What is DIABOLICAL?
DIABOLICAL is a set of two adult themed card decks: one a 78-card tarot deck, the other a 54-card poker deck, heavily influenced by imagery from both Milton’s Paradise Lost and Dante’s Inferno from the The Divine Comedy. The cards and their meanings are a template and each hand-drawn human figure reimagines the ancient tension between Heaven and Hell, extacy and torment, desire and despair. It’s both blasphemous and divinely celebratory. This project is meant for an adult audience and could be considered offensive to some.
While the name “Diabolical” implies evil, wickedness, and all things delish— the card images merge and confuse “wickedness” with consensual pleasure and natural expressions of humanity.
Each suit has a theme. Cups/Hearts: human blood and lust; Wands/Clubs: demonic fire, violence (to the self and others); Pentacles/Diamonds: greed and obsession with matierial posessions, earth-colored undead zombies; Swords/Spades: Haunted angels—some fallen, some not but all are a bit anxious and impulsive.
These diffferent archetypes are simply reflections of our own human instincts. We are all capable of desiring power, of feeling anxiety, of expressing love and lust, of all consuming greed, or pure joy etc. We can live at extremes that alienate us from our community.
Each deck is a functional artwork that doesn’t aim to model any ideal or aspiration. Instead it’s a reflection of who we are right now, hundreds of years after the poems that inspired this work were created. DIABOLICAL looks across the gap in time to see how little we’ve changed as humans.
Each drawing is hand drawn on an iPad Pro in Procreate. It starts as a line drawing and becomes a digital painting for each card.
Differences Between the Tarot and the Poker Deck
The artwork for the tarot reflects the traditional suits of cups, wands, swords, pentacles while the poker deck replaces those images with with hearts, clubs, spades, and diamond respectivly.
The tarot deck includes a major and minor arcana in the same format at the Rider-Waite-Smith Deck making it a seemless transition to read for experienced tarot readers. The tarot deck includes a guide in the box with meanings for each card and sample tarot spreads.
The poker deck is a transformation deck which means the traditional card suits of hearts, diamonds, spades, and clubs are illustrated into the images.
Backers have the ability to pre-order either a poker deck, a tarot deck, or both.
Shipping
Shipping costs will be charged AFTER the project funds when you confirm your address. This time, I'm working with a fulfillment company to make it more efficient and less expensive for EU customers.
Below are some finished cards for your viewing pleasure. They are currently in the poker deck format but Tarot cards on on the way!
Latest from the Creator
Genevieve Barbee-Turner
about 1 month ago
Getting everything together!
Hello Tarot/Poker Lovers!
I've been working tirelessly to get all my cards in order for printing. Being of a one track mind, I haven't put out an update but figured now was the perfect time!
I'm SO EXCITED about this new project and I truly believe it's the best artwork I've produced yet.
Whether you've funded a project with me before or not, I want to introduce myself and fill you in on what I'm about as well as give context to this ambitious project.
I've been a card designer for 10 years now. I started with the tarot deck Bridge Witches about Pittsburgh, where I live. It was based on 5 years of conversations with people in my area that I recorded during a period of massive change in the city. It's in this project that I discovered my love of using tarot/playing cards as a medium for storytelling and figure drawing artwork.
The Project
DIABOLICAL is a deck about inner turmoil and the tension between intense desire and utter despair. Hell is the perfect setting because it so beautifully illustrates this relatable battle regardless of someone’s belief system. It’s inspired by the uncertainty and dred of our current era and the pleasure we seek in times of stress and upheval.
While drawing each card, I’ve been listening to a narration of Paradise Lost by John Milton, an epic poem about “the fall of man” in which Satan has a prominant storyline. Imagery from Dante’s Inferno also makes an appearance but this isn’t a one-for-one retelling of either poem. I’ve also tossed in many references to the Seven Deadly Sins for fun. Not everyone in this deck is being tortured however ;)
This is all layered on top of the traditional tarot and poker card formats.
Like I’ve done in my past decks, each suit has a theme that carries through from the Ace to the King. In the tarot deck, there's an overarching narrative through the major arcana (also known as The Fool's Journey).
It’s important to note that this deck doens’t preserve or celebrate any religious teachings or docterine and in many cases I’m indulging in a quite a bit of blasphemy. Instead, I want to use recognizable imagery to explore the grey area of humanity. You are supposed to feel a little conflicted about these cards.
As always with my tarot decks, if you read the Rider-Waite-Smith deck you will be able to use this one without an issue. The meanings of the cards are the same and there’s an included guide. I’ve also used Pamela Coleman Smith’s illustrations as inspirations for several of these cards. There is no guide with the poker deck.
I also created my own little gothic font just for this deck for the first time ever. I'm very excited about that :)
I also created my own little gothic font just for this deck for the first time ever. I'm very excited about that :)
Suit Themes
- Cups/Hearts: Manipulative, overwrought, and emotional humans writhing in blood and riddled with lust. (Associated with the water element but blood is used in place of water often in this suit.)
- Swords/Spades: Fearsome and haunted angels (both heavenly and fallen) are riddled with guilt and anxiety. (Associated with the air element.)
- Wands/Clubs: Devils and deamons engaging in violent struggles for control and power. (Associated with the fire element)
- Pentacles/Diamonds: Inspired by the Third and Fourth Circles of Hell from Inferno, rotted zombie-like figures that were consumed with wealth in life are sunk into the earth or ripping one another/themselves apart. (Associated with the earth element.)
The big differences from past projects I have run are:
- I'm using BackerKit instead of Kickstarter to fund the project. It's just a different platform that I'm trying out after successfully using the fulfillment features on my last project.
- I'm offering both tarot and poker decks at the same time. Backers get a choice of which they want. I'm only printing 500 "fancy" tarot decks, 700 standard poker decks, and 300 "fancy" poker decks to start. Depending on how successful the campaign is, I will increase the amount of decks if possible.
- I’m using a new printer that was suggested to my by someone in the poker card industry to craft a deck that's great for card handling.
- In past decks I had a pledge level for people to model for a card in the deck. I won't be doing that for this one. Instead, I'm focusing on getting the deck finished and printed quickly to get it into your hands ASAP.
As of right now I'm move than half way done with the poker deck. I'm using the images from that deck for the minor arcana in the tarot but changing the symbols to the appropriate ones for tarot.
If you’ve read this far, THANK YOU! Please help me get this funded by sharing with others before I launch so I can ensure that day one goes smoothly!
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