The brief from Pelican & Hare said comedy game and I asked to draw it as though it were a serious historical portrait series. Fifty-four courtier cards, every one of them an ostrich in period dress on a chequered terrace, painted with the same care I would give a landscape.
Nothing in the artwork winks. The joke is entirely in the gap between how ridiculous the subject is and how solemnly it is painted, and the moment I tried a funny expression on one of them the whole deck collapsed.
- Publisher
- Pelican & Hare
- Year
- 2024
- Players
- 3 to 6
- Illustrated
- Cover, 54 courtier cards, terrace board
- Editions
- English, German, French, Italian
Category
Card art
Box cover. Painted as a serious portrait, which is the whole joke.
Courtier card. One of fifty-four, each in different period dress.
Player board. The terrace, drawn as a place rather than a grid.
