Menko rock.
They're little cardboard trading cards. The most common are tiny one-by-three inch rectangles, but they come in all sorts of shapes and sizes: circles, squares, you name it. If you've got a favorite anime or tokusatsu character, chances are there's a menko for it. They were produced in massive quantities throughout the 50's, '60s, and '70s, though collectible card games like Pokemon have eaten into the action lately. At their most sublime, they're art. Like pocket-sized woodblock prints. Hokusai, eat your heart out.
There's about ten zillion types of menko out there, but my favorites are the ones featuring foreign characters. Like this guy, who I don't recall having seen in Ultraman.
Or having fought alongside Oba-Q.
Is that Johnny Weissmuller? I pray there's a "Greystoke" version with Christopher Lambert, too. Love the yawning elephant.
Have you seen these men?
My all-time favorite: The Horribly Malformed Extraterrestrial. How much better would ET have been if it'd starred this stoner instead of Elliot?
That...that last one is just messed up....
So, Menko are the name of the trading cards that use stills as well? Amada did some beautiful 'mini cards' for Hokuto no Ken and the Galaxy Express 999 movie.
What I always was amused by was how...multipurpose these cards are. Usually they have 'rock/paper/sissors' and/or playing card suits or 'power numbers' of some form for all kinds of game play...
Hey, I was just looking at my Hokuto no Ken cards, I have one with a red 'Atari!' printed on the back...that means I would have won something doesn't it?
Simplier times, man....
Posted by: Steve Harrison | April 14, 2006 at 02:57 PM
Menko is a catch-all term for all sorts of old-school trading cards. I've heard it applied to both the illustrated and photographic kinds. I'm not sure what your atari card would have entitled you to... Perhaps "noogies" from Ken Shiro's voice actor?
Posted by: Matt | April 14, 2006 at 03:27 PM
Wow, that version of E.T. even has a Death Star and a frisbee UFO. There's something sinister about the stoner, though.
Posted by: Joseph Luster | April 18, 2006 at 06:06 AM
Take a closer look -- it's even weirder than the Death Star. It's the Discovery from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Where's Dave when you need him? Perhaps this card represents what happened after he went through the Monolith...
Posted by: Matt | April 18, 2006 at 09:43 AM
I'm too scared to look closer!
Posted by: Joseph Luster | April 18, 2006 at 03:31 PM