Mystical Medleys: A Vintage Cartoon Tarot is a divinatory deck of Tarot Cards designed by Gary Hall and published by Sterling Ethos as part of the Modern Tarot Library series.
It's a Themed Tarot Deck modeled after the Inkblot Cartoon Style popular in The '30s animation. Think, Betty Boop, Steamboat Willie, and Popeye.
Mystical Medleys provides examples of:
- Adam and Eve Plot: "The Lovers" refers to the Adam and Eve story: a man and a woman, both clad only in leaves (and shoes); one of the trees with apples on it, a snake in the middle, and a godly being watching from above.
- Adventurer Archaeologist: The "Page of Wands" wears the typical safari outfit while being in the desert.
- Animate Inanimate Object: Being an homage to rubber hose-style animation, a lot of the characters present are inanimate objects given faces and limbs.
- Baphomet: Satan as featured on "The Devil" was designed after the Sabbatic Goat drawing by Eliphas Levi, the image most associated with Baphomet.
- Bed Sheet Ghost: On the upper part of the "Ace of Cups", there's a white, surprised ghost with a hooded head, a light-blue overall, and a halo. Its body looks as if it's made of a transparent bedsheet.
- Calacas: "Three of Cups" features a trio of skeletal women dressed in Mexican-feminine attire, each dancing with a gold-colored cup.
- Cyclops: "The Fool", "The Magician", and "The Hierophant" both have one giant eye for a head.
- Deliberately Monochrome: Satan in "The Devil" is done entirely in greyscale. This contrasts the man, the woman, and the podium to which they are chained, and the torch in Satan's hand — all of them are colored.
- Eye of Providence:
- The back of every card is a parody of the Bicycle Rider playing cards