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Public Enemy, Iggy Pop, PJ Harvey, The Pixies & Prince: NME’s playing card set from 1991
09.05.2018
09:13 am
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A photo of a young Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul on the queen of hearts card from a playing card set released by the NME in 1991.
 
I’m going to break the bad news to you quickly when it comes to obtaining your own set of NME’s l playing card set from 1991: Coming across a complete 52-card set is pretty much a mission impossible. Single cards occasionally pop up on auction sites and can sell for five bucks or more when they do. As somewhat of a collector of this type of ephemera, I can completely understand coveting a set of these rare cards as they include an array of arresting black and white photographs featuring the music world’s most elite talents.

Whoever did this for the NME really must have had fun. I mean, Morrissey is the queen of diamonds, Mark E. Smith is the joker, and James Brown is the king of hearts. NME even added an extra number six to all of the number six cards so the tops of the cards read 666. Before I completely nerd out more than usual, let’s take a look at the best of NME’s playing card set below. You can see all of the cards here.
 

 

Kim Gordon + 666 = YES.
 

 

 
More after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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09.05.2018
09:13 am
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Full deck of awesome Japanese monster playing cards
12.15.2016
09:50 am
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1. Vampire Kyuradorosu.  2. Pollution monster Kashuasu.
 
File under: “things I wish I’d have known in school.”

This pack of Japanese playing cards features a selection of pachimon kaiju or “imitation monsters” lifted from various hit TV shows and movies. These monsters range from fire-breathing gorillas to flying creatures from outer space and giant electrocuting humanoids. The set was apparently manufactured as a promotional pack for kids by a Japanese brand of mayonnaise called Kewpie.

I’d have surely eaten my egg-mayo sandwiches without complaint if I’d been dealt a hand of these fun little beauties.
 
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3. Ice monster Gohoho.  4. Creature form outer space Altamegaro.
 
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5. Pesticide monster Deredoron.  6. Ancient dinosaur Tapikurosaurus.
 
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7. Elekipurosu—a giant electrocuting humanoid.  8. Meji—an extraterrestrial wolf who can fly.
 
See the whole monstrous deck, after the jump…

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Posted by Paul Gallagher
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12.15.2016
09:50 am
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Wonderful Japanese kaiju playing cards
10.14.2016
11:07 am
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I have almost no information about these marvelous Japanese playing cards featuring some of the most fearsome kaiju monsters, blithely exposing the naked hubris inherent in all of our fancy industrial structures (mostly by tearing them apart).

Judging from the typeface and so forth, it can’t be much later than the mid-1960s, can it? Anybody out there know?

The source for these images is Flickr user ToadLickr, who indicates that these cards may have been made by the Alaska card company.

You can see quite a few more of these great cards at the endlessly rewarding blog Monster Brains.
 

 

 
More of these excellent kaiju playing cards after the jump…...

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Posted by Martin Schneider
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10.14.2016
11:07 am
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Groove-tastic French playing cards from the 1960s
06.07.2016
01:51 pm
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I love everything about this great deck of incredible playing cards that I found at Flickr, they were put up by a user named taffeta whose real name is apparently Patricia M.

They were made by a company called Stemm in France, or maybe S.L.C. Atlanta was the company and Stemm was the product line? I don’t know. The deck seems heavily influenced by Peter Max and the geniuses responsible for the movie Yellow Submarine but it’s impossible to know.
 

 
In France the terms club, heart, spade, and diamond translate to trèfle, coeur, pique, and carreau. Meanwhile King, Queen, and Jack are represented as Roi, Dame, et Valet.

The faces are on the cards are French pop stars including Françoise Hardy, France Gall, Johnny Hallyday, Eddy Mitchell, Sylvie Vartan, Sheila, and so on. I’m pretty hopeless at matching the Google pics of those folks with these pics, so I’ll take their word for it. (Feel free to solve the puzzle in comments.)

In my opinion it’s more fun not knowing who the people are—it turns the deck into a gallery of random 60s swingers…...

For a nearly full deck, check out taffeta’s page.
 

 

 
Much more after the jump…....

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Posted by Martin Schneider
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06.07.2016
01:51 pm
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Exquisite bloodstained Italian giallo-themed playing cards
04.01.2016
09:11 am
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The Italian “giallo” genre of highly-stylized, gruesome, murder-mystery thrillers is the subject of a new product being produced by Cultzilla in the UK. Cinquanta due carte all ‘ombra di giallo!’ is a stunning deck of giallo-themed playing cards housed in a classy custom designed box. The gorgeous deck is currently available for pre-order and all profits from the sale will go to two autism charities (Autism Anglia and Swedish Autism and Asperger Association).

The point cards are all posters from giallo films, while the ace cards are all murder weapons.

The jacks are actors Fabio Testi, Jean Sorel, Ivan Rassimov, and George Hilton. The queen cards are actresses Edwige Fenech, Anita Strindberg, Florinda Bolkan, and Barbara Bouchet. The kings are directors Mario Bava, Dario Argento, Sergio Martino, and Lucio Fulci.
 

 
According to their site, the cards are available for pre-order until April 24th:

This is strictly a charity project, and no one is taking any profit from it. The pre order will remain open until 24th April, then I will order the decks, each one will be numbered and there will be no more print runs, so this is definitely a one off project, so if you want a deck, make sure you preorder it.  I would expect to send out the decks at the beginning of May.

The design work on these beauties is absolutely exquisite. The decks are priced at £12.50 each plus postage. Details are available at Cultzilla.
 

 
More after the jump…

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Posted by Christopher Bickel
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04.01.2016
09:11 am
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