OCTOBER 2016 ISSUE 23

PROCLAMATION FROM THE NATIONAL SPECIAL EVENTS REGISTRY DECLARING OCTOBER 17 AS “NATIONAL PLAYING CARD COLLECTION DAY.”

MONTHLY NEWS FROM THE EXPERTS AT 52 + JOKERBrett A. Jones discusses his

experiences creating card art

DRAWN BY HANDAlex Chin creates a day dedicated

to playing card collecting!

OUR OWN DAYAlan Lampe shows off his

custom solution: wood trays

STORE/DISPLAY

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52 PLUS JOKER - EMAIL CONTACTSClick on a name to send that person an email.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: CARD CULTURELee Asher, President/Associate Editor: CARD CULTUREJudy Dawson, Vice-President/Editor-in-Chief: CLEAR THE DECKSSteve Bowling, Vice-President/TreasurerClarence Peterson, Vice-President/Secretary

Bill Kalush, Vice-President/Director of Playing Card ProjectsDon Boyer, Vice-Pres./Dir. of Digital Media/Editor: CARD CULTUREToby Edwards, Associate Editor: CARD CULTUREAndrea Whitlock, Staff Writer: CARD CULTURE“Fess”, Staff Photographer/Writer: CARD CULTURE

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DRAWING PLAYING CARDS BY HAND - PART 1 OF 2Brett A. Jones, creator of WhiteKnuckle Playing Cards and

Jones Playing Cards, details his creative process for us.

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NATIONAL PLAYING CARD COLLECTION DAYAlexander Chin of Seasons Playing Cards introduces the new national observance day dedicated to our favorite pastime!

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WOODEN TRAYS TO STORE & DISPLAY YOUR DECKSAlan Lampe shows us his custom solution for showing off and

safely stowing his collection - and tells you how he made it.

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DECKS ON DECK: SEPTEMBERFess covers new decks from Penguin Magic, Ellusionist and

Paul Ruccio, plus a modern classic from Legends PCC.

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UNEARTHED!From the pages of CLEAR THE DECKS comes card architect Bryan Berg and the evolution of the Bicycle Ace of Spades.

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VINTAGE HISTORY“Bicycle cards are used everywhere! Sales exceed all other

makes! Took highest Award at World’s Fair, Chicago!”

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IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR CONVENTION ATTENDEESPlease read this important notice to avoid getting lost

when driving into the convention hotel in Schaumburg, IL!

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CONTENTALL RIGHTS RESERVED

COPYRIGHT © 201652 PLUS JOKER ORG.

ISSuE 23 - OCTOBER 2016

Issue 23 - OctOber 2016 CARD CULTURE - 52 PLus JOKer

Brett A. Jones. Forty-nine years old. Australian, born in Queensland, residing in Hervey Bay. Accomplished artist, specializing in freehand drawing. Writer on the subject of art. Two solo exhibitions in his native land under his belt, with a third beginning later this year. Instructor in the fine art of drawing. Lover of motorcycles. Proprietor of art studio Sea of Pain Fine Art Productions.

Oh, never heard of him? Perhaps you’re more familiar with his work as a playing card designer, specifically the creator of Whiteknuckle Playing Cards, promoted as a new, modern standard for playing cards. Painstakingly drawn by hand, down to the last detail. Original court characters drawn from the likenesses of his friends, rendered three-dimensionally. Each card bears a unique pip

design variation, filled with complex line work resembling Celtic knots in a unique color for each suit, allowing pips of all four suits to be easily distinguished while still remaining uniquely red and black, respectively - there are TWENTY-SIX different versions of each of the FOUR basic pip shapes, two on each card (index and body art); ONE-HUNDRED-FOUR unique pip designs in all. The project was a labor of love that cost him over 5,000 man-hours and, if the rumors are true, a portion of his sanity! Three editions were printed by the US Playing Card Company, starting in 2010; about 40,000 decks in total, all long sold out and highly sought-after by collectors at premium prices.

For years, the playing card community didn’t hear a peep from Jones. Some, like myself, wondered if the Whiteknuckle cards

DRAWING PLAYING CARDS BY HAND - PART 1 OF 2B Y B R E T T A . J O N E S - I N T R O D U C T I O N B Y E D I T O R D O N B O Y E R

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FIGURE 1: BEFORE THE SERIOUS DRAWING COULD HOPE TO BEGIN, LOTS OF SEARCHING, READING, THINKING AND SKRITCH-SCRATCHING HAD TO BE DONE. I COULD WRITE A BOOK ABOUT CARDS NOW, I RECKON, BUT NOT HERE; THIS IS ALL ABOUT DRAWING STUFF.

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simply took too much out of him. Then, this year, a revelation - Jones Playing Cards emerged, printed in two versions (Colour and Ghost), each in two colors (red and blue), utilizing reworked and evolved versions of the much-beloved art he created for his Whiteknuckle decks. Better still - two more deck designs are in the works, due for release in 2020.

CARD CULTURE reached out to the artist, asking for a few words on the topic of his process for drawing a deck of playing cards by hand. He graciously provided us with a two-part article, the first part of which follows this introduction. I’ve edited it as lightly as possible, so beware of Aussie English!

A brief biography of Jones is available at the Whiteknuckle Cards website run by Bruce Rendall.

I’m a freehand fine artist, so original works in graphite or pastel will always be the go-to “norm” in this joint, but the other main obsessive medium (leaving motorcycle art and all the other stuff to one side for a minute) that burns up all available studio time round here is playing card design.

