McMahon and Groom team for BAD BLOOD card game & ashcan comic

Artist Kelly McMahon and author Mat Groom are becoming a member of forces to commit a homicide. McMahon has designed a brand new deck of taking part in playing cards that includes paintings impressed by the deco model and style of the Twenties – and that includes the central characters in a brand new homicide thriller game by McMahon and Groom. Bad Blood will be performed utilizing the playing cards, and follows a journalist digging into the homicide of a profitable thief. A Kickstarter marketing campaign to fund manufacturing of the game will launch later this yr, and can even embody an unique eight-page ashcan comic that fleshes out the world of the game. The comic will likely be written by Groom and illustrated by Nicoletta Baldari.

Here’s how the announcement describes Bad Blood:

BAD BLOOD invitations gamers to fill the well-polished sneakers of journalist Joseph Field and uncover the thriller behind Dee Dumas’ homicide. His journal is the important thing to fixing this crime, learn via his findings and decipher the clues throughout the deck of playing cards and you may simply end up unraveling the threads of a diabolical conspiracy. Or seize a drink and attempt your hand at a game of poker because the physique depend grows, it’s your name…

Each character card brings to life a distinct faction of the one-time remedy homicide thriller that may be performed alongside any conventional card game. In the BAD BLOOD game, it’s no secret that Dee Dumas was a particularly proficient thief, responsible as sin with a depraved smile, but no person was ever in a position to ever truly pin something on her. She was on a observe to develop a worldwide repute, to go down within the books as one of many nice criminals of all time… till she was discovered lifeless on the docks. A single gunshot, to the pinnacle.

The ashcan comic will reveal backstory in regards to the relationship between reporter Joseph Field and homicide sufferer Dee Dumas, in addition to reveal new details about the world of the game. Other reward tiers for the Kickstarter embody a 2″ enamel pin (restricted to 200), a set of prints that includes all 4 Queens from the deck, and a 40+-page artwork e book that includes a prose story by Groom and behind-the-scenes illustrations by McMahon.

In a press release asserting the Kickstarter, McMahon described her inspiration for the card game:

“For as long as I can remember, I’ve been enthralled by the mystery genre, be it film, television, literature or a good old fashion internet stalk, I love to be the detective!” mentioned BAD BLOOD creator and designer Kelly McMahon, a graphic designer and illustrator primarily based in Los Angeles by means of Melbourne, Australia. “The romanticized glamor of the Twenties masquerades for the realities of the period. A ritzy elegant design, lavish life and devious underground happenings. There is the same romance in transferring your life to the otherside of the world, the dream sparkles however the actuality is way much less polished. All of this led to BAD BLOOD, my concept for a card game and homicide thriller expertise that harkens again to my love of the Twenties and my love for a very good whodunnit.

McMahon and Groom additionally instructed The Beat a bit extra about their experiences engaged on the undertaking. “The best projects are those that allow you to explore creativity in different mediums and concepts,” McMahon mentioned. “The opportunity to bring Bad Blood to life with such an incredible team has me feeling as through I already have the winning hand.”

“Kelly’s got a wonderful way of distilling designs to their core essence, and representing that in a profoundly elegant way,” added Groom. “This pin is an exemplary example of that– it’s iconic, and it’s stylish, and it’s gorgeous. I’m so glad we were able to get Kelly’s take on Erica’s superheroic design, in a form anyone can take with them everywhere!”

Check out the duvet artwork for the ashcan comic, in addition to mockups of the face playing cards and a number of of the numeral playing cards from every swimsuit from the Bad Blood deck, beneath. The prelaunch web page for the Kickstarter marketing campaign to convey the game and comic to life is stay now.