Melissa Cynova So, there I am, fiddling about on Twitter instead of writing my new book (like ya do) when I saw this amazing fan art tarot card of Jared Harris. I know you know who Jared Harris is. He’s died horribly in some of the best movies and television shows out there.
He stars in a show called “The Terror”, which I can never watch because I am a giant chicken. I’m sure it’s an amazing show, however, because the reviews are great and the art inspired BY this show is absolutely breathtaking. I saw someone tag a card, and then fell into a Kami rabbit hole. It was fantastic.
I was so excited I immediately reached out to Kami and annoyed him incessantly. Here is our interview!
MC: How did you find Tarot?
K: I’m generally more of a Scully than a Mulder (90s kid represent haha), but I do love the idea of imbuing pictures with meaning and maybe a little mysticism. The human mind is capable of incredible feats and to me Tarot is an excellent example of something that can inspire these feats in people. It feels almost a bit like a secret picture language that is somehow both universal and extremely individual to each person “reading” it!
That being said, I have never even “done” Tarot before, so to actually answer the question: I guess I learned about it in the mass media. Specifically Dragon Age: Inquisition, which I haven’t even played but always admired the Character Cards which also double as Tarot cards. That’s basically where I copied the idea for the dual system of Tarot card and Character card from.
MC: Is the Terror your first deck?
K: It is indeed! I remember a conversation with my friend MasterOfAllImagination where we sort of wistfully talked about how cool a Terror Tarot deck would be and I said “I want one so much…but it can’t be done! It’s just too many cards.”
Then I just started drawing and now 26 cards later it’s become a project that also includes guest artists doing cards and I guess I stand corrected! (Still there’s so many cards to do! 78 cards is A LOT. But it’s also so much fun and honestly I am already worried what I’ll be doing with my life once this project is over.)
MC: Is Jared Harris the best actor of our time? NEVERMIND CLEARLY HE IS.
K: He. Is. He is so good, it’s almost incomprehensible. How can a single man be so good? I can not say. But he is.
All I want is for him to play a role where his character gets progressively more healthy and happy. (There is a petition…)
MC: How important are queer Tarot decks to you?
K: Very important!! As a gay trans man *everything* queer is very important to me.
MC: This maybe raises the question: How queer is the Terror Tarot deck?
K: The answer is: Pretty queer! Several artists involved are queer and I invite everyone to read all illustrations as queer as possible.
Yay! Special thanks to Kami for indulging my new fandom of him and his work. If you’d like to support Kami and be one of the cool kids like me, consider becoming a Patron by checking out his Patreon account!