That Ravenous Time Monster

In fact, the whole playing cards thing has taken far too many huge chomps out of my allotted heartbeats on Earth on too many levels over too many years to really do justice to the experience in only one article, but you have to begin somewhere so we’ll start with the art. Drawing is as drawing does, including playing cards, and my overall memory of them is nothing BUT relentless drawing for what must have been many thousands of hours in massive tundra-burning stints over the last ten years to get the designs to where they are now.

A Different Kind of Drawing

Drawing playing cards shares quite a few parallels with the more traditional fine art works I do, things such as the extreme amount of time it has sucked up over the years; for example, if I had never started in on the cards all those years ago, there

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

RIGHT COLUMN, TOP TO BOTTOM:

FIGURE 2: FREEHAND SKETCHING THE TWELVE FACES WASN’T AN UNPLEASANT TASK BY ANY MEANS ONCE I HAD ACQUIRED ALL THE REFERENCE IMAGES. I REALLY JUST NEEDED THE MAIN SHAPES AND PROPORTIONS IN BASIC LINEWORK FORM TO BE READY FOR THE NEXT STAGE OF INCLUSION ON THE CARD LAYOUTS. THIS IS THE KING OF SPADES.

FIGURE 3: THE QUEEN OF SPADES. I DIDN’T GET CARRIED AWAY AT ALL WITH FINE DETAIL, WHICH WOULD JUST BE MORE OF A HINDRANCE THAN A HELP WHEN SCALING THE FREEHAND LINE DRAWINGS DOWN TO CARD SIZE. FACES ON ENGLISH PLAYING CARDS ARE ABOUT 10MM WIDE SO THERE’S NO ROOM FOR FINE DETAIL, JUST MAIN SHAPES AND FEATURES.

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THIS PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT:

FIGURE 4: THIS IS THE KING OF DIAMONDS. IT’S ALSO THE BLOKE SITTING ON A SHOVELHEAD IN ONE OF MY ORIGINAL FREEHAND FINE ART WORKS.

FIGURE 5: THE KING OF DIAMONDS’ LEFT HAND, MAKING THE ANCIENT SIGN FOR MONEY. I GAVE ALL THE COURT CHARACTERS BOTH THEIR HANDS BACK; MOST HAD LOST AT LEAST ONE SINCE CARDS WERE MADE DOUBLE-ENDED AND DESIGNS BECAME VERY ABSTRACT AND GEOMETRICAL.

FIGURE 6: THE KING OF CLUBS’ LEFT HAND GRIPPING HIS SWORD. ACTUALLY IT WAS A 12-INCH BASTARD FILE WITH A WOODEN HANDLE; I TURNED IT INTO A SWORD LATER. HIS OTHER HAND HOLDS A ROYAL ORB; WE USED A MINIATURE BOWLING BALL IN THE REFERENCE SHOTS.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4

would certainly have been at least twice as many finished original works in graphite and pastel done, just to give you an idea of my commitment to the premise. I started the deck design in 2007 from blank paper scratch and invested a huge amount of research beforehand so I could pack as much about English playing cards into my brain as possible to have even the slightest chance of trying in any meaningful way to improve on the long-established but aesthetically kind of boring standard deck of cards (figure 1). Cards have a long and fascinating history as it turns out, but for now I want to see if I can stick to the more general drawing and design aspects of my own decks. Nowadays with the way things are (more and more) as far as computers go, it seems people just do all design processes that way from go to whoa and it doesn’t even seem to take them long, judging by the ever-increasing volume of new decks appearing. The only way I knew to proceed was to draw them all on bits of blank paper with a pencil. The original naive plan was to do A4-sized1 graphite and coloured pencil drawings of every card in the deck and just print them scaled down as playing cards, but I learnt soon enough that was never going to float in a million years for a million technical and reality-based reasons (sometimes learning curves are more like vertical lines). But without knowing any better in the raw beginnings, the only way ahead was to broadly study what had come before with card designs and traditions and, once deeply ingrained in my head, form a new design plan based on that known starting point, then draw everything my conclusions led to on paper with pencils. I’d never had much to do with computers at that point but if you wait ‘til you understand everything about a process you’ll never actually begin anything.

Real Models

It seemed to me the best start to improving the court cards would be to use real humans as models. I went out and collected reference images taken of particular friends’ hands and faces that I had very carefully chosen to suit the character and personality of the court card they were representing, all in a very specific pose for each card (figures 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6). Once I had all the freehand drawings done of the twelve faces and twenty-four hands, I scaled them down onto A4-sized drawings of the playing cards.

The heads on traditionally-proportioned English court cards take up almost a quarter of the length of the available space on court cards (about the same size as the suit symbol). This meant that to give them both their hands back (one hand went missing on most courts when they became double ended) and have any chance of making them look life-like anatomically, parts of the hands and arms (scaled to the size of the head, but also taking perspective into account, depending on pose) in most cases had to be positioned past the halfway mark on the card. That meant each “end” would have to be “intertwinable” with the other. I experimented a LOT with head and hands placement at either end, trying to sketch in the interwoven bodies and arms with the body ending just under the ribs at the halfway mark but with the arms, hands, weapons, flowers, etc. extending far past

halfway in a lot of cases, so an illusion was created of an anatomically-proportioned character with the card turned either way.

