Gone & Forgotten

Margo the Magician Created by Bill Bydem Appears in Uncle Sam Quarterly #2 (1941) Naw, c'mon, I want to see the great magician  make the bottle disappear. Stepping forth from the veils of mystery and illusion comes MARGO -- a “lovely assistant” to a has-been stage magician who receives a surprise upgrade to “defender of liberty and scourge of empires!” Wandering occupied China during the height of World War 2 is THE GREAT PRESTO and his youthful assistants, the adolescent Jimmy and no-nonsense Margo -- who are also his kids! Once a great magician performing to the practically-proverbial “crowned heads of Europe,” Presto now accepts pittances to perform for nearly-empty theaters. In his quiet hours, his kids keep an eye on the dissembling mystic. “Dad’s hitting the old bottle again!” Margo has a chance to exclaim early in the story, and probably not for the first time... There’s no Mrs.Presto in the equation, but that doesn’t mean anything special -- most magicians reproduce asexual...