" " All the face tattoos, spell rings and ensorcelled bodyguards in the world can't protect a dark wizard from his greatest enemy: himself. iStockphoto/Thinkstock

Successful wizards command incredible power. They wiggle their wands, sprinkle a few archaic words and suddenly the sky splits with lightning, fire scorches the earth and demons grovel before their very feet.

And then there are the failures: reckless apprentices, power-hungry adepts and thrice-cursed conjurers who mortgage their very souls for immortality and fancy hats.



See, sorcery is not for the faint of heart. It's a tightrope walk over a gulf of damnation. It's a juggling act of cataclysmic forces and maddening revelations. There are a hundred ways to screw up any given magic spell and, as the saying goes, you're a genius if you can think of 10.

So in the hope of educating future practitioners of the thaumaturgic arts, here are 10 examples of wizarding failure – a sorcerer's hall of shame, if you will, populated by men and women who fell from grace, grasped for the stars or simply failed to leave the tarmac in the first place.

Learn from their mistakes, gentle reader, and avoid their tragic fates.