Huge Hurdle

I had to keep shifting stuff around on the paper design layouts over and over; for ages, everything I tried seemed to have one or another anatomical dead end that just couldn’t be worked past. I felt the frustration of every artist that had ever tried to get past the same problem as I came up dead against each new design drama. I knew even back in 2007 when I began all this that generally people would have been doing this kind of thing all on a computer, but I figured drawing the whole design for each court card freehand out of the imagination (apart from the scaled down faces and hands) would give me an advantage anyway, as far as finding a fundamentally better way of composing double-ended

court cards went (figure 7), which was just as well since I knew next to nothing about computers back then anyway. No matter how good computers get, they still can’t do everything. They can “create” amazing things if the right buttons are pushed, but only ever in a computery way, never humanesque.

Technicolour Ploughed Ditch

I initially drew each court card on an A4 piece of Canson 220 Drawing Paper, which is slightly three times larger than a playing card, so would be both big enough by far to fit more than enough detail once scaled back to playing card size (you can only fit so much fine detail on a playing card before it becomes both

FIGURE 7: THE QUEEN OF SPADES’ LONG BLACK HAIR TURNED OUT TO BE HER DESIGN MOTIF. THERE’S NO WAY I COULD HAVE DEVELOPED THE INTERTWINING IN THE DESIGNS, JUST DOING HALF THE DESIGN AND FLIPPING IT ON A COMPUTER. IN THIS CASE, THE LONG HARD WAY WAS ALSO THE BEST WAY. SERENDIPITOUS.

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invisible and impossible to print) and the perfect size to scan onto a computer. I had already realised at a certain point in development they would have to be taken from the graphite-on-paper form and made into a digital image file version, but it took awhile for it to sink in that once they were scanned images, I was going to have to go over every single line on both sides (all lines have two edges) with a little moving circle on the screen controlled by drawing on a tablet in my lap. A fine, carefully-drawn line of graphite on smooth paper looks like a multicoloured, ploughed ditch enlarged on a big monitor, so the scanned drawings were just the raw start of the next stage (figure 8). I had already drawn the whole card back design, all four aces, and all 104 individually-embellished suit symbols in graphite and coloured pencil on paper before I started scanning things onto a computer (once I’d bought a scanner and a computer) and realised I might as well just do the twelve court cards as graphite linework drawings and add colour once they were on the computer, since by then I’d figured out that every single millimetre had to be done over with the graphics tablet pen, anyway (figure 9). Once I got the hang of the idea of what had to be done to make it work, I was away at a flat-out gallop across the card tundra for the next couple of years.

Precipitous Learning Curve

When I first started trying to effectively operate a graphics tablet and figure out how to even get started on Photoshop (or even type or work the computer generally when I think back), I was running on pure grim determination and that’s about all. In the beginning, all I knew how to use on Photoshop was the pen and the bucket fill and that’s about all (figure 10). The court characters were all completely hand drawn twice from one end to the other, first in pencil on paper (figure 11) and then all over again in graphics pen on a computer monitor. When I first laid eyes on the designs in actual playing card form back in 2009 (when originally published as WhiteKnuckle playing cards), I saw things straight away that I wanted to (had to) improve and ended up spending thousands more hours again over the next six or seven years redesigning, refining, modifying, and changing what turned out in the end to be every single line, tone and

proportion in the new Jones Playing Cards Standard Colour deck and creating another whole deck again while I was at it using only red, black, grey and white for a completely different monochrome effect in the Jones Playing Cards Standard Ghost deck. This time round, it was almost exclusively done with the graphics tablet on the computer (apart from the initial pencil and paper designing of the JPC card backs and boxes). Eventually, through sheer attrition, I’d worked out how to use Photoshop (and computers generally) much better with my constant companions, repetition and trial and error (as they

say “there’s no such thing as a failed experiment”), and ultimately, successfully managed to finish all designs and load every single card of the two new deck versions, the four new card back designs, plus all the thirty-six box panels for the four tuck boxes onto the new card manufacturer’s digital templates, ready for production of the four all new Jones Playing Cards deck editions in 2016 (figure 12). Despite the majority of the process consisting of graphics pens and pixels rather than pencils and paper fibres, if I took the freehand drawing element out of it, there would be nothing but fifty-four blank white cards in a white box.

Part 2 has more about turning blank spaces into a brand new creation in the universe with nothing but a strange brain as a tool to scrape up against it. Designing from scratch is all in the mind.

If you want to know more about this particular creative obsession or maybe even buy a deck or two of Jones Playing Cards and support a bona fide independent starving artist, please check them out in the store at my website, Sea of Pain Fine Art Productions. They are also available for purchase from Eddie at Gambler’s Warehouse in the US, Lawrence Sullivan at Legends Playing Card Company in Hong Kong and Paul Middleton at JP Playing Cards in the UK.

[Figures 9 through 12 are found on pages 8 and 9.] “Keep up the good game of life and shuffle the deck till the cards play out right.”

1 “A4” is an international standard size for paper, 210 mm wide by 297 mm long (about 8 1/4 by 11 3/4 inches), similar to US letter-sized paper (8 1/2 by 11 inches).

FIGURE 8: THIS IS A SMALL BIT OF THE QUEEN OF SPADES’ SCEPTRE, SHOWING HOW SUPPOSEDLY FINE PENCIL LINES LOOK, ONCE SCANNED ONTO A COMPUTER SCREEN. EVERY SINGLE LINE IN ENTIRE DECK WAS RE-DONE BY HAND IN DIGITAL GRAPHICS PEN.

