven summed it up best: it’s a celebration of a self-effacing accountant who said his best training came from science fiction, magic and jazz, and of the “frolicking giants” who let them into their sandbox.

Three volumes. Thirty-six issues. More than 800 pages. Over 1,000 tricks and ideas. Twenty-four years of card magic history, restored and ready to study.

Download Ibidem today, exclusively at Vanishing Inc.

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Ibidem's contributors and table of contents is so large, it couldn't fit on this page! Visit this page for the full table of contents.