Whispering Imps (Workers Edition) Playing Cards

Timeless. Practical. Enigmatic.

Originally released in 2013, Whispering Imps quickly became a favorite among magicians, cardists, and collectors. Created by Chris Chelko and illustrated by Mark Stutzman, the design takes inspiration from Harry Kellar’s classic “Whispering Imps” poster... an enduring piece of magic history.

The Workers Edition refines the originals with simplified Jokers, a streamlined Ace of Spades (plus a Gamesters variation), and improved handling. The mirrored back design is beautiful and has a great classic feel. The jet-black tuck features metallic silver detailing and the signature red imp, sleek, functional, and still full of character. A polished evolution of a modern classic.

Whispering Imps Limited Edition (Imp Red) Gamesters Playing Cards

Red. Classic. Luxury.

The Limited Edition Gamesters are the ultra-luxury version of the Standard Edition Whispering Imps Gamesters. The “Imp Red” back design comes with the branded “WI” Logo stamped directly onto each playing card in Silver foil, centred at each end of the card.

The innovative face cards allow right and left-handed players to peek at their hand from any corner. The Ace of Spades is inspired by many of the classic New York Consolidated Card Company designs that were printed in the late 1800’s.

The tuck box features a glossy black & silver foil finish, red inks and deep precision embossing. The white decorative elements on the front of the tuck box are embossed through the inked artwork creating a beautiful effect.

Printed by Expert Playing Card Co.

Deck View: Enigma Puzzle Hunt (Red Edition) Playing Cards

Magic. Puzzles. Ciphers.

Enigma Puzzle Hunt Playing Cards is an innovative deck designed by David Kwong, New York Times crossword puzzle constructor & magician, and Dave Shukan, master puzzle-maker. ENIGMAS combines mystery, secret messages, and codes within puzzles within puzzles. All these in a custom-themed deck based on an estate shrouded in mystery called Riverbank.

Inside, the hunt is embedded within four very special cards found within the deck, each with its own puzzle for you to solve. Solving all four puzzles will unlock an incredible, multilayered, eight-step puzzle hunt. Combine answers from every puzzle you've solved along the way and you will reveal the final, meta-puzzle answer!

The deck is FULLY functional and beautifully illustrator Billy French. Billy has masterfully captured all of the bizarre and beautiful elements into the ENIGMAS design. The card backs are adorned with historically accurate imagery from the Riverbank estate, like its windmill and lighthouse. The face cards look pretty much standard and familiar, however, they date back to the early 1900s.

Printed by the United States Playing Card Company. If you love puzzles AND Playing Cards, the Enigma Puzzle Hunt Playing Cards is definitely for you!

Final Days on Kickstarter. The Three Stooges Deck!

Currently being funded on Kickstarter, with less than 5 days remaining... The Three Stooges Deck! Whispering Imps Production and Kings Wild Project have teamed up to make available The Three Stooges officially Licensed, fully custom, luxury playing cards.

More than a year in the making and now available to fans, enthusiasts, and collectors are a series of completely custom, hand-illustrated decks commemorating American vaudeville and comedy legends, The Three Stooges.

After an unsuccessful attempt in 2017, the team has reworked the original concept. According to the project page,

After exploring many different color options, we settled on what felt most appropriate for the deck as a whole. The black and white (with a tint of grey) design you see below only seemed fitting really since this is how The Three Stooges were first were seen on the big screen.

As the original kings of laughter, the team felt it was important to acknowledge just how HUGE these three comedy legends were.

The best way to reflect that into the design was to incorporate the regal, ornamental elements you see in the background and the border with the iconic imagery of The Three Stooges faces often depicted in various forms of their logo.

Traditionally the Ace of Spades is the most decorated card in the deck, and The Three Stooges sticks with that tradition by incorporating the Spade with the ornamental elements of the back artwork and The Three Stooges logo. One of the most exciting design elements in this deck is the unique opportunity to represent and incorporate ALL of The Stooges in the 12 custom court cards.

The Tuck Box has been updated to really give that vintage Three Stooges vibe. The bright and colorful logo jumps out on the grey background of the tuck.

While the intricate artwork was saved for the back of the playing cards, we made the tuck art very bold, clean and crisp allowing most of the attention to be on the Three Stooges® themselves. There was always a fun and quirky elegance to their slapstick comedy, and that's what we tried to represent here with the tuck... similar to the opening title card in an old movie.

