The Tarot (Major & Minor Arcana) illustrated by Joe Sparrow.
Well, that was fun! This was a long project, it feels weird that it’s over. I’d like to give special thanks to Blanca who was always encouraging and who suggested a bunch of good card ideas. Thanks to Alan Moore & JH Williams III for writing/drawing the comic series Promethea, which got me into Tarot in the first place.
Also special shout-outs to Pamela “Pixie” Coleman-Smith, the illustrator of the most famous & popular Tarot deck currently sold: the so-called “Rider-Waite” deck. If you’ve ever googled tarot cards to look them up, chances are you’ve seen Coleman-Smith’s illustrations, they’re genuinely iconic - yet the deck still bears the names of her mystic “instructor” Arthur Edward Waite and its publisher - the Rider company - before her own.*
Anyway - finally, thanks again to everyone who supported this project. You all are really nice. Hope it was interesting and/or entertaining!
Those of you wishing to purchase a physical copy will be pleased to know that the deck is currently at the printers and will be available to buy sometime during the week beginning Monday 17th September. It will also be available to buy at Thought Bubble festival in Leeds the following weekend, where Blanca & I have a table in the “Originals Marquee”.
I considered putting it up to buy on the bigcartel today but I feel weird about taking money for a product that I don’t physically have in my hand yet. Sorry for the delay!
* Side note: there’s actually a bit of a historic pattern to this - the trend for a (male) mystical scholar recruiting a (female) artist to produce an illustrated tarot deck for him. Pretty much the same thing happened with the so-called Thoth Deck, which is usually attributed to Aleister Crowley but was actually entirely painted by Lady Freida Harris. I’m sure some people would argue that Crowley/Waite’s directions were essential but one does wonder whether rather more effort and skill was being put in by their unsung artistic counterparts.
