Wildcards

HARTMANN ENRAGED AT KILLING, ATTACKS DEMONSTRATORS CARTER APPEARS

The New York Times, July 20, 1976

New York Daily News, July 20, 1976

He salvaged what he could from the fiasco. He told the waiting reporters that he'd simply been appalled by what he'd witnessed, by the unnecessary violence done to the poor Succubus. He'd shrugged his shoulders, smiled sadly, and asked them if they, too, might not have been moved by such a scene.

When they finally left him, Puppetman retired to his room. There, in the solitude of his room, he watched the proceedings on television as the convention elected Carter as his party's next presidential candidate. He told himself that he didn't care. He told himself that next time it would be his. After all, Puppetman was still safe, still hidden. No one knew his secret.

In his mind, Puppetman lifted a hand and spread his fingers. The strings pulled; his puppets' heads jerked up. Puppetman felt their emotions, tasting the spice of their lives. For that night, at least, the feast was bitter and galling.

Interlude Five

From "Thirty-Five Years of Wild Cards, a Retrospective," Aces! magazine, September 15, 1981.

"I can't die yet, I haven't seen The Jolson Story."

– Robert Tomlin

"They are an abomination unto the Lord, and on their faces they bear the mark of the beast, and their number in the land is six hundred and sixty-six."

– anonymous anti-joker leaflet, 1946

"They call it quarantine, not discrimination. We are not a race, they tell us, we are not a religion, we are diseased and so it is right that they set us apart, though they know full well that the wild card is not contagious. Ours is a sickness of the body, theirs a contagion of the soul."

– Xavier Desmond

"Let them say what they will. I can still fly."

– Earl Sanderson, Jr.

"Is it my fault that everyone likes me, and no one likes you?"

– David Harstein (to Richard Nixon)

"I like the taste of joker blood."

– graffiti, NYC subway

"I don't care what they look like, they bleed red just like anybody else… most of them, anyway."

– Lt. Col. John Garrick, Joker Brigade

"If I'm an ace, I'd hate to see a deuce."

– Timothy Wiggins

"You want to know if I'm an ace or a joker? The answer is yes."

– The Turtle

I'm a joker, I'm insane,

And you cannot say my name

Coiled in the streets

Waiting only for night

I am the serpent who gnaws the roots of the world

– 'Serpent Time,' Thomas Marion Douglas

"I'm delighted to have Baby returned to me, but I have no intention of leaving earth. This planet is my home now, and those touched by the wild card are my children."

– Dr. Tachyon, on the occasion of the return of his spaceship

"They are the demon children of the Great Satan, America."

– Ayatollah Khomeini

"In hindsight, the decision to use aces to secure the safe return of the hostages was probably a mistake, and I take full responsibility for the failure of the mission." -President Jimmy Carter "Think like an ace, and you can win like an ace. Think like a joker, and the joke's on you."

– Think Like An Ace! (Ballantine, 1981)

"The parents of America are deeply concerned about the excessive coverage of aces and their exploits in the media. They are bad role models for our children, and thousands are injured or killed each year while attempting to imitate their freak powers."

– Naomi Weathers, American Parents League

"Even their kids want to be like us. These are the '80s. A new decade, man, and we're the new people. We can fly, and we don't need no bogus airplane like that nat Jetboy The nats don't know it yet, but they're obsolete. This is a time for aces."

– anonymous letter in Jokertown Cry, January 1, 1981