The Undeck
‘The Undeck’ with artwork by Ash Loydon, produced by Cultzilla, United Kingdom, c. 2018.
The title of this pack, produced by Cultzilla, c.2018, is a play on the word “Undead” – a term frequently used in film and fiction to describe beings that are dead but behave as if alive, such as mummies, vampires, and zombies.
From the wording on the back of the box we learn that “this set is a celebration of all the retro VHS zombies that have brightened our lives, whilst at the same time, going out of their way to upset censors and the moral majority”. The cards feature artwork by Ash Loydon, with each card portraying a zombie, monster or character from mainly B-rated horror films. An extra card details the films represented in the pack while the joker is Tom Savini, the American prosthetic makeup artist, actor, stunt performer and film director who worked on many of the films. See the box►
Above: ‘The Undeck’ with artwork by Ash Loydon, produced by Cultzilla, United Kingdom, c. 2018.
By Peter Burnett
Member since July 27, 2022
I graduated in Russian and East European Studies from Birmingham University in 1969. It was as an undergraduate in Moscow in 1968 that I stumbled upon my first 3 packs of “unusual” playing cards which fired my curiosity and thence my life-long interest. I began researching and collecting cards in the early 1970s, since when I’ve acquired over 3,330 packs of non-standard cards, mainly from North America, UK and Western Europe, and of course from Russia and the former communist countries.
Following my retirement from the Bodleian Library in Dec. 2007 I took up a new role as Head of Library Development at the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) to support library development in low-income countries. This work necessitated regular training visits to many sub-Saharan African countries and also further afield, to Vietnam, Nepal and Bangladesh – all of which provided rich opportunities to further expand my playing card collection.
Since 2019 I’ve been working part-time in the Bodleian Library where I’ve been cataloguing the bequest of the late Donald Welsh, founder of the English Playing Card Society.
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