The Three Stooges custom playing card series will be printed by the United States Playing Card Company. Pledge starts from $12 for a single deck on Kickstarter!

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Limited Edition His & Hers Playing Cards

After 18 months, thousands of photos, hundreds of hours, dozens of looks, outfits and locations... 54 exclusive and glamorous photos were painstakingly hand-selected to include in this limited edition deck of playing cards called His & Hers.

The mischievous team at Whispering Imps have collaborated with the beautiful Miss Mosh to produce a unique, modern spin on the classic pin-up decks from the 1940s & '50s.

Mosh is one of the world's leading alternative models known for her signature look and is featured on the face of each and every playing card, with photography by Dave Tada. The card back is illustrated by Andrew Galu and showcase beautiful line work to give the deck a touch of elegance.

The deck is very modern yet tastefully done, without nudity or explicitness. This eye-catching deck of playing cards has a little of everything for everyone, leaving little to the imagination!

His & Hers are printed by The United States Playing Card Company. Pre-orders are now open. Save 20% off by ordering now during this exclusive pre-sale offer. Ships in time for Christmas 2019.

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Deck View: Whispering Imps (Executive Workers Edition) Playing Card

Limited. Imps. Intricate.

One of our all time favourite design! The Whispering Imps Playing Card is brought to you by Chris Chelko and illustrated by Mark Stutzman. The deck is inspired by magician Harry Kellar's 'Whispering Imps' poster from 1894.

The Executive Workers Edition was designed with elegance, class, and sophistication in mind. This exclusive deck is only limited to 500 and is alraedy marked 'Sold Out' on whisperingimps.com. The deck features an intricate card back, an original Gamesters Ace of Spades (a modified Gamesters Ace of Spades is also included) and 2 Joker, while the spot cards and courts are standard.

The deck is housed in a custom letter-pressed tuck case printed by Clove St. Press, made up of a heavy eggshell matte paper stock, hand selected to accompany the deeply embossed artwork made up of beautiful rose gold foils and Pantone inks.

For more cool playing cards check out JP Games.

Kickstarter: Whispering Imps Production and Kings Wild Project Collaborate For Official The Three Stooges Playing Card Series

Whispering Imps Production and Kings Wild Project have teamed up to bring The Three Stooges® officially Licensed, fully custom, luxury playing cards to Kickstarter! Over a year in the making and now available for the first time ever to fans, enthusiasts and collectors are a series of completely custom, hand illustrated decks commemorating American vaudeville and comedy legends, The Three Stooges®.

There will be two editions and three decks in each of the editions. Each of The Three Stooges®- Larry, Moe & Curly will be featured on the backs of their own deck of playing cards.

In each of the decks, the hand-drawn court cards are represented by the Stooges in various comic depictions from their numerous films. Also included are depictions of Shemp and “Curly Joe”.

Unlike traditional decks of playing cards, The Three Stooges® official playing cards feature 3 unique jokers instead of 2! Larry, Moe & Curly are each represented on their own joker playing card with their individual catchphrases.

The First Edition set comes with three custom decks (Larry, Moe & Curly). The tucks are made up three colors: Charcoal Black, Deep Red and Midnight Blue. The back artwork of each tuck box features the same artwork that is featured on the back of the playing cards in each deck.

The Deluxe Edition is designed for the collector in mind. This deluxe set of playing cards comes with three completely custom decks (Larry, Moe & Curly). The tuck box packaging in the Deluxe Edition set has been significantly upgraded including premium paper stocks, foils, embossing and UV spot coat making the highest quality deck of Three Stooges playing cards ever produced.

The Three Stooges® custom playing card series will be printed by the United States Playing Card Company. Pledge starts from $40 for a set of First Edition.

News: Whispering Imps Is Back With Workers Edition and Executive Workers Edition!

One of our all time favorites! Designed to be timeless and elegant, the original Whispering Imps were first introduced in 2013 and it was quickly funded on Kickstarter. Since then, they have made their way into the hands of thousands of collectors, magicians, card players, cardists and even network television shows and Hollywood films!

The Whispering Imps Playing Card (brought to you by Chris Chelko and illustrated by Mark Stutzman) is inspired by famous magician Harry Kellar's Whispering Imps that were made famous by the below poster. The Workers are the latest edition to the Whispering Imps series. The Workers are a reprint of the Originals with a few updates, enhancements and additions at nearly half the price... $6.95!

