Comic Strip Spread

Difficulty: Easy
Note: This spread works best with decks like the Diary of a Broken Soul or Surrealist Tarot because they display scenes rather than pips and do not use reversals.
The Comic Strip Spread is a simple nine-card chronological spread that looks like a page of a comic book. This method should be used to get a glimpse of the future as it would pan out naturally. It may be insightful to use this spread in coordination with biorhythms. The spread is easy to read as a storyboard, just like a comic strip.
The main subject is apparent in the first card, while the story plays out through the following tarot cards.
It is important to pay particular attention to the cards and the relationships with their neighbours. Notice which directions the cards are facing, and how they interact.
Your Comic Strip Reading
The Empress![]() |
Knight of Swords![]() |
5 of Wands![]() |
6 of Wands![]() |
8 of Wands![]() |
6 of Cups![]() |
9 of Wands![]() |
6 of Pentacles![]() |
7 of Wands![]() |
Card 1: The Empress
Regime change in action, it happens more in the sewers than the senates. One goes out, another comes in.
Card 2: Knight of Swords
The guillotine is the most effective method of killing ever invented. You can poison or shock or stab or shoot people but nothing is so certain to cause death as severing their head. Amazing how fast the world forgot that.
Card 3: 5 of Wands
The means may be grotesque, but if they get you what you want you'd do well to use them.
Card 4: 6 of Wands
If you're stuck, the first step to freedom is to examine what's holding you in place.
Card 5: 8 of Wands
The means by which you arrive are not necessarily the means by which you'll stay.
Card 6: 6 of Cups
I have no clue what I was thinking on this one. No clue, but if this card comes into play, remember to watch the horizon.
Card 7: 9 of Wands
Thank you Mario, but your princess is in another castle. Besides, this one's blocked by a cypress tree fence. Lofty goals are nothing if you can't get to them.
Card 8: 6 of Pentacles
Don't overlook a good solution just because it's obvious.
Card 9: 7 of Wands
The BLOB! The blob has taken the streets! It's reproducing, the blob will kill us all!!! THE BLOOOOB!!!!!!!!!!