About The KeenCards Project:

The KeenCards Project is a collection of webcomic artists that have put their talents into creating decks of cards with artistic flavor from the comics that the artists produce. Each year a new deck is released for sale, but meanwhile every Wednesday one of the cards in the latest deck will be displayed on this website. The theme of the deck changes every year, beginning with the Alpha Deck, and most recently including the Femme Fatale Deck.

The project began as just a wacky idea for a card deck, but it has since evolved to promote the various participating webcomics, as well as to build up a somewhat closer community in the vast and varied realm of webcomic artists. This is in part because since the project’s beginning, it has been enthusiastically received by the artists who have heard about it. My hope is that it will continue to grow and change as the community of artists expands. The project is always looking for new artists to join, and anyone seeking involvement should go to The KeenCards Group and sign up.

About the Creation Process:

Creating a KeenCards Deck is a long and complicated process. It begins with a concept for the theme, such as femme fatales, true love, or cute mascots. From there, we decide on important details of the deck. These details include artistic decisions such as what we want the general feel of the deck to be, and whether or not to theme the card suits by color, and if we do theme the card suits, which colors should be used for them. We also decide on a title for the deck.

Once the general idea of the deck is in place, the KeenCards artists submit the spade, heart, diamond, and club designs that are used in the corner of every card. Then we decide which of the submissions to use, and create the templates that the artists use to produce their cards. We also work on designing the backs of the cards. After these basics are finished, it’s finally time to assign the cards to the various artists, and then it’s only a matter of time until the deck is finished!

A Few Words About The Alpha Deck:

The Alpha Deck is the name we eventually settled on for the first ever deck produced by The KeenCards Project. I began this deck way back in August of 2002, and originally it was supposed to be the entirety of the project. For the curious, the original e-mail in which the project was born can be found here.

The Alpha Deck has come a LONG way since its humble beginnings. It has been the source for the entirety of The KeenCards Project, and represents a year of "learning experiences" about how to run a collaboration of artists and webcomics. The Alpha Deck is a beginner’s deck. There are mistakes in it, and there are good ideas in it waiting to be developed in the future decks. On the whole, it lacks the precision and quality that future decks will have, but it was through work on The Alpha Deck that we developed the process for producing the cards, and it was this deck that first got people interested.

About The Femme Fatale Deck:

The Femme Fatale Deck focuses on the lethal women of the webcomic world. Whether the woman is cute but dangerous, like Meji of Errant Story, well-trained and deadly like Flurry of Magical Boys, or simply violent, like Aubrey and Peejee of Something Positive, this is the deck where she should be.

We will begin work on this deck September 1, 2003. That is, artists will be able to submit the spade, heart, diamond, and club designs that will be used on every card starting then. Actual card assignments will not begin until the templates for the cards are complete. For more information about this deck, please read the Rules section of this site, or contact the KeenCards Project coordinator.