Monster Bromide Cards

12.16.2021

I love Godzilla cards. And I came upon a set I had never seen before while searching Buyee Japan. This is the TV Land Giant Monster Bromide Pictorial Book (テレビランド • ブロマイドブック • シリース③ 大怪獣ブロマイド図鑑) published by Tokuma Shoten (徳間書店) in 1979. A bromide is a publicity photograph of a movie star, entertainer, etc. There are 352 bromides in this book featuring not only Godzilla and his other Toho monsters, but also Gamera and kaiju from Tsuburaya, Daiei and Toei. Each page contains vibrant and colorful cards of photographic stills and scenes from their productions. The pages are bound together with a metal screw that can be removed to release the pages. The cards can be cut and separated and then assembled in an album for display, protection and trading. On average there are three and as many as five photos per card. On the reverse side are details and data about the monster, scene, etc. Series 1 and 2 featured Kamen Rider.

“Bromide (ブロマイド, buromaido) is a category of commercial photographic portraits of celebrities including geisha, singers, actors and actresses of both stage and film, and sports stars in Japanese culture. The use of the term “bromide” or “promide” occurs regardless of whether bromide paper was actually used for the photograph.” Bromides were popular and a way to measure popularity of idols (Source: Wikipedia). Godzilla bromides have been around for along time. They’ve been published and packaged in a variety of sizes and ways. I have various bromides in my collection.

“Tokuma Shoten Publishing Co., Ltd. [徳間書店] is a publisher in Japan, headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. The company was established in 1954 by Yasuyoshi Tokuma in Minato, Tokyo. The company’s product portfolio includes music publishing, video game publishing, movies, anime, magazines, manga and books” (Source: Wikipedia).