Gilgamesh! Tarot

Creator(s): T Byron G
Date: 1995
Country: USA
Publisher: self-published
Number of Cards: 22+2
ISBN: 1-879352-40-0   
Type: other
Reference: Manteia issue #16 p.14





Notes:
The Gilgamesh! Tarot is a limited edition of 800 decks. The title has no connection to the Sumerian Gilgamesh myth but refers to Byron's novel Gilgamesh!

Each deck is handmade and there are versions with five different backs, mine is the "Stone Sentinel", the others are "Seal-Ring", "Floating Flower", "Christal Ball" and "Civilized Insect". The sets are identical except for the backs of the cards.

The Fool is numbered as 21 and The World  22. The cards have subtitles reflecting the meaning of the image. The backs are oil paintings, the front images are computer designed. There are two extra cards, a "Tree of Life Card" and the title card. The deck came in a plastic sleeve with a signed label.

Tarocchi Marvel

Creator(s): Claudio Villa, Luca Poli
Date: 1995
Country: Italy
Publisher: Lo Scarabeo
Number of Cards: 22
ISBN:   
Type: other
Reference:  Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. IV, pp. 419, 420





 
Notes:
The cards are Major Arcana only, the Minor Arcana were never actually made for the deck. Marvel Comic characters star as the various portraits on the cards. Artist Claudio Villa drew the cartoons, which he and Luca Poli colored in. The backs show a double-ended picture of Dr. Strange.

The 22 cards are oversized (5 3/8" x 2 7/8") and came with a title card and a card giving the names of the characters on each card.

Fantod Pack

Creator(s): Edward Gorey
Date: 1969, 1995, 2007
Country: USA
Publisher: Pomegranate
Number of Cards: 20
ISBN:   
Type: non-tarot
Reference: aeclectic








Notes:
 Edward Gorey is an illustrator and artist known for his morbid sense of humor. Originally published in Esquire magazine in the sixties,  there was an unauthorized version of the deck printed back in 1969, and then an authorized limited edition of 776 copies (750 numbered, and 26 lettered) in 1995. The current 2007 edition, which I have, is unlimited.

The artwork on the cards and the cover of the booklet are the classic Gorey style of finelydetailed pen-and-ink work. The card backs and the booklet feature a strange little creature known as  'Figbash'.

Card Titles : The Ladder, The Child, The Limb, The Yellow Bird, The Stones, The Effigy, The Insects, The Plant, The Waltzing Mouse, The Urn, The Feather, The Bundle, The Sea, The Ecorche, The Bottle, The Burning Head, The Blue Dog, The Ancestor, The Tunnel, Untitled 

The Fantod Pack comes with a booklet by one "Madame Groeda Wyrde" (anagrams areanother Gorey favorite), giving instructions for how to read with the deck. The booklet itself is quite funny, with instructions such as the following:

"Interpretation must always depend on the character and circumstances of the person consulting the pack. What might portend a wipe-out for a teenage hotdogger from Yokohama, might warn an octogenarian spinster in Minot, North Dakota, of a fall in the bathtub, though, of course, the results might come to much the same thing. "

Polish Tarot (Jasniak Color Tarot)

Creator(s): Aleksandra Jasniak, Anna Galuszka
Date: 1995, 1998, 2011
Country: Poland
Publisher: self-published
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN: 
Type: other
Reference:  Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. IV, pp. 386,388







Notes: 
The deck was first printed in Poland in 1993 as "Jasniak Color Tarot",  reprinted 1998 and 2011 under the name "Polish Tarot". The titles are in English and Polish, and the back design is double-ended, with the letter J in gold on black.

Erde Tarock

Creator(s): Sieghard Dittner
Date: 1995
Country: Germany
Publisher: Cartorama
Number of cards: 78
ISBN:
Type: Marseilles
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. IV, pp. 324-325








Notes:
The Erde Tarock is a Marseilles-based deck with reversable drawings. The title translates into English as 'Tarot of Earth.'

It was created as a limited edition of 500 copies, signed by the artist on the sleeve of the package. The deck was printed by Wolfgang Schuboth in Malchow, Germany in black, green, blue and pink.

The images are 'double-ended,' like the King, Queen, and Jack of a standard playing card deck. The Majors are titled in German on one end and english on the other. The Court Cards are titled in English on one end and have a letter like german playing cards on the other end. The pips are unillustrated.

The deck includes a presentation card and a blank card, it came without a LWB in a wrap-around green cardboard box. The backs have a pattern of stylized rosettes in green. The paper is thinner than tarot cards usually are.

Legend : The Arthurian Tarot

Creator(s): Anna-Marie Ferguson
Date: 1995 , second edition 1999
Country: USA
Publisher: Llewellyn
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN: 9781567182675
Type: RWS
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. IV, pp. 393, 397





Notes:
The deck is also known as the Avalon Tarot ( but there is another Avalon Tarot by Viglioglia from Lo Scarabeo).

The back design shows the labyrinth of Chartres Cathedral. The suits are swords, spears, cups and shields. All majors have their standard title plus an additional title belonging to the Arthurian Legend except the devil, which has been renamed "The Horned One"

The deck includes an extra card on which is a dragon, totem of Pendragon, Arthurs male lineage. The set also contains a layout sheet and a 304-page book titled "A Keeper of Words

Tarot of the Gnomes

Creator(s): Antonio Lupatelli
Date: 1995
Country: Italy
Publisher: Lo Scarabeo
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN: 978-3-92780-871-3
Type: other
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. IV, pp. 354,359