Death, Mystical, Pirate Jokers

My death, devilish, pirate, and mystical section now has 65 different jokers. Here's two new ones that arrived today.

Here is the back of the seated skeleton joker above.  It's convenient that it includes the date(copyright 2008) and URL: Alchemy1977.com (of course it's not a working site right now but I do intend to check it out on the waybackmachine)

I'll list some others here but mostly, I will not repeat the other devilish and mystical joker joker post from early 2018.

Here are the seven pages of deathy like jokers. 

For more info on the first image in the top left below, it is Jewish Dybbuk image  made by Arthur Szyk. He was a great artist of the 1930s-50s, A dybbuk in Jewish or Kabalistic mythology is a malicious possessing spirit believed to be the dislocated soul of a dead person. I have an article about Arthur Szyk and his card designs on this site.

This next two sets cover the pirate section of the collection.

The joker in the top left of the page below is  derivative of a famous enigmatic painting by Jan Matejko in 1862.  There's an interesting section about this in the article on death and deadly jokers.

As I mentioned, for more thrills and fun, check out the early 2018 article   devilish and mystical joker jokers.

Let's Play a Game

Want to play a game? I created a unique game using jokers from my collection. And my taxonomy.

Here's how it works. Here is a PDF of 64 jokers that I created. 

Basically, I created sets of four jokers. Sixteen sets of four. So 64. The game is to figure out the sets of four so that it comes out even.

The sets were shuffled together before I created the PDF. To play, you might want to print out the PDF. The prize is bragging rights.

The question is to define the criterion that defines each of the sixteen sets. 

 I can see why they are a set.  There are probably other criterion that could be used to organize them but it's unlikely that there is any other way to create 16 sets of four.

Try to define the 16 different characteristics that I have used to organize these jokers. 

Enjoy!  You can put your answer in the comments below.

First hint: It has nothing to do with color. So you can print them out in black and white to play.

Second hint: It has everything to do with the image of what is on the joker (not size or printing style or art style)

Jokers with Three Imps

The three imps were on one of the oldest and most treasured jokers in my collection.   This joker of the three imps probably dates from 1927. It's an old US Playing Card Joker. It features the Palmer Cox Brownies.

Three Imps on a Joker

I think the one below is a more modern version again featuring  the three "Palmer Cox Brownies" who were popular cartoon characters from the late 1900s. Palmer Cox was a Canadian illustrator and author, best known for The Brownies, a series of books and comic strips about the mischievous but kindhearted fairy-like sprites. The best known of the books with the comic books in them  was The Brownies, Their Book (1887). 

Due to the popularity of Cox's Brownies, one of the first popular handheld cameras was named after them, the Eastman Kodak Brownie camera.

Palmer Cox Brownies Playing Cards

This modern joker features the Pep Boys: Manny, Moe, and Jack.

I don't know much about this joker but it looks modern and cheap, perhaps from China. There do seem to be the Palmer Cox Brownies, or perhaps a modern reinterpretation of them.

Like these fun little imps? Perhaps you'd like some fun with some lovely pin up girl jokers and other erotic jokers. 

Or, if you are curious about the other US Playing Card Brands, perhaps the Bicycle Jokers would interest you. There are also the Congress Jokers and jokers featuring Betty Boop!

Lastly, many people wonder Why there are jokers in decks of cards?

Stringed Instruments

How many different jokers do you think there are in the world that have string instruments in them?

I have about 55 different stringed instrument jokers. (Plus 20 that are in the upside down section which I describe in the article below).

I expect that I have about 5% of the different jokers in the world. That means that there might be one thousand different jokers with stringed instruments on Earth.

Or more! Or less. Who is to say?  Anywho, lets starts off with this joker with a great hat and a lute.

This post starts with a selection of my favorite two dozen of the stringed joker musicians. The next  one has a royal or court jestor playing something like a cello.

This next joker has a guy wearing maybe a Roman toga while carrying a lyre.

Another lyre? Tiny harp?

WHOA, that last one was playing the stringed shovel? Before we continue, I should mention that are about 20 stringed jokers which I have in the topsy turvy section of my collection but I'll cross list them here.  

And now back to the pure string section...

I love these next two playing their banjos and singing alone. I wish I could hear what they're singing. Any ideas?

This next joker is probably singing in Latin along with his mandolin. I hate Latin.

I'd like to end with this masked jester who dances, sings, plays his instrument, and probably jokes around too.

Here's the collection of musical stringed instrument jokers in their pages.

Want to see the original post on musical jokers from the summer of 2017?

 Perhaps you'd like to see Elvis Jokers!

Or dancing jesters?

Or performing jesters?

Or juggling jesters?