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“I’D never had much to do with computers at that point but if you wait ‘til you understand everything about a process you’ll never actually begin anything.”

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FIGURE 9 (PAGE 8, TOP): THE FIRST DIGITAL PEN I HAD, AS SEEN NEXT TO A PENCIL. I WENT THROUGH QUITE A FEW TIPS AND EVENTUALLY WORE THE FINISH RIGHT OFF THE PEN. THE CALLUSES ON MY FINGERS FROM DOING IT SO MUCH HAD WORN HALFWAY THROUGH THE PLASTIC WHEN IT SUDDENLY DECIDED TO STOP BEING A PEN ONE DAY. I’M ON MY THIRD PEN NOW. THERE’S NOT THAT MUCH DIFFERENCE IN DRAWING TECHNIQUE BETWEEN PUSHING GRAPHITE PARTICLES OR DIGITAL PIXELS AROUND ONCE YOU GET USED TO LOOKING AT A SCREEN INSTEAD OF THE SURFACE ACTUALLY BEING DRAWN UPON.

FIGURE 10 (PAGE 9, TOP LEFT): TOP EYE IS DRAWN WITH PENCIL, THE MIDDLE ONE HAS BEEN SCANNED ONTO COMPUTER AND BUCKET FILLED WITH COLOUR TO START THE REFINING PROCESS. BOTTOM ONE IS THE QUEEN OF SPADES’ FINISHED RIGHT EYE GLARING BALEFULLY OUT AT HER SUBJECTS. SHE IS THE DARK QUEEN SO SHE HAD TO LOOK CRANKY. I DIDN’T JUST CLARIFY THE SCANNED PENCIL LINES BUT REFINED AND DEVELOPED THE ENTIRE DESIGN QUITE RADICALLY WITH THE GRAPHICS PEN (OVER AND OVER, ANOTHER EXPLORATION OF THE INFINITE OPTION); THIS STAGE TURNED OUT TO BE JUST THE RAW BEGINNING OF THE EPIC DIGITAL DEVELOPMENT ORDEAL OVER MANY YEARS. TO GIVE AN IDEA OF SCALE: THE EYE IS 8MM (~0.31 INCHES) WIDE ON THE DRAWING, 2.5MM (~0.10 INCHES)

WIDE ON THE PLAYING CARD. ALL CONSIDERATIONS AT EVERY STAGE WERE ONLY EVER TOWARD THE DESIGNS LOOKING GOOD AT CARD SIZE.

FIGURE 11 (PAGE 9, TOP RIGHT): EACH COURT CHARACTER WAS DRAWN IN GRAPHITE ON A4 SIZED DRAWING PAPER TAPED TO A LAYOUT BOARD. THE ENTIRE DESIGN (RATHER THAN JUST ONE END FLIPPED ROUND ON COMPUTER) WAS DRAWN BY HAND TO ENSURE THE IDEAL SOLUTION ANATOMICALLY AND AESTHETICALLY IN REGARDS TO THE TWO ENDS BLENDING TOGETHER SEAMLESSLY.

FIGURE 12 (PAGE 8, BOTTOM): LEFT IS THE KING OF DIAMONDS FROM THE FIRST TIME THE DESIGNS WERE PUBLISHED BACK IN 2009. THE VERSIONS FROM THE NEW JPC COLOUR DECK (CENTER) AND GHOST DECK (RIGHT) ARE THE RESULT OF THOUSANDS OF HOURS MORE DEVELOPMENTAL DRAWING WITH A GRAPHICS PEN ON A TABLET OVER YEARS. THESE ARE ALL RED-BACK DECK VERSIONS, THEY ALL HAVE BLUE-BACK VERSIONS TOO. THE DIGITAL “WORLD” IS A FASCINATING ONE IN A LOT OF WAYS BUT I ALWAYS HAPPILY GRAVITATE BACK TO THE PAPER AND 2B PENCILS.

All material and images contained in this work remain the copyrighted material of Brett A. Jones, Sea of Pain Fine Art Productions.

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In issue 13 of CARD CULTURE (December 2015), we put out a call for collectors to show us how they store and display their playing cards and related ephemera. In this issue, member Alan Lampe answered the call - here’s what he had to offer us.

In the September 2013 issue of Clear the Decks, two articles caught my eye. The first was “Displaying Playing Card Decks” and the second was “An Individual View.” Both of the articles discussed how to display your decks for easy viewing. At the Las Vegas Convention, our past president Harry Wastrack showed us a few photos of his custom made coffee table/display table his wife had made for him. Also at the Las Vegas Convention, we heard two great talks about safely storing our treasured decks. The first talk was from Leo and Pat Behnke and the second from Bill Kalush from Conjuring Arts.

With this in mind, I approached Judy and told her what I use to store/display my playing card collection. That conversation led to this article. An email from Lee Asher led me to update it. I hope the way I store/display my playing card collection will be beneficial to you and your collection.

First, I was lucky enough to obtain two four-drawer metal file cabinets from my work that stored VHS tapes. The VHS tapes were destroyed and the cabinets

WOODEN TRAYS TO STORE & DISPLAY YOUR DECKSB Y A L A N L A M P E

A METAL CABINET WHICH STORED VHS TAPES GETS A SECOND LIFE AS A HOME FOR COLLECTIBLE PLAYING CARDS HELD IN WOODEN TRAYS.

