I can admit it. I have a hard time walking past a new deck of Bikes that I have not seen before, without buying it. With this deck, however, it took my 3rd trip to Walmart for me to break down and buy it. I am not sure why, especially since I love all things zombies. For some reason, this deck did not immediately grab me (by the throat), but I am happy it finally did. Once I opened the box, I was immediately infected (sorry). This deck really has a sense of humor.
Zombie artists Rob Sacchetto illustrated the 54 different cartoon zombies (52 playing cards and 2 Jokers) which were printed with the usual finish and feel of your standard Bicycle poker playing cards. The cards only have corner index pips which look like they have been painted in messy drippy paint and the face of each card has a different zombie character, which include, a zombie playing cards, hitting a golf ball, vacuuming, taking out the garbage, flying a kite, mowing the lawn, doing yoga, scuba diving…. I think you get the picture. The face of each card is also splattered in blood (no, not real blood). The backs of the cards contain a full frame picture of a horde of tightly packed zombies, which looks really cool when you fan the deck face down or spread them on a table, especially because there is not white border.
The box itself contains some secret messages, which can be deciphered by filtering out the lowercase letters from the capital letters in the otherwise ordinary text i.e. eveRydAy zomBIES.
The illustrator’s website www.zombieportraits.com is where you can further explore the artist’s work, which includes zombie portraits of Spock (Leonard Nimoy), English Royalty, Wonder Woman, Santa and others. And, of course, for a small wad of PayPal cash, Sacchetto will do your own zombie portrait, or your pet’s portrait, from an emailed photo.
This is not a serious deck, but it is one that I am seriously happy I bought.