Fulton's Chinatown V2 (15th Anniversary Edition) Playing Cards

Created to celebrate the 15th Anniversary of Fulton’s Playing Cards, and fittingly, the enduring legacy of Chinatown... Fulton’s Chinatown V2 returns completely reimagined and elevated in every detail.

This new edition is adorned in foil, inside and out. Every surface has been thoughtfully considered to deliver maximum visual impact. The artwork, meticulously illustrated by Ethan Kowaleski, showcases the legendary dual dragons intertwined among intricate, flowing patterns that define the unmistakable aesthetic of Fulton’s Chinatown. The result is bold, ceremonial, and unapologetically opulent.

The card backs feature rich colors enhanced with radiant Cold Gold Foil, creating flashes of light with every shuffle and flourish. The interplay between ink and foil gives the dragons a dimensional presence—alive in motion, commanding in stillness.

The tuck box is foil stamped on premium paper, amplifying both texture and brilliance. The metallic detailing wraps the exterior in luminous gold while interior foil elements complete the experience, making the unboxing feel like unveiling a treasured artifact.

Printed in China on Premium Cardistry Thin Stock and available for $20.88 from Fulton's Playing Cards.

Celebrate 10 Year Anniversary of Fulton's Chinatown With This Limited Edition Deck!

The 10 Year Anniversary of Fulton’s Chinatown playing cards is here in a special “Fulton Orange” Colorway. Chinatown was originally released for Chinese New Year in 2012 to celebrate the birth of Brad Fulton‘s daughter, and the Year of the Dragon. This is a celebration of Los Angeles Chinatown, a place Fulton spent many years frequenting.

The striking deck features artwork by Daniel Phillips and sports a black line art on Fulton Orange colorway. Tuck Box is foil-stamped orange on black matte thick box paper and letterpress printed by Clove St. in San Diego. Limited to 999 decks.

Available now on fultonsplayingcards.com for $18.88.

Fultons Chinatown Bootleg Standard Edition Playing Cards

Brad Fulton found himself at the center of a unique endeavor after receiving an unexpected email questioning the authenticity of a deck of Chinatown playing cards. Little did he know, these cards were bootlegged copies discovered at a night market in Asia.

Intrigued by the notion of copying a deck, Fulton decided to take matters into his own hands and bootlegged his own version using an old Xerox machine.

The result? A cool replica of the original Chinatown cards, meticulously recreated as a facsimile. With the tuck box printed on matte paper, adorned with striking imagery, these Chinatown Cards have never looked better.

Limited to just 500 decks, Fulton’s bootlegged Chinatown Cards serve as a reminder of the power of creativity and the allure of the unexpected.

Printed in China on Cardistry Stock, each deck is a testament to Fulton’s dedication and his passion for card design. Available now from Fulton’s Playing Cards for $18.

Dan And Dave Release Limited Edition October Playing Cards

Tonight at 11pm EST/8pm PST, DanandDave.com released October Playing Cards by Brad Fulton. October Playing Cards are a limited release and will only be available through October 31 or while the decks are available. October Playing Cards is a whimsical deck that plays on the fantastical images of the Halloween season such as pumpkins, skeletons, ghosts and ghouls. The deck is printed by the United States Playing Card Company and is 100% custom designed by Brad Fulton and artist Steven Nobel with a complete inside tuck case Halloween design.

Over the past few days, Dan and Dave have been releasing teasers of the upcoming deck with simply the word "October." The announcement was made of the release about 2 hours before the launch.

Brad Fulton is creative director for DanandDave.com and has put his signature on various other card deck releases including Fulton's Clip Joint and Fulton's Chinatown.

Artist Steven Nobel, who illustrated the cards, has done work with major companies on branding and packaging including  Mercedez-Benz, Annheiser-Busch and Exxon-Mobil.

Deckstarter: 7 Questions with Blake Brenneman of the Revelation Deck

Designed by Blake Brenneman and Michael Messer, Revelation is an extraordinary deck of playing cards inspired by medieval cathedrals and their gothic style. This meticulously hand-illustrated deck features gothic details, symbolic carvings and stained glass ornamentations from the stunning Nidaros cathedral in Norway.

A fully customised deck of cards, the Revelation tuck box, jokers, Ace of Spades and the eye-catching backs features artwork inspired by the beautiful stained glass of the cathedral while the illustrated skeleton courts pays homage to the silent skeletons of Norwegian royalty still resting in Nidaros’ catacombs. A strangely beautiful, simple and visually stunning theme.

We caught up with Blake for a quick chat about his design background, the inspiration & design process behind Revelation and Deckstarter.