The Workers Edition include a miniature version of the Harry Kellar poster, simplified jokers and Ace of Spades. Also, a modified version of the Gamesters Ace of Spades has also been included. The jet black tuck box features the Whispering Imps logo in a shiny silver metallic ink along with the iconic red imp whispering on the bottom right.

Also included with the release is the exclusive and limited deck of Whispering Imps. The Executive Workers Edition was designed with elegance, class, and sophistication in mind. The deck is housed in a custom letter-pressed tuck case printed by Clove St. Press, made up of a heavy eggshell matte paper stock, hand selected to accompany the deeply embossed artwork made up of beautiful rose gold foils and Pantone inks. Only 500 made!

Available NOW from whisperingimps.com. Sale on for a LIMITED time.

Kickstarter: Whispering Imps Limited Edition Gamesters Playing Cards

The Limited Edition Gamesters are the ultra-luxury version of the recently funded Standard Edition Gamesters, incorporating a revolutionary technique of stamping Gold & Silver foils directly on to the backs of each playing card, a milestone set by the Expert Playing Card Co.

The Limited Edition Gamesters will be available in two versions, Black & Gold Edition and Red & Silver Edition. Both are limited to only 1000 decks each.

The back design for the Limited Edition Gamesters will be available in two colors, “Imp Red” & “Classic Black,” with the branded “WI” Logo stamped in foil directly on to each playing card in either Gold or Silver foil, centred at each end of the card. Both editions will be offered together in this project.

The face cards incorporates the same innovative design used in the Standard Editions allowing right and left handed players to peek at their hand from any corner.

The Ace of Spades has been meticulously designed and is inspired by many of the classic designs from the New York Consolidated Card Company that were printed in the late 1800’s.

Finally, the tuck box is manufactured from ultra-premium, un-coated, heavy-duty, white paper stock. The Gold Edition tuck will feature a glossy black & gold foil finish, black inks and deep precision embossing. The Silver Edition tuck will feature a glossy black & silver foil finish, red inks and deep precision embossing. The white decorative elements on the front of the tuck box will be embossed through the inked artwork creating a beautiful effect and adding depth to the box.

Pledge starts from $40 for a set and will be available for the next 4 days only. Don't miss out!

Kickstarter: 7 Questions with Chris Chelko

We had the great pleasure of getting a chance to chat with Chris Chelko of Whispering Imps Productions on the upcoming release of the Gamester Playing Cards, the iconic Whispering Imps and more. First and foremost though, mark your calendars for the release of the Gamesters! Chris' new project is scheduled to launch December 15th, 2014 on Kickstarter, you won't want to miss this!

Hope you enjoy the Q&A

Just over a year ago the Original Whispering Imps® were funded on Kickstarter, how long has the planning for Whispering Imps 2 been in development?
Wow, yeah in just over a year there have been 5 decks of the original Whispering Imps released in some form (Original, Special Edition, Black Edition, Private Reserve Red Foil & Gold Foil). Planning for Whispering Imps® v.2 began shortly after all the rewards from the original decks were shipped, sometime around November 2013. By then I already new I wanted the next deck to be designed for card players, and had made a few mock ups of the back design. In January 2014, I began working out various concepts and designs for the Ace, Joker and Tuck, drawing inspiration from Bee, Talley-Ho, Squeezers and Triplicates.

The inspiration for the original Whispering Imps® was Harry Kellar, has that changed for the Whispering Imps 2?
The Imps in Harry Kellar’s portrait poster from 1894 were certainly the inspiration for the original
Whispering Imps deck which was designed for magicians. The v.2’s are designed for the card player and will still represent the charm of the Whispering Imps, but are not the primary focus of card back design.

Who is providing the illustration work for this new deck?
I’ve teamed up again with the incredibly talented Mark Stutzman. His traditional approach to hand inked illustration is something that we just don’t see much anymore in an age where computers dominate the graphics industry. There is something that just feels right about playing cards and hand drawn illustration.

What are some of the unique aspects of this deck in terms of design, color and back story?
The v.2’s, called “Gamesters” was designed for the card player. Gamester came from an old term used to describe one who plays games, especially a gambler. I originally wanted to call them Gamblers, but I didn’t want to bring any confusion to Richard Turners Gamblers deck and so the Gamesters were born.

As we’ve seen with other popular casino back designs, they are often logo based. The Gamesters are no different. Inspired by Wynn, Jerry’s Nugget, Madison Rounders & Fulton’s, the Whispering Imps branded “WI” logo will be represented on the clean, solid color back. The court cards however, are what makes this deck more unique than others, and (in my opinion) practical for the average card player.