A STACK OF WOODEN TRAYS MADE IN VARYING HEIGHTS TO FIT DECKS OF DIFFERENT THICKNESSES.

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no longer needed. It was not necessary to scour used furniture stores for the metal cabinets. The wooden trays I made work nicely outside by themselves.

I went shopping and purchased two sheets of decorative oak plywood from a local lumber store, not one of the national chains. Oak plywood is a little expensive, just over $30.00 for a 4’ x 8’ x 1/4” sheet; however, you can get ten trays from one piece of plywood. You will also need to purchase one sheet of regular 4’ x 8’ x 3/8” plywood. Try to find a nice piece with few knots in it.

If possible, have the lumber store cut the oak plywood in half, leaving you with two pieces of 2’ x 8’ x 1/4”. The plywood is easier to handle and cut at home in this reduced size. Once you get the pieces home, mark the two pieces at every 17¼ inches. Now, why 17¼ inches you ask? Remember, I said the metal file cabinets are deep and wide, 18¼ inches wide to be exact. At 17¼ inches, you have a full inch of play inside the metal file cabinet. But if you don’t have metal file cabinets, you can measure the oak plywood however big you want. 17¼ inches is good manageable size, and you can fit thirty-six decks to a tray at this size.

Cut the oak plywood at your marks. You should now have ten 17¼” by 24” pieces of oak plywood, with a little bit left over. Set those aside and begin working on the regular 4’ x 8’ x 3/8” sheet of plywood. It is also beneficial if the lumber store can cut this piece of plywood in half, like the oak plywood sheet. Once again, you have options here. If you have a lot of decks in paper tuck boxes, like used casino decks, cut a strip of the regular plywood at 1¼ inches. If you have a lot of decks in commemorative metal tins, cut a strip of the regular plywood at 2 inches or greater. These pieces will become the sides of the trays. You can either nail them to the oak plywood or glue them; it is your preference. You will want the sides to be sitting on top of the oak plywood, not butting up against the ¼ inch side. With the sides on top of the oak plywood, this gives the tray stability and, when secured properly, a way to grab and lift the tray.

Now that you have the tray, you can fill it with your decks. At this size, 17¼ by 24 inches, you can put thirty-six decks in the tray, six rows of six decks each. Also, with the sides as thick as they are, the trays stack nicely on top of one another. The decks lie flat and are out of the sunlight/room light until you bring them out. You can purchase a piece of foam board from Hobby Lobby to cover the top tray. Also, when someone wants to see your collection, you can show them 36 decks at one time, and then pull out another 36 decks with just one more tray. At this size, the trays fit nicely through the average door frame.

I know obtaining the metal file cabinets will be difficult. However, the wooden trays also stack up nicely in the corner of a room. Just be sure to dust them from time to time. I found an alternative to the oak plywood at Lowe’s. It is a 5.0mm x 4’ x 8’ utility hardwood plywood, selling for $14.49 as of October 25, 2013. You can see this beautiful piece of plywood in the photo of the Delta Airlines playing cards in their tray. It is about half the price of the oak plywood. Either way, both make great trays. Enjoy storing/displaying your collection in these wooden trays!

ABOVE: ALAN LAMPE SHOWING OFF HIS WARES.

MIDDLE AND BOTTOM: LAMPE’S WOODEN TRAYS ARE GREAT, SIMPLE SOLUTIONS FOR ANYONE WISHING TO STORE AND SHOW THEIR DECKS.

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This month marks an event that will be very special for us collectors. This October 17th, the first ever National Playing Card Collection Day will be introduced to the world. Playing cards are galleries of art and inspiration, showing and communicating the intentions of an artist to the public, while also archiving the cultural values of their time. The creation of this day of observance allows for a more global reach in attention and awareness that will allow us all to identify fellow collectors or even spark an interest in those who are curious about playing cards. By getting recognition for this day, it opens up doors to the public eye by not being constrained by a geographical location, to anchor 52 Plus Joker with a day that everyone can recognize wherever they are in the world. While not perfectly timed this month, I had picked October 17th to align with our convention’s typical window so that those that wish to celebrate the day of observance could choose to celebrate it in person with folks of similar minds in the card collecting community. An inaugural deck to commemorate the first ever National Playing Card Collection Day will be revealed for the first time ever at this month’s 52 Plus Joker Annual Convention along with other limited edition ephemera handcrafted by Seasons Playing Cards. If you were on the fence about going, let’s hope this will encourage your attendance so you can share in the fun!

Proclamation Copy

National Playing Card Collection Day celebrates the collection of one of the oldest forms of portable art. Playing cards are galleries of art and inspiration, showing and communicating the intentions of an artist to the public while also archiving the cultural values of their time. Collecting these art pieces allows all of us to be curators of our own galleries to display. These collections can be seen as extensions of the collector and National Playing Card Collection Day is a time to celebrate and share their collections to the public.

About the National Special Events Registry

In December 1994, the leadership of the US House of Representatives announced that Congress would no longer officially recognize special days, weeks or months sponsored by associations, corporations or individuals. To replace these Congressional resolutions and provide national recognition of on-going special events, Open Horizons Publishing, located in Taos, New Mexico, created the National Special Events Registry.

The National Special Events Registry provides continuing official recognition of sponsored events - months such as American Dairy Month and American Rivers Month to weeks such as International Clown Week and National Scleroderma Awareness Week to days such as National Night Out and Writers Rights Day. Over 18,550 special days, weeks, months, anniversaries, birthdays, and other events are now featured in the Special Events Data Files.