Can you tell us about yourself and what is your design background?
I’ve been involved in the world of magic for many years with a special interest in gambling sleights and casino protection. The beauty of magic, for me at least, is the psychology behind it; the truest version of magic happens with the most normal of objects, with sheer perception being the thing manipulated most of all. This fascination with psychology kind of plays into my interests in college; I’m currently wavering between a psychology degree and one in business and history.

As far as my design background is concerned, things are actually kind of ironic. My design background is almost nonexistent. That being said, my three biggest loves in life (other than my fiancé, of course) are theology, psychology, and fine art, and it is at the nexus of these three concepts that I derived inspiration for Revelation.

Revelation will be your first playing card deck. How did you and D&D end up collaborating together for Deckstarter?
My big design team consists of Michael Messer and myself. When we started this project we new that, since this is our flagship project, we wanted to go the crowd funding route, both for financial and marketing reasons. As a long time fan of Dan & Dave playing cards, I knew that the durability and artisan nature of our cards would have a wide-enough appeal with niche interest to be successful on a platform like Deckstarter. After we’d solidified the design concept, we inquired into Deckstarter, and now we’re here.

What is your inspiration behind the Revelation deck? How did you come up with the idea?
I’ve always wanted a stained glass themed deck of cards, as there really aren’t any on the market that I’m aware of. Michael has a unique style of drawing that revolves around a deft hand with a ink pen, rather than charcoal or graphite or paint. As we spoke about possibilities for this first deck, I suggested something with stained glass, and with Michael’s help, that idea ended up in the realms of Gothic art and architecture. As we moved through that concept, one of the inspirations that really stuck with us was the Nidaros cathedral in Norway (which unbeknownst to me, Dan & Dave had also explored in Papercuts).

Talk to us a bit about going from the first draft to the final version. How many iterations were there? How did you get feedback?
We birthed the deck onto the paper and saw it and said it was good. Actually, Michael and I fed off of each other for most of the design. I had an expertise in playing cards and their irregularities as a canvas, and Michael—who is one of the brightest artists I’ve ever met—truly understands his art form. So we would pitch ideas back and forth to each other and whittle them down and Michael would sketch ideas. Once we’d finished the back, the ace of spades, and the joker designs, I sent out those concept sketches to some of my card designer friends who had launched through other platforms for feedback.

Of course, while the back design and ace of spade were very straightforward for us (it transitioned quickly from Starbucks doodle to finished digital piece), the face cards went through several radical changes. We had a completely different set of face cards finished, discarded them, and ended up with the skeletons that you now see. The joker, without a doubt, was our most difficult design. Unlike any other playing card, the Joker is the blankest canvas with infinite possibility, so it went through the most changes.

What was your most brilliant breakthrough when designing the deck?
Without a doubt our biggest breakthrough was the realization of the minimalist color palette. Originally we wanted to have very open, very colorful stained glass backs, but every draft just seemed cluttered, busy, and managed to obscure Michael’s careful line art. Once we discovered the beauty of the black, white, and red colors it brought out all of the shadows of Gothic art drawn within the finesse of the intricate back designs.

From the project page, what are a few of your favorite reward levels and why?
I have two favorites. The first one is definitely the uncut sheet of cards because I’m a huge sucker for those. At the moment I have nine of them framed and hanging in my apartment. I love the fact that we are able to make Revelation’s uncut sheets so affordable to our backers and that we are able to include a deck of cards along with it.

My second favorite would be the t-shirts available to our backers, which highlight our unique box design. On the front you have the iconic skull that underscores our most prominent motif for Revelation, and on the back you have the subtle accent line running around the entirety of the box.

Finally, what are some of your favorite decks or designers?
Some of my favorite decks of cards have to be Ace Fulton’s, Clip Joints, and Vintage Plaids. Interestingly enough all three of those are Dan & Dave cards; not only are they well-designed, but they handle magnificently. Ace Fulton’s are perfect for close-up magic, Vintage Plaids have the best sort of color illusion on the back, and the simplicity of Clip Joints coupled with their elegant feel make each deck memorable.

Jackson Robinson’s Federal 52 series are amazing as well; his attention to detail turns every card into an individual work of art. Paul Carpenter’s Tendril series of cards show a fantastic balance of color contrast and design. Other cards I love include Ace Fulton’s Chinatown, green Artifice cards, Vintage Pierres and the Urban Punk deck.

Thank you for your time, Blake. If you like what you’ve read here and want to support the Revelation Deck, you can find it on Deckstarter here.


