Today I worked through a Hocus-Focus puzzle (see screen capture), a cartoon game drawn by Henry Boltinoff that is low-tech, fun, and, for me, challenging. Should this post kindle or rekindle your interest in trying an old-fashioned brainteaser with absolutely zero electronics involved, hopefully Hocus-Focus is carried by a newspaper you regularly read.
Henry Boltinoff (1914–2001) was a prolific cartoonist. While he created dozens of cartoon characters, Hocus-Focus might be his best known work. Today it lives on in numerous newspapers thanks to the efforts of King Features Syndicate.
A Hocus-Focus puzzle has two cartoon panels. At first glance they seem identical, but if you look closely the two drawings aren’t the same. The game challenges you to find six (or more) differences in the details between the two panels. Some are easy to spot, while others are subtle. The answers are provided below the lower panel and are written upside down to make it harder to cheat.
I get my Hocus-Focus fix from the Shelton-Mason County Journal, a weekly newspaper covering Mason County, Washington. The Journal is published online and in print, although Hocus-Focus is only included in the print version on the Comics page. That’s a good choice for a retro game.
Despite playing Hocus-Focus dozens of times, I rarely find all six differences. My score today was five. Differences due to items that are altered or missing are the easiest to spot. The challenge is finding items that have either slightly moved or are subtly smaller or larger, especially things like noses or arms. Unless you jot down your findings as you go (I don’t), you also need to keep track of each one in your head. So the puzzle stimulates memory retention too.
I don’t know how many hundreds of Hocus-Focus puzzles Mr. Boltinoff drew over the years, but he never seemed to run out of ideas. I have never seen the same one twice.
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