B Y A L E X A N D E R C H I N - A R T I S T/ O W N E R , S E A S O N S P L A Y I N G C A R D S

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UNEARTHED!

Found in CLEAR THE DECKS Vol. 25 #2June 2011 (pg. 7)

A BICYCLE RIDE DOWN THE ROAD OF TIME

Resident 52 Plus Joker club historian and all-around nice guy Rod Starling shares, “Most collectors, particularly those interested in the Bicycle brand of cards, have no doubt followed the research disclosed in the Hochman Encyclopedia of American Playing Cards with respect to the evolution in the design of the Spade Aces issued with that particular brand and the years in which they were published. The Bicycle brand was introduced in 1885 and the original edition of the Encyclopedia indicated that the Spade Ace listed as US8 was the first one known. However, the revised edition of the Encyclopedia, published in 2000, points out that the actual first Ace of Spades issued for the Bicycle brand in 1885 was the one listed as US 8a.”

Read Rod Starling’s A Bicycle Ride Down The Road of Time article in full.

FROM THE “ASK ALEXANDER” ARCHIVEOF CLEAR THE DECKS BACK ISSUES!

PLEASE NOTE: You must have an Ask Alexander account in order to “unearth” each full article. All 52 Plus Joker members are entitled to a free account as a membership perk. If you don’t have one, please contact 52PlusJoker@gmail.com and we will create one for you.

Found in CLEAR THE DECKS Vol. 16 #4December 2002 (pg. 100)

CARDSTACKER

World-famous playing card architect Bryan Berg exclaims, “I was born and raised in Iowa and claimed the Guinness World Record for Tallest House of Cards in 1992 at age 17. I attended Iowa State University and majored in Architecture in 1997. I continue to hold the Guinness World Record for the Tallest House of Cards, and travel nationwide and abroad for related events. I am also a Professor of Architecture at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa.

“I build with cards! Obviously! No kidding - I build just about anything out of cards. I NEVER tape, glue, bend, fold or alter the cards in any way. All the cards are free standing. The tallest tower, my Guinness Record was over 25 feet tall and utilized 2000 (yes - two thousand) DECKS of cards. It weighed nearly 250 pounds and took about two weeks to construct.”

Read all about CARDSTACKER Bryan Berg.

UPDATE: IN 2010, BERG EXCEEDED HIS OWN RECORD BY USING OVER 218,000 CARDS TO CONSTRUCT A REPLICA OF THE VENETIAN MACAO, WHICH TOOK 44 DAYS.

BICYCLE BIG WHEEL JOKER AND ACE OF SPADES.

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NEW RELEASEBlue Choiceby Bob Kolozsi/Penguin Magic

Intended as a tribute to one of the most popular and hard-to-find deck designs of the past several decades, these cards will become an immediate favorite in your collection as well as in your pocket.

Limited to 2,000 decks in blue, Choice Playing Cards, formerly only available in red, were designed by Ben Kolozsi for Penguin Magic and printed by USPC on their new Thin Crush stock with Premium finish. Features include classic Arrco faces, three Jokers, a double backer and custom Ace of Spades. The custom blue tuck box features a simple design with vibrant color that stands out among the crowd.

Playing card design runs the gamut from complex to minimalist, from traditional to New Age and everything in between. Choice is intended as a tribute to a hard-to-find deck and in my opinion, it succeeds. When I first saw the card back, I was instantly reminded of Stud playing cards even though it’s very different. The design is giving a nod to what was while being its own brand of classic. The back design is neither overly complicated nor over simplistic; it’s just right.

This deck plays well as you would expect of USPC decks; the cards glide across the table with ease. Thin Crush is real, these are about as thin as I’ve come across. I find it hard not to smile watching the bold blue deck in play. If you are like me and have a fondness in your heart for nostalgia consider adding Blue Choice to your collection. They can be found at Penguin Magic, while supplies last.

Blue Choice has definitely been one of the highlights for me this month.

W R I T I N G & P H O T O S : “ F E S S ” C H A R T S : A N D R E A W H I T L O C K

DECKS ON DECK - SEPTEMBERRELEASES & HIGHLIGHTS - COMMERCIAL & KICKSTARTER

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NEW RELEASEJetsetter Premier Editionby Paul Ruccio

The follow up deck to the sold-out Jetsetter Luxury Edition, Jetsetter Premier Edition was funded on Kickstarter in April and began fulfillment in September. Designed by Paul Ruccio and printed by The Expert Playing Card Company with their Classic finish, Jetsetter Premier features their custom card back in Altitude blue, recolored standard courts, two boarding pass Jokers and a custom Ace of Spades. The tuck box is made of synthetic paper that is tear-resistant and more resilient than paper tucks. It showcases the Jetsetter spade in silver foil and UV spot coating on the airliner silhouettes.

I’ve enjoyed watching the Jetsetter brand grow and evolve as Paul continued to refine his design. The many hours he spent has certainly paid off with the Premier edition. Melding a casino style with the vintage airline type card back creates a dramatic effect and I for one like it very much. Re-colored courts are managed with the same care shown the card back; the result is classy and beautiful. Jetsetter Premier Edition plays very well; Expert’s Classic finish is fantastic and performs as we’ve come to expect, making this deck more than just a pretty face.

