52 Plus Joker 2023 Club Deck by Brendan Hong

[GandalfTheWhite]

Created and printed by Brendan Hong and William Kalush (Expert Playing Card Company) exclusively for 52 Plus Joker. It’s a superb deck that embodies the world’s greatest playing card collector’s club. Fully customized. Print run of 1000 numbered decks.

Limited to 3 decks per member.

Deck is now available for members on their website https://www.52plusjoker.org/

[PiazzaDelivery]

I guess I got used to something more... grandiose?

By no means a bad deck, but I'm unimpressed.

[bdawg923]

Lorenzo set the bar too high

[GandalfPC]

What they said.

[kevork]

Never heard of the artist, but he looks to be a private guy from Ontario who has worked with Jackson Robinson before to create The Hive back in 2014 (also printed by EPCC). Much prefer the courts from that one:

I was not impressed either, although I do like the card backs. For the sake of the series, I purchased one.

I like his humor.
From Brendan Hong's website

Brendan Hong is a freelance illustrator that graduated from the Illustration program at Ontario College of Art and Design. He enjoys being a freelancer after realized that the free part of freelancer does not mean he works for free, although he's a bit disappointed that that also means that he doesn't get a lance either and has decided that freelancer is a very misleading word. Through it all, he still hopes to get a free lance one day, but he's a bit unsure of where that might come from.

Doodling as a kid has been the gateway to the greater joys of drawing for Brendan. A pencil and paper is just the beginning for him and he hopes to continue evolve as his days fill up with more and more drawings. He's been able to have the pleasure to work with such companies: Kayak Magazine, ChickaDEE Magazine, LAD Communication and Bombardier Aerospace.

From his Tumblr

Brendan Hong is a freelance illustrator currently residing in Canada, though he one day strives to be the first illustrator residing in Antarctica where he’ll have penguin neighbours and hopefully dinosaur neighbours that have somehow hidden themselves away in the ice. He is prone to whimsical imagination about life and enjoy dreaming up stories. He draws, reads, lives and tries to enjoy life. Mostly, he is a private person, which seems to be a harder thing to be in this day and age of the internet, social media and all this sharing people are talking about, but he is trying to break out his shells by having two blogs! Lastly, Brendan enjoys pointing out to people that “freelancer” is a very misleading word as he does not work for free because no one is willing to give me free stuff to live off on and he still has not gotten a lance out in all his years freelancing. English is a very odd language at times.

[Adamthinks]

That doesn't stand up to the previous years decks at all. Not feeling this one, I'll be passing.

[GandalfPC]

I have passed as well - figure I will have a few years to change my mind before they sell out

[rousselle]

The artwork in this one is very similar -- I'd say it looks like a "version 2" -- of his Noble Marquis deck that he had tried to launch via Kickstarter several years ago. This was one I had hoped would have funded at the time, and the fact that it didn't and for other reasons which he never went into publicly, he chose to move on to other artistic endeavors.

I never met him in person, but in what limited exchanges we had online, he always seemed like a good guy and I'd hoped he would return to playing cards.

I'm being stingy with my playing card purchases these days, and I'm *mostly* only backing a few artists and series that I'm already into, so while it was a given I'd be buying this year's 52+J deck, I'm glad it's a fresh take on Brendan's Noble Marquis design. I totally get that his work is an acquired taste, but I still hope we see more of his work from time to time.

FYI:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/52 ... escription

[Evilgamer]

I was looking forward to this but this just isnt motivating me as a $35 deck.

I really regret not getting into this in years past to get the S17 deck Im sure I going to end up paying way too much to get one at some point.

[wingedpotato]

I've always loved Brendan's style and like rousselle I was sad when his last deck got scrubbed. I adore these courts and would buy a "regular" deck with them in a heartbeat, but not enough to jump back into a club membership and then pay a premium for the cards. Love Brendan's color sense in this deck.

[steampunk52]

I like this deck well enough. I would not normally pay $35 for it, but I am already a member and want to maintain building my club deck collection (at least since I joined). I agree that Lorenzo dropped the mic with his, so very difficult to live up to that.

[brownsl]

The price is high but I justify it by that the profits go to help keep the club running.

[vasta41]

I would like one but rather than bugging a member here to PM me, I'll just wait until this is available somewhere else.

[Harvonsgard]

I was pleasantly surprised to see Brendan's name. A great deck. The price for the deck might be objectivly too high but it's to support the club so I don't see a problem there.

