Buffy tarot

[rogin]

Again, nothing creative from me I'm afraid, since I'm still drowning in work...but I promised to post if I hear anything new on the tarot cancellation and I've read this rumor:

"The Buffy Tarot card set from Dark Horse is cancelled. No reasons are given, but I hear talk it was due to conflicts with the representatives of certain actors/actresses who appear on the cards. Apparently make believe occult nonsense is fine, but an actual item that might be used in the black arts is not. But really. You think someone would have predicted this. Somehow. "

Source: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=17035

I'm hard pressed to believe it though, I mean, it's just cards. Fortune telling is hardly a black art (if you're not the spanish inquisition). That would be like canceling an action figure, because it could be used as a voodoo doll.

Comments

[sueworld2003.livejournal.com]

Where did you get that quote from? The hotlink takes me nowhere I'm afraid.

[http://users.livejournal.com/woman_of_/]

Yes, I read about that. I do read Tarot cards, but mostly I got into it for the art. Has to be said, with these cards, I wouldn't have bought them. They were too commercial

[fenderlove.livejournal.com]

Some people do get wiggy about anything remotely occult no matter how unassuming they are, like tarot cards. Vampires and make-believe magic are one thing, but seeing your image on something that someone could potential be using for actual practice is another. Then again, I think this has more to do with the portrayal of an actor or actress rather than anything else. And using Brian Lynch as a source, only SMG has the kind of likeness rights that could halt production on a product. Maybe she didn't like her likeness being drawn naked and wrapped up in a chain. That would have put spit in my Post Toasties. But it could easily be another actor or for another reason.

Maybe tarot should be rebranded in the US

[(Anonymous)]

This is not meant as a put down of tarot fortune telling, but if the cancellation of that Buffy deck is related to any controversy about tarot cards, I think it's time for tarot to be rebranded in the US.
The fact that tarot cards are sold in the US only for fortune telling is limiting the ability of those cards to fully become a part of our culture. In Italy where people play real card games with tarot, they had dancers dressed as tarot cards as part of the Olympics ceremony. Try to do that in the USA and the fundamentalists will shoot it down.
I have this thought that entertainment corporations could make more money with the gaming side of tarot than they would always stressing the fortune telling aspects. In France where tarot is recognized as a game there are all kinds of pop culture tarots. There's even been a Disney tarot published for game playing in France. If American companies knew what the French know about tarot cards, that they could be used for card games, tarot could be like all the different versions of the Monopoly boardgame on the market. We could buy tarot decks based on Star Wars, Elvis, Betty Boop, Looney Tunes, the Simpsons, Scooby Doo and much more!