The face and court cards have pips that have been angled and tucked as close to the edge as possible on all four corners so that right and left handed players can peek at the cards with the least amount of exposure. It’s a nice advantage to have when playing in close proximity to other players at the table. They will also look really nice when fanned out.

I plan to release them in “Imp Red” and Black back colors, along with Limited Editions of each. The intentional differences in v.1 and v.2 is that the Gamesters have a simple back design and intricate tuck, where the originals have an intricate back design and simple tuck.

Are there any “Surprises” planned for this project and or campaign?
Oohhh probably, but the Imps are keeping that a secret….shhh.

How did the use of the Whispering Imps® on ABC’s “Revenge” come about?
This was a very exciting time for the Whispering Imps®! I received call from my friend Colie Buck (Dave Buck’s wife of Dan & Dave) who is a graphic designer for “Revenge”. She mentioned to me the theme of the episode and what they were looking for and said that the Whispering Imps® would be perfect. So through a special collaboration through Colie, Art of Play and Whispering Imps Productions we were able to give the cards their 15 minutes of fame on prime time network television.

In just a short year the custom playing card industry has boomed, do you have any thoughts on the direction and future of the industry?
I recently wrote a story for Magic Magazine about the rise in custom playing cards (August 2014). I addressed this only briefly, however we have certainly seen the bubble grow in the past 10 years…but not burst. The reason for this growth is because of a surge in crowd funding. If you have the vision, artwork, interest, passion and determination to follow through with a campaign for a deck of playing cards by all means do it…but it’s no easy task. Jackson Robinson, Paul Carpenter, & Uusi for example have designed some of my favorite decks through Kickstarter. Each time, trying something new…whether it’s a style of art, playing with the tuck or creative new printing techniques. I think we are starting to see attention to detail. I think we’ll see higher quality decks being produced in smaller, limited quantities. There are your standard decks and then there are your luxury decks….my hope is that we’ll start to see more decks produced with better papers, foils, & inks on machines that are capable of perfection.

We can't thank Chris enough for his time, information and insight into his projects. You can keep up to date with Whispering Imp Productions on their website as well as Facebook and Instagram. Remember the Gamesters launch on December 15th and keep an eye out for some updates on the campaign as the launch approaches!

Collections: Whispering Imps by Chris Chelko

Right off the bat let me state this........without a doubt, MUST HAVE!

Whispering Imps by Chris Chelko and Whispering Imps Productions are one of my favorite decks in my collection. Just a great concept inspired by the Harry Kellar Whispering Imp portrait.

I like that it just shouts "Magic", while the deck does have "standard" spot cards and courts, the back design is just amazing with a bit of familiarity in the layout combined with a unique, mischievous tone set by the Imp design and border images. The Whispering Imps are two wonderful decks surrounded by two beautiful tuck cases.

Both decks have custom seals and embossing with the "Standard" edition having a soft black velum tuck with a striking Red Foiled Imp that wraps around one corner of the tuck, the title is just as striking in black foil. The Special Edition is a Premium Starfire Red velum tuck with a complete embossed, red foil representation of the back design on the back side of the tuck. The front of the tuck also uses the same formula as the black tuck in that the title is foiled in the same color as the box.

Both decks are sold out on the official site and may take a bit of searching to acquire due to their popularity and limited print run. The Standard Black deck only had a print run of 3900, while the Special Edition (Red) was limited to 1700. The Imps did return in a "Black Edition" which is still available at WhisperingImps.com.

Highly recommended for any collector or aficionado.

The Collection segment is produced by Anthony Ingrassia of Kardify. No part of this article, images or video can be reproduced without written permission from the author and Kardify.com

Deck View: Whispering Imps Special Edition

Mythological. Folklore. Mischievous.

Illustrated by Mark Stutzman and inspired by American magician Harry Kellar's 'Whispering Imps' poster from 1894, the same year the USPCC was established. This Special Edition is a very limited edition deck of Whispering Imps.

The cards are presented in a tuck box crafted from premium Starfire Red Vellum Paper embossed with Red Foil. The intricate card back design of the Whispering Imps is embossed with red foil on the back of the tuck box.

This Deck View is contributed by @Charlie_L1f3, our regular Deck View guru. Check out his Instagram to see more of his awesome collection.

Available at JP Games. Use the code KARDIFY10 during check-out to get 10% off for orders over £50.