This deck features weirdly wonderful bio-mechanical anthropomorphic creatures from English artist Mr. Mead who channeled his childhood fear and obsession with anthropomorphism. The characters are grouped by family into the four suits, Birds for the Hearts, Horned Beasts the Diamonds, Cats the Spades and Foxes the Clubs. A total of 4 versions were printed in 6 runs of 100 each.  Each version uses the same cards, but a different tuck for each version.  Initially released in April 2011 as v1 with 100 decks using a tuckbox featuring a rat head and Antlers Gallery 'A' logo on the back, as they were sold by antlersgallery.com only or at the gallery reception event.  Shortly after a 2nd version was printed using the Diving Bull (AoD) on the tuckbox with 100 more decks.  This was followed by another 100 printing as v3 using the Voxman (AoC) on the tuckbox.  Finally the v4 in 3 print runs of 100 each using the foxhead logo, also known as the 'artist edition'.

Mr. Mead uses the traditional drawing technique of dip pen and ink to blend the animal, human and mechanic into a super species he nicknames Bio-Mechanical Anthropomorphism. Working from his studio in Jamaica Street Studios, Bristol, Mead creates artwork for folk tales, album covers, posters and large scale works. He has exhibited far and wide, from London to New York and Melbourne.

Note - details regarding the versions and printings were received directly from the artist via message exchange in early June 2015

Heretic Playing Cards by Lorenzo Gaggiotti (Stockholm17) is based on alchemy and the hermetic world. Salt (for the Jacks), Sulfur (for the Queens) and Mercury (for the Kings) are the three basic ingredients of the alchemist. This PCDB entry is for the Noctis version of the Gran Riserva edition, Salt class (just X serialized decks made with this class seal). Each deck in each class for the Gran Riserva editions have a custom printed seal for each class, plus a wax seal and signed by the artist. Other classes available in the Gran Riserva edition were classes for Sulfur, Salt and Antimony (for both Lux and Noctis), each with different quantities made. These are the tuck and cards as the basic versions of Lux and Noctis, but with the added seals and signed. In addition, there was also the basic versions of both the Lux and Noctis decks, plus uncuts of each. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/requiemcards/heretic-playing-cards