Pledge starts from $8 and Revelation will be printed by the EPCC. Also, add-ons such as uncut sheet and t-shirt are available. The tuck box will be specially foiled and embossed when the campaign reaches it's stretched goal of 125%.

News: Dan and Dave Teases Collaboration [Updated]

In conjunction with their birthday, Dan and Dave (@bucktwins) teased an interesting photo announcing a collaboration '73 years in the making'.

A Bruce Lee deck? Time to brush up on your mechanic kung-fu grip!

Update: 
D&D put up a few teaser photos on instagram yesterday and it had the Bruce Lee's signature black and yellow. Looks very much like Fulton's Chinatown: Game of Death (Yellow) deck.

The Deal with Mr. Fulton Part I: Buck Twins, and Creating Playing Cards

For this exclusive interview, we are honored to have a guest post from Austin Perez (Instagram: @austin100s). In part one of this guest post, Austin interviews Brad Fulton (@fultonplayingcards) for an insight behind Fulton's brand, relationship with the Buck twins, history of Cardistry and creating playing cards. Enjoy!

Playing cards are used for various reasons. Whether it’s playing a game of poker, performing magic, conning people with Three Card Monty, or making moves for your cardistry video. All these things involve the use of the hands to show why the cards are there. They need you to make something out of them.

Fulton’s Playing Cards are quite peculiar in a way it seems. They tell you stories by you just looking at them. From the cards to the tuck no detail is ever spared. The creator intended for the users to be able to look at them and go, “Wow, I wonder where that place is…” That creator is Californian native Brad Samuel Fulton. Mr. Fulton and his love for playing cards have been influential in the custom playing card world since its earliest days. From working with Dan and Dave Buck to now he has been a voice for the storyteller and artist that can be formed with a medium that is meant to be hands-on. Today, he takes time out of his forever busy schedule to sit down and talk.

So what really brought you to playing cards? Could you recall your first memories of it?
My first memories of playing cards were probably like most Americans. I played “Go Fish” and draw poker with my grandmother and never really thought about their design. Cards to me were Bicycle or Tally-Ho. In fact, playing cards seemed so standardized that it was hard to imagine changing them—kind of like money—nobody imagines redesigning the five-dollar bill. That all changed when I met Dave Buck when we were very young adults. For years I’d go with him to Costco where the Buck Twins would buy the mixed brick boxes of Bicycles. The twins would open two bricks in the store and remove half the color from one to create either a totally solid red or blue brick not mixed. It was the first time I thought about playing card colors.

As a playing card brand what was the first big challenge that really made you go all in, win or lose with this market?
I never thought about starting a brand. Clip Joint was a passion for me. I had the idea and needed to bring it to life. There was no spreadsheet forecasting sales, or even thinking about making money. It wasn’t a cash grab. I’m an obsessive person and it is was pure bliss to create that deck and then finally hold it in my hand and also see my friends use it. For the brand to become popular was really a bonus.

Do you have any advice for people wanting to start their own?
Be passionate. Don’t do some parody. Have respect for the genre. Playing Cards are such an amazing medium that you should really love them and think about each step of the process and have fun. You know the old adage if it’s not fun why do it?

Any advice for brands that are out there right now?
No, I don’t. Everybody will just do their own thing and it will work or it won’t.

When it comes to archiving some of the history of cardistry you were one of the first with Dan and Dave. Looking back what did you think would become of this?
That’s an interesting question. Somebody at a local meetup said to me last week jokingly “You S.O.B. You started this Cardistry photography craze and now it’s all I see on Instagram!”. It was pretty funny. Dan & Dave were my friends. Dave was working at the Apple Store with me so trust me nobody was getting rich or even seeing that as a goal. We just had a lot of fun together. I was finishing up at USC Film School and wanted to experiment with photography and what better subject than your friends? They were always ready to go, and we worked tirelessly. I knew the Bucks were special. They had something very few people have and that’s creativity and obsession. But on the other hand, I always thought that with a talent as unique/marginal as theirs it would be hard to make mainstream money. So, in all honesty, I didn’t have a clue where Cardistry would go. Certainly, I never imagined a convention for it. The Bucks envisioned going into filmmaking as did I. So, in a way I guess we’re just failed filmmakers Hahahaha.

Did you ever tell yourself that this hobby could become your passion as it is today?
Honestly, I’m not sure I ever thought it through that far. I felt so lucky to be working with my friends and getting paid to create ideas.