This deck is meant to be taken with you and enjoyed. The rugged synthetic paper tuck handles the pocket with ease and forgoing a stamp seal keeps things mess-free as well as giving a clear view of the card back represented on the tuck. The tuck pictured here had been carried with me for three days prior to taking the photo. As shown there are no signs of wear and tear.

If you missed the Kickstarter campaign and find Jetsetter Premier Edition in Altitude Blue to your liking, consider adding it to your collection. The deck should be popping up on various retailers sites in the near future or you can go straight to the source at jetsetterplayingcards.com for your copies.

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NEW RELEASECarpe Noctemby Chris Ramsay & Oban Jones / Ellusionist

Designed by Chris Ramsay and illustrated by Oban Jones, Carpe Noctem was printed by USPC for The Ellusionist Playing Card Company. Stock and finish are unspecified but it feels like Bicycle stock and Magic finish. Nothing amiss here; Carpe Noctem handles much like you would expect a high quality USPC deck to handle.

Carpe Noctem is a nod to those who are more creative at night as well as a celebration of the night-blooming Cereus blossom which is artistically featured on the card back. The card faces are standard, including the courts, with exception of the Jokers and Ace of Spades. The deck also features an unusual ad card you’ll see pictured here. On the reverse of the card Chris reminds us to seize the night and exercise our creativity.

Ellusionist made these available for only seven days in the beginning of September, likely because the plant blooms only once a year in the summer. While Ellusionist is no longer offering it at their website, this deck can be had from other playing card retailers as of my deadline. I suspect Ellusionist will offer them again next year for a very limited time.

I have yet to use Carpe Noctem and have had no interaction with it other than to look it over and grab a few photos. This is a gorgeous deck that I’m very happy to have in my collection. I’m sure it will see its turn on the table very soon.

KICKSTARTER REPORT and OTHER NEWS

I’d like to take a moment and draw your attention to the 52 Plus Joker Auction happening now and ending while the convention is active. With so many great decks available there is something for every taste to be found there. Take a minute to pop over to the 52 Plus Joker site to investigate. Bid early, bid often, and have a great time!

USPC printed and released 48 of the Bicycle Prism Gilded Deck at Magic Live 2016 featuring a “Magic Live” bar code. Collectable Playing Cards partnered with USPC to release a Limited Edition of the Bicycle Prism Gilded Deck. The unique look of this deck is worth taking the time to load the site.

Haere Mai Playing Cards from New Zealand by first time kickstarters Montenzi Design, NZ - “Haere mai” means “welcome” in the Maori language. Inspired by nature and traditional culture of New Zealand, you’ll see an artistic approach to courts as well as illustrated 10-spots in this custom deck.

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Skateboard Playing Cards by first time kickstarter Kevin Yu. Billed as “Fusing skate culture and magic culture, a story told through the cards,” Skateboard Playing Cards features a fun, youthful, bright design that makes me smile. Vivid colors and stylized custom courts are worth having a look at.

ROME: Antony & Caesar Playing Cards brings Randy Butterfield back to Kickstarter. These two completely custom decks feature all the bells and all the whistles, from custom pip layouts to luxurious tuck sleeves and everything in between. If you’re like me, you won’t want to miss out on this!

Thirdway Industries, designer of Evil Deck, Delirium and Omnia fame, has launched a campaign for Pantheon. Pantheon is the follow up deck to the hit design Dedalo. Giovanni Meroni promises to have some surprises in store for us here. Definitely a campaign to investigate.

Due to deadlines, that’s it for this month. Safe travels to those of you who will be attending the convention this year. As always, I welcome your comments and suggestions. You can reach me on the club’s forum at playingcardforum.com and through email at fesputin@gmail.com.

BLAST FROM THE RECENT PASTGnosticby Stuart Palm / Legends Playing Card Co.

Printed by Legends Playing Card Company with their Master finish, the Gnostic decks are designed to inspire passion in those who pursue hidden mysteries. Designed and illustrated by the artful hand of mentalist magician Stuart Palm, Gnostic features the ancient imagery for which the deck is

named as well as alchemical symbols woven into the design. The card backs have subtle suit, value and one-way marks.

Gnostic comes in three flavors, all sporting metallic inks: Lapis Blue, Rose Gold and Red. Red is a limited release specifically for Conjuring Arts and sports an Expert stamp seal whereas the other two colors have the Legends stamp seal. Each ultra-thick tuck box is printed with two colors of hot foil stamping on matte paper and the interior is completely lined in gold foil.

Gnostic are among my favorite decks. Of the three, I use the Red deck most often, although the combination of deep red and gold on the card back doesn’t play well in photographs. In person, the colors truly come to life. They all play well and I’ve enjoyed hours of fun digging through the imagery on the card backs. Gnostics are truly stunning in a three-deck display that inspire questions and entertaining conversation from both collector and non-collector friends.

If Gnostic is something that your collection needs, you can find them at stuartpalm.com and, of course, Legends. For the mentalists among you or those who would like to delve deeper into mystery, Stuart Palm also offers a fascinating e-book on his site about the deck and what can be done with it.