[STLBluesNut]

the hive courts posted by kevork are much better than this club deck courts.

[joeblow]

I met Brendan at a Toronto meetup for 52plus, with Lee Asher and others. Very nice guy. Happy to see him dabbling back in playing cards.

[Bikefanatic]

Don't they usually announce other decks along with the annual deck?

Hopefully this deck will look so much better in person.

[hsbc]

Don't they usually announce other decks along with the annual deck?

There have often been other decks released by various creators at past conventions, but nothing official - I wasn't able to make it this year so I haven't heard of any other releases!

[kevork]

Off the top of my head, they announced Sorcerer's Apprentice and Sisterhood last year, but that was because those who were releasing the decks spoke at the convention. I did not attend the convention but did not see anything on social media about upcoming decks either.

[Fenrir]

Sometimes they have guests during the year or as special announcements but usually you can only guarantee the club deck is revealed.

Normally Alex attends and teases NPCCD or another project.

[ShuffleUpandDeal]

And why so expensive? $35 for a deck, on top of membership fees? I can get decks that are limited to 1000 for less than half that price at times. Nothing makes their decks, especially this one, worth that much money imo. No wonder they've only sold like 25% of them at this time.

[GandalfPC]

Membership fee is low enough and the deck prices don’t bother me in the clubs case

I do wish they had brought more to the table with this one though, but as beauty is in the eye of the beholder and some are happy to see this deck brought to life I can wait for next year and see if they bring something for me…

I may not buy this years club deck, but I will trade for it if I don’t - have to maintain a thread of completionism somewhere or I’ll lose all grip on reality…

[Strag]

And why so expensive? $35 for a deck, on top of membership fees? I can get decks that are limited to 1000 for less than half that price at times. Nothing makes their decks, especially this one, worth that much money imo. No wonder they've only sold like 25% of them at this time.

The membership has other benefits. If you are buying the membership only to get the deck, yeah it's more expensive for the deck, but that's not the point of membership.

The deck sales also help to support the club. It's not just about the cost of the deck. Most of previous years they didn't sell out for a long time, after all, it is a limited amount of people who are members. TBH not selling out immediately isn't a problem, they would want to have stock for when people join.

It was only when Lorenzo's deck got seized upon by flippers that the club deck become a hot commodity.

[vasta41]

As confirmed by Jody a few years back, I also believe that the artist gets a handful to sell on his own accord.

[Fenrir]

As confirmed by Jody a few years back, I also believe that the artist gets a handful to sell on his own accord.

They do. There is some kind of arrangement and I believe some stock is part of that.

[Reylek]

I really like this year's deck, but traditional/classic style decks also generally appeal to me. I especially love the Back, Tuck, and AS. This is the first deck of Brendan's that I've owned.

Turning the club deck unveiling into a general deck unveiling happened inadvertently in 2015. The number of non-club decks presented changes year to year. Sometimes it's a few people/decks, this year it was just one. I gave a sneak peek at Penguin's Christmas Deck for this year.

In 2015, it just so happened that the first Honeybee decks from Penguin finished printing right before the convention, so we were able to get a case rushed to Orlando. I asked the organizers if there might be a window where I could announce the deck to all of the attendees. I was told to do a short presentation just before Bill Kalush presented the Club deck, so that's what we did.

It was decided that subsequent years would follow the same format, with deck debut presentations from anyone with a new deck to share, culminating with the debut of that year's club deck. This usually happens in the evening of the first full day of the convention.

I've attended & presented a new deck every year since 2015. In other years there have been decks from several other artists. In most years, Bill Kalush presents new decks from EPCC alongside the Club deck. However, because of the large undertaking of moving his Conjuring Arts library, he did not do additional decks in 2022 or 2023.

So this year it was just the Penguin Christmas deck and the Club deck. In past years there have been anywhere from like 2-6 designers/producers presenting. Next year in Niagara it'll be anyone's guess.

[rousselle]

I'm going next year, so there BETTER BE LOTS AND LOTS OF COOL REVEALS!!! Bwahahahahahaha.

>ahem<

[CBJ]

I'm going next year, so there BETTER BE LOTS AND LOTS OF COOL REVEALS!!! Bwahahahahahaha.

>ahem<

It will be great to meet you!

[Bikefanatic]

Next year the event will be in Niagara Falls? If so, hop on the Canada side, a bunch of attractions to see.

[rousselle]

Yeah, everybody, get your passports in order if you don't already have them. Crossing the border at some point during your visit will be a must.