After acquiring the United Cardists forum last year, Portfolio52 released the successful Odd Fellows playing cards series in collaboration with Stockholm17 as part of the UC annual deck. This year, the annual deck will be designed by Jack Brutus Penny. Based in Japan, Jack is known for his artwork inspired by animals and Japanese culture.
Nazo Nazo Playing Cards shows the fantastic Japanese inn crowded with anthropomorphized animals integrated into a large-scale mural. You would see all the cute characters doing some activities within the interiors of the inn done in large illustrations segmented as small pieces of cards. The name of the series, “Nazo Nazo” literally means “puzzles and riddles” in Japanese – this deck of cards has a lot to offer: jigsaw puzzles, word puns, proverbs, stories, and visual scavenger hunts.
There are three editions of Nazo Nazo available during the Kickstarter campaign – Guest House, Tatami Room, and Onsen. Each edition will have completely different artwork on both the cards and the tuck boxes, but everything is all Jack’s heart and soul.
The Guest House is the standard edition of the series, which is only printed on standard stock and finishes. The Tatami House is called the puzzle edition, promising a deck of cards fashioned to be full of puzzles and riddles. The Onsen House is the exclusive Kickstarter edition featuring cards gilded with beautiful gold foil.
The tuck boxes for the series themselves are masterpieces of their own. It is made with premium stock with the unique shape of a tongue flap and die-cut windows across faces and sides. These windows allow you to view the integration of the card back design with the artwork on the tuck box.
The artworks on the box are intricate and full of details, showing the beautiful rooms that represent the name of the edition. It does have customized embossing on the artwork, and most prominently, the holographic foiling for the clouds on the box. The artwork on the side creates an interesting display – getting one of each of the editions, you create half of the building; combining two sets altogether and you will have the full picture of the Nazo Nazo inn.
The characters who appeared within the large mural of the cards featured pets owned by various people who are experts in some of their fields in Japanese culture, like origami, pottery, horseback archery, calligraphy, and more. The profits from the project’s outcome will be given to Animal Refuge Kansai (ARK) to help rescue and rehouse abandoned and displaced cats and dogs in Japan.
All of the cards will be printed with Expert Playing Cards Co. Pledge starts at $16 on Kickstarter.
