There has always been a fine line between stage magic and occultism.  Here's a poorly-rehearsed stage magician who mangles his magic words and conjures up a demon, from Punch, 1908.  The caption reads, "An unrehearsed effect."

An illustration from a 1920 issue of McClure's magazine.  The caption reads: "The veil is not impenetrable; the link of affection is not broken by death; and through the grave and gate of death there shines a dawn of more than mortal vision."

You can guess where we're going with this one.  What if Alice and the Wonderland caterpillar had found romance?  Arthur's Home Magazine wondered the same thing (not really) in the same year that Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was published.

An illustration from an 1899 issue of Century Illustrated magazine.  The caption reads: "The demons devouring the sun."

"Selfish or noble — it's always a fine line."
—Nicola Upson, Fear in the Sunlight (a mystery novel set in our favorite haunt, Portmeirion)

An illustration from an 1899 issue of Punch magazine.

In this moment from the classic sitcom Bewitched, Samantha corrects Aunt Clara's previously garbled incantation, changing "abba-dabba-dabba, dabba-dabba-abba" into "aba-daba-daba, daba-daba-uba."

Here's a precursor to a stretch portrait at Disneyland's Haunted Mansion: an illustration from an 1863 issue of Punch magazine.  The caption reads: "Death on the Rope."

Is Time linear or cyclical?  An illustration from an 1863 issue of Punch magazine.

The West Frisian language is "a fever dream of English in an alternate universe where the Norman Conquest never happened." —Dr. Boli

An illustration from a 1904 issue of McClure's magazine.  The caption reads: "She sat there in her dream."

An illustration from a 1903 issue of Punch magazine.

From our former outpost at Twitter:

An illustration from an 1893 issue of Punch magazine.

An illustration from an 1863 issue of Punch magazine.

An illustration from an 1847 issue of Punch magazine.

Here's an Edward Gorey precursor, from 21 years before his birth, in Punch, 1904.