By Henry Barajas

IDW was kind enough to invite me to a see a magic show at their booth at the San Diego Comic Convention as if there wasn’t enough magic in comic con. I have to admit I was a bit leary about attending a magic show. I’m very ignorant of the whole thing. I was afraid they were going to saw me in half and separate me from my nicely shaved legs. I got to the booth and I was greeted by the creators of Smoke and Mirrors, Mike Costa and Jon Armstrong. Jon is an award winning magician that has been performing internationally for over twenty years. Before we started the interview Jon was kind enough to do some card tricks.

Mike and Jon had a lot to say about the last issue of their series coming out in August, the history of magic in comics and what to expect in the trade paper back set to be released in September.

Henry Barajas: What is the process like for translating magic to the comic book medium?

Mike Costa: I leave it to Jon Armstrong to develop and figure all that stuff out from a life time of experience and expertise. That’s what Jon does for the comic. We are co-creators of the comic, we developed the book together. I write the script and he develops the magic.

Jon Armstrong: The magic itself, what we are doing with the book, it’s all interactive. Mike is able to take a lot of these ideas I have about how to an actually do a trick that affects the reader as they read. What he is able to do very seamlessly is not take them out of the story while that’s happening, in fact, but the tricks enhance the story as they read and makes them feel they are a part of this world. The hardest thing is coming up with new and creative ideas every single time because we have done a new trick in every issue. We have made it a big point to do something different every single issue.

HB: Will you eventually run out of tricks?

MC: Who knows, I hope not. If we do I’ll fire him and get another magician! (laughs) Issue five comes out next month and that is our final issue in the first volume but we are going to have time in the second volume to develop new ideas. We have an idea on where we want to go. Jon, what do you think is the ceiling is on that?

JA: We always go back and re explore tricks. What I think can actually work on the page is an infinite amount. If we had to do a book a year, we would be just fine.

HB: So how do you tell Mike your tricks without revealing the secret? Can you trust Mike?

JA: You can’t trust him with anything! (laughs)

MC: I’m also a member of the Magic Castle where Jon and I first met. So I have access to the library as well. I’m always learning and researching on my own but obviously Jon does know way more than I do. Most of the stuff we discussed that’s in the comic is stuff for which I have a good solid understanding. It’s very rare that there is a trick in the book I legitimately don’t know anything about. It’s the magic culture we are trying to capture accurately. I’m in the trust already as a member of the academy of magic arts, I don’t want to expose anything either. The book isn’t trying to expose magic but portray it the way it really is.

HB: Off the top of my head, there are only a few comic books that cente