With so many playing cards nice being printed with an air cushion finish as the standard, what made you stick to the cambric 37 and ivory 37 finishes for your recent cards?
I’m a big card stock fanatic. I really beat cards up doing shuffles all day long to really see how cards change and handle. It’s a big deal to me. We developed the crushed stock for the Guy Hollingworth project which was another obsession/passion project of mine. Guy loves the old Studs that have this really thin, pliable feeling. The Bucks love it too. So, we used that for some of the new Ace Releases and I insisted on an Ivory 37 for the metallic gold since it shows off that ink so well. There’s no embossing to take away from that glorious finish. The downside is that people now are used to the crushed stock after it took off, so an Ivory 37 is going to feel quite hard in comparison.

What deck would you go back and do touch ups on if you absolutely had to? What would be those touch up if there were any?
The metallic gold printing on Chinatown is not up to my standards. That was an era of custom printing that wasn’t as defined or accessible as it is today. We had to pioneer a lot of things back then. The proofs were very different and the metallic gold the USPCC uses today is so much better. The design and box of Chinatown are still great, but that metallic gold doesn’t pop enough so that’s my one past obsession.

Looking at the names of the colorways of the recent three Fulton Casino’s decks they seem to have the similarity of being named after movie-inspired things. Do movies ever inspire you for the colorway or do the colorways come first and then the name after?
Well, I love the Wizard of Oz. So back in 2014, I had bought the book to read to my kids and it made me revisit the movie. I thought how cool an “emerald city” and a “yellow brick road” deck set would be. So, in that case, the movie inspired my color choices. On the other hand, Pink is one of my favorite colors and I love John Hughes, the writer of Pretty in Pink so that name was just a chance to name something after an era I grew up in.

Looking at your sci-fi photography portfolio is something of a treat with what seems like Twilight Zone and David Lynch inspired aesthetic. Will we ever see any sci-fi decks from you that are like your photography?
I’ve been working on one since 2013. The mood board and archive of designs for it could fill a room. This is actually Dan Buck’s favorite project I’m working on and he’s been a champion of it since its inception. Hopefully, it’s just a year or so away. But that’s an aesthetic world I live in. Just my point of view is pretty obvious aesthetically from my cards and photography, and it hasn’t changed since I’ve been a small boy.

Has it already played a role in any previous decks you’ve created?
The way I see the world is probably quite skewed. I live in a black and white episode of Rod Sterling’s Twilight Zone. I’ve always had a quirky way of seeing things so I guess you can say that anything I make will be in that universe.

Looking at the iconic Fulton design philosophy of making sure the cards have a story to tell, how long does it take you to come up with a brand new deck idea?
Well, the ideas come easy. I have an entire folder of decks that are conceptually made but the process of getting that idea completely fleshed out and executed can break your back. Clip Joint, I had the idea and sketches in 2010. I had numerous artists lined up but, in my gut, I knew nobody could make it happen like Daniel Phillips (DLP). Together we have a real connection where our frame of reference is so similar that it’s a shorthand. I can say “like the gold door design on...” and he’ll say, “Dragon Inn on El Camino Real in Oceanside.” It’s bizarre. Dan turned me down for six months for Clip Joint because he had a fear failing since he’d never designed a card back. But I’m very persistent and he wasn’t getting off the hook. The rest is history. I think that deck took a year. Right now, I’m working on my new Halloween Themed Deck that’s fallen through three different artists and been conceptually finished since 2014. So, it’s frustrating but at the same time, I can’t release a FULTONS Deck and feel I really did it halfway. The most difficult deck DLP and I ever worked on was Ace FULTONS believe it or not. Simple designs are extremely difficult. As DLP says, “there’s nowhere to hide.” And our finished Ace Deck had a few changes made by Dan Buck that in hindsight, make the cards work. He’s really the master of looking at a card back and adding these touches that make it sing. Easiest deck ever was October with Steven Noble. That came together so fast. Steven is a genius. And I’m not sure when he sleeps because he’ll hit you with proofs in a few days and I can’t understand how he does it.

With some of your works being in, what I would say, different genres of art, which one of the decks was the hardest to put to press for you or come up with?
Ace Fulton by far. It’s the only deck where I thought it might never work. It went through 100 revisions and I could probably make a living off the “B Roll” alone. Some of the old designs for it in hindsight are amazing. DLP and I work so smoothly together but I think that deck took us to the edge of sanity, and a case of beer for DLP. But it was worth it. It stands the test of time.

Read the second part of the interview here! Brad talks about Art of Play, new Fulton's, industry trends and Keanu Reeves.  Stay tuned! 


This segment is written by Austin Perez (Instagram: @austin100s). No part of this article can be reproduced without written permission from the author and Kardify.com.

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