Marcel Ruijters Tarots

Published October 05, 2023 Updated December 09, 2023

Two very remarkable tarots by the award winning Dutch cartoonist Marcel Ruijters.

2007 NetherlandsCartoonTarotMarcel RuijtersSherpa

“Tarot Corrumpe” and “The Tarot” are two very remarkable tarots by the award winning Dutch cartoonist Marcel Ruijters. The “Tarot Corrumpe” (Corrupt Tarot) is a long out of print, limited edition, silk-screened, 24 card majors only deck, published by Le Dernier Cri in 2007, and “The Tarot” is a full 80 card deck published by Sherpa in 2015.

Both decks include two additional cards, namely Truth and Intuition, which are equivalent to Jupiter and Juno from the Tarot de Besançon, an arrangement first propounded by Onno and Rob Docters van Leeuwen in their “De Tarot in de hersteld orde” (Tarot in the Restored Order) first published in 1995.

The cards are a delightfully bizarre and irreverent take on the usual tarot imagery, and admirably display Ruijters incomparable style, typical of his many published graphic novels. Several of the original major arcana cards were revamped for the 80 card version (see images below, which clearly show the dramatic difference in size between the two decks - 190x120mm and 121x70mm)


"Tarot Corrumpe" - 24-card deck designed by Marcel Ruijters and published by Le Dernier Cri in 2007.

Above: five cards from "Tarot Corrumpe" by Marcel Ruijters, published by Le Dernier Cri in 2007. 24 cards in a folder.


"The Tarot" - a full 80 card deck designed by Marcel Ruijters and published by Sherpa in 2015.

See the leaflet

The Tarot, a full 80 card deck designed by Marcel Ruijters and published by Sherpa in 2015 The Tarot, a full 80 card deck designed by Marcel Ruijters and published by Sherpa in 2015 The Tarot, a full 80 card deck designed by Marcel Ruijters and published by Sherpa in 2015 The Tarot, a full 80 card deck designed by Marcel Ruijters and published by Sherpa in 2015 The Tarot, a full 80 card deck designed by Marcel Ruijters and published by Sherpa in 2015 The Tarot, a full 80 card deck designed by Marcel Ruijters and published by Sherpa in 2015 The Tarot, a full 80 card deck designed by Marcel Ruijters and published by Sherpa in 2015
The Tarot, a full 80 card deck designed by Marcel Ruijters and published by Sherpa in 2015

Above: The Tarot, a full 80 card deck designed by Marcel Ruijters and published by Sherpa in 2015. 80 cards, in a plain white tuck box with a window on one side, accompanied by short discourse about tarot by Marcel Ruijters, hand signed with his initials. Card size 121x70mm.

• See the box

• See the signed booklet

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By Adam West-Watson

Australia • Member since September 01, 2014

I have been fascinated by playing cards ever since I can remember, and still have several of the card games I had as a child. And although I had accumulated quite a number of packs of various sorts over the years, it wasn't until I was in my 50s that I began collecting in earnest. My tastes are quite varied, and my collection of 800 or so decks includes:- children's games, standard and non-standard playing cards, adult games, fortune telling and oracle cards, tarot cards, and even cigarette cards.

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