2001 Gemaco Jokers and the Black-Eyed Servant of Doom Face Cards

The 21st anniversary of Andrea and Chris's wedding is coming up in September and I would congratulate them on such a milestone except for the fact that I found these cards at a thrift store which likely portends to a failure in the betrothal. Or not. I could be looking too far into the matter.

What can't be disputed is that this is the 2001 version of the Gemaco Ace of Spades:

Nor can it be denied that the dead eyes of the creepy Face Cards in this set are straight out of a B-movie horror flick. The Jack of Diamonds looks especially unhinged in a school shooter sort of way while the Queen of Spades gives off the Stepford Wives vibe. The King of Diamonds is a more tedious diagnosis. He could be the aforementioned Chris of 2022 (or hell, even the Andrea of this year of our Lawd for that matter) or just your average middle-aged sot thinking about beach bunnies and convertibles while sitting at his windowless cubicle dreaming of Kinghood.

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A Card Within a Card: 3 Jokers and Theirs

As ruminated upon in a previous post here are three more Jokers who are depicted wielding other cards within their own. The first one is openly presenting the Ace of Spades while concealing three others with a mere Diamond peeking out over one corner of the trumvirate. On the second Joker, from a Scandinavian deck, The King of Diamonds is figured prominently as the Joker leans upon it. His poppet Joker is also holding an Ace of Hearts. What it all means would depend on the manufacturer and artist, I suppose. The last specimen from Longfield Games features an Ace of Spades as the Joker stands upon a depiction of the world as a globe which seems almost 3/4 there but not quite whole. All interpretations of this and the preceding ones would be mere speculation and without knowing the artist and his source inspiration it would mainly be a stab into the void. Which is basically what this entire blog consists of.

Tart Rhymes

I came across this excellent booklet from The U. S. Playing Card Co. on Instagram and then tracked down its source to eBay where I took advantage of the generous photos on the listing and saved them in e-book form because it's the right thing to do for posterity's sake. The booklets contains a very short sequence of rhymes that make for one bizarre folktale that wouldn't cut it in today's cancel culture. Also displayed in the small booklet are some card packs produced by the company which is very helpful towards dating the cards for novices who don't have access to the company's historical records.

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