{"product_id":"dead-mans-deal-rustfetish-9798288688720","title":"Dead Man's Deal: Poker Faces and Phantom Hands in the Dusty Backrooms of the West.","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eDead Man's Deal\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePoker Faces and Phantom Hands in the Dusty Backrooms of the West.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ci\u003eVolume 6 of the Nickel Souls Series\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCards never lie - and neither do the dead.\u003cbr\u003eTheir luck lingers. Their wagers still echo.\u003cbr\u003eIn this ghostlit tribute to the saloon underworld, \u003ci\u003eDead Man's Deal\u003c\/i\u003e unveils a gallery of phantom gamblers, skeletal bluffers, and memory-haunted hands. Here, the dead still play for stakes that never settled - and every card cut carries a story sharper than the spade it came from.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis isn't just a deck of illustrations. It's a séance in silver.\u003cbr\u003eEach page reimagines the Buffalo Nickel as a stage for forgotten legends of the Western card table - players whose names vanished but whose presence remains. Some hold royal flushes. Some hold regret. All of them play like something is still unfinished.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEvery portrait is a still-life of tension: a gaze across the felt, a half-smile hiding a history, a revolver just out of frame. These aren't just ghosts. They're echoes of the long game - where memory was the pot, and silence was the tell.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFeaturing over 30 pages of intricately inked, black-and-white artwork in the hobo nickel engraving tradition, \u003ci\u003eDead Man's Deal\u003c\/i\u003e explores the rituals, myths, and misdeals of Western card rooms. Accompanied by poetic vignettes, this volume is a meditation on luck, loss, and the spirits who never folded.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis book holds space for the unsaid: the soft clink of coins long spent, the phantom shuffle of a vanished deck, the cold certainty that some games never end. You'll find characters mid-bluff, mid-toast, mid-fall - each one frozen in the moment the game turned.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWhat Is a Hobo Nickel?\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eAnd Why Reimagine It This Way?\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Buffalo Nickel, first minted in 1913, quickly became a favorite canvas for outsider artists - \"hobos,\" drifters, and carvers who transformed coins into miniature sculptures. These altered nickels captured not just faces, but folklore - stories of struggle, rebellion, and identity, etched with knives and fire-hardened resolve.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eNickel Souls\u003c\/i\u003e continues that tradition.\u003cbr\u003eOnly now the tools are digital, and the spirits carved are those left out of the history books.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis volume carves not outlaws or icons - but the shadowed hands behind the chips, the breath between bluffs. It honors not the winners, but those who never stopped playing.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSkulls are not death here.\u003cbr\u003eThey are memory made permanent.\u003cbr\u003eAnd cards, not fortune-telling tools, but confessionals of fate.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePerfect for fans of: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- Engraving and coin art\u003cbr\u003e- Dark Western aesthetics\u003cbr\u003e- Haunted Americana\u003cbr\u003e- Macabre folklore with emotional weight\u003cbr\u003e- Black-and-white art books for collectors\u003cbr\u003e- Gothic storytelling and visual poetry\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eDead Man's Deal\u003c\/i\u003e is part of the \u003ci\u003eNickel Souls\u003c\/i\u003e series - a growing collection of art volumes by \u003cb\u003eRustfetish\u003c\/b\u003e that reimagine the mythic West through skull, coin, and spirit. From Native warriors to painted ladies, cowgirls, cowboys, and now cardroom phantoms - each volume is an engraved remembrance of the unspoken West. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhether you're a fan of macabre coin art, Western-themed art books, or collectible skull illustrations, this volume offers a bold blend of folklore, symbolism, and detail. A must-have for lovers of dark art, historical reinterpretation, and alternative Americana. Perfect for fans of outlaw mythology, Wild West ephemera, vintage engraving, and gothic poker tales - \u003ci\u003eDead Man's Deal\u003c\/i\u003e brings a haunting new face to Western legend.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Rustfetish\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798288688720\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Independently Published\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/19\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 82\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.27lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.20d","brand":"Rustfetish","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48066638086399,"sku":"9798288688720","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_703222c7-f5cd-4f86-a250-f29b8de06b48.jpg?v=1768679592","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/dead-mans-deal-rustfetish-9798288688720","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}