This is a Major Arcana only deck which has been created from the comic strip by Angela and Luciana Giussani, adapted for tarot by Sergio and Paul Zaniboni and Franco Spiritelli.  Published in 1993, this deck is now hard to find, but of all the art decks I own, it's one of my favorites.  I was fortunate enough to come across it recently and liked it immediately.  Although I think a lot of the pictures would have a lot more meaning for fans of the comic strip, the artwork is good and the deck is interesting all round.
 
The main character of this deck is a "black" superhero, not in terms of race but in orientation.  I am reminded of a cross between Spiderman (his costume resembles that of the webbed hero) and Frank Miller's Batman, dark in character and dark in outlook.  He is featured in many of the cards as the dark hero, but I believe his real life counterpart graces the Emperor card.  All superheros have a real-life character, like Clark Kent to Superman, Peter Parker to Superman, or Bruce Wayne to Batman.  However, I don't have any information on this specific cartoon strip to tell me if I'm right or wrong, so if anyone knows otherwise, please let me know.  In general the scenes on the cards seem to show moments of the hero's journey in various experiences that he has.  There is a gritty reality that comes through in all of the cards, with moments of bright times peeking through the dark clouds.
 
Since this is an art deck, it has only the 22 Major Arcana cards, and no suits or court cards.  The titles of the Majors are generally traditional and are given in Italian only.  The ordering follows the European or Marseille standard.  Justice is 8 and Strength 11.  The majority of the card face is taken up with the image but the top white border has the title in bold black type in the left corner and the Arabic numeral in the right corner.
 
The cards themselves are printed on a nice heavy textured cardstock and are not coated for protection, so they will warrant careful handling.  The edges are cut to an even length but are not buffed even, they are just cut to the same size.  The corners are square and fairly sharp.  The stock that is used does not flex easily and so shuffling and handling is best done carefully.  I can tell that these cards would crease easily if they were accidentally bent during shuffling.  The back design is reversible and features a double-ended side portrait of the man in the Emperor card, smoking a pipe.  As stated above, I believe this man is the real life counterpart of the hero, but there is nothing accompanying the deck to indicate this.  There is no little white booklet, and regrettably no information at all included with the deck except what is on the title card.  I would have liked to have seen an extra card included which would have listed what character was on each card.

I recommend this deck mainly for collectors rather than as a reading deck.  Some art decks (Majors only) are done with the idea that they can be read with, and, while you could argue that some people could read with *any* deck (heck, some people read with rocks) this deck is what I consider to be a novelty type deck, done to feature characters from this comic strip, and thus a collectible.  It's getting to be hard to find but there are still copies around here and there.

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Review Copyright 2000 by Gina M. Pace

I Tarocchi Neri / Diabolik, 1993
published by LoScarabeo, Torino, Italy