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DECK PRODuCER(S) PRINTERBlue Choice Ben Kolozsi USPC

Gorilla (Bicycle) Albino Dragon USPC

International Cardistry Open (ICO) 2016 Kardify EPCC

James Coffee Co. Art of Play USPC

Jaspas (Limited edition) New Deck Order unknown

Jetsetter (Premier edition [Altitude Blue]) Paul Ruccio EPCC

Keeper (Red edition [marked]) Ellusionist USPC

Magic Notebook (8 colors) Bocopo USPC

Mint (Black, Raspberry & Limited editions) 52Kards USPC

Verso (blue, red) Helder Guimarães USPC

DECKS ON DECK

New Releases List - September 2016

Here at CARD CULTURE, we try to include every new release - but some releases do slip through the cracks. Did we miss your favorite new release? Are you a producer or designer with a new deck coming out soon? Don’t be shy about it - teLL us! If the deck is already in release, make a new post about it on the 2016 release List topic at PlayingcardForum.com. If the deck is out now or coming soon and no one created a topic about it at the Playing card Plethora on PcF, then go ahead, make a new topic and tell us all about it! We’d enjoy hearing about it from you.

IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR ALL CONVENTION ATTENDEES!!When driving or taking a cab into schaumburg, Illinois to get to the convention hotel, DON’T SIMPLY LOOK FOR OR ASK FOR “THE HYATT” OR “THE HYATT HOTEL!” It appears that the Hyatt chain of hotels maintains three different facilities in the city of schaumburg. the hotel hosting our 2016 convention on thu.-sat., Oct. 20-22, which is circled in pink on the map below, is called:Hyatt Regency Schaumburg, located at 1800 E Golf Rd., Schaumburg, IL 60173 - (847) 605-1234.there is also Hyatt House chicago/schaumburg at 1251 American Ln. and Hyatt Place chicago/schaumburg at 1851 Mcconnor Pkwy. Please don’t confuse these hotels with each other - look/ask for the Hyatt Regency! Be especially careful about Hyatt Place - it’s next to Hyatt Regency!

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Recent Crowdfunding Projects - September 2016TITLE START END CuR. GOAL PROJECT CREATOR(S)Bicycle Wood Rider Back 1-SEP 1-OCT uSD $ 12,000 Collectable PC / Max PC

Contours 2-SEP 2-OCT GBP £ 6,000 Olly Swinyard

Red Eyes 5-SEP 5-OCT uSD $ 10,000 Jay Losa

The Eeries 6-SEP 7-OCT CAD $ 3,800 Ominous Midnight Gatherings

Gemini 10-SEP 10-OCT DKK kr 150,000 Stockholm17

HorROAR! 10-SEP 11-OCT GBP £ 6,500 Ace Collectable Cards

Phantasma v1 13-SEP 13-OCT uSD $ 5,800 Card Phantom

Hatched 13-SEP 13-OCT uSD $ 750 Joel Russell Huffman

Divine Art 14-SEP 16-OCT AuD $ 9,400 Sunish Chabba

Bicycle Spirit II 15-SEP 15-OCT uSD $ 15,000 Gambler’s Warehouse/PlayingCards.net

Rainbow Illusion v2 relaunch 15-SEP 10-OCT uSD $ 6,000 Landry Sanders

Samsara & Sky Descender (unbranded) 15-SEP 3-OCT uSD $ 12,000 Barry Zhang

Baxter’s (Wit, Gold & Ghost editions) 16-SEP 16-OCT uSD $ 8,000 Rocky Nicholson

El Dorado (Maya edition) 16-SEP 26-OCT uSD $ 9,000 Emmanuel Valtierra

Munich Artists (Party & Deluxe editions) 16-SEP 9-OCT EuR € 2,500 Munich Artists

Bicycle Prism Gilded (Rider Back) 16-SEP 17-OCT uSD $ 15,000 Collectable Playing Cards

Margarita 19-SEP 19-OCT uSD $ 7,250 Rod Wayne

Dark Classic 20-SEP 1-OCT uSD $ 1,000 Yarmo

Bicycle Imperium 22-SEP 22-OCT uSD $ 7,500 Blackout Brother/Concept Grafix

Kingdoms of Erden (red Comic edition) 24-Sep 23-Nov uSD $ 1,000 Tim Olinger

Nouveau (Bijoux & Perle editions) 24-Sep 9-Oct EuR € 9,000 Bona Fide Playing Cards

Wonderland 24-Sep 24-Oct uSD $ 4,500 Hailey Suits

The Style Deck: Portable Style Manual 26-Sep 26-Oct uSD $ 1,500 Eric Feliciano

Contour Electric Blue relaunch 28-Sep 8-Oct uSD $ 2,500 Jason Nguyen

Ian's Shoe Lacing Cards 30-Sep 30-Oct AuD $ 12,000 Ian Fieggen ("Professor Shoelace")

La Catrina (Dead edition) 30-Sep 30-Oct EuR € 5,750 Joc Fora

Haere Mai (1st & 2nd editions) 1-Oct 22-Oct NZD $ 4,000 Montenzi Design, NZ

Skateboard 1-Oct 31-Oct CAD $ 15,000 Kevin Yu

Bicycle Nocturnal 3-Oct 2-Nov uSD $ 4,000 Collectable Playing Cards

Emoticon 4-Oct 3-Nov uSD $ 15,000 LIFT EMOTION

Hipsteria 4-Oct 3-Nov uSD $ 4,500 Agitcom

The Star Kings (Light & Dark editions) 4-Oct 18-Nov CAD $ 5,000 SVI GROUP

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VINTAGE HISTORY - ADS FROM THE PLAYING CARD PAST!

Issue 23 - OctOber 2016 CARD CULTURE - 52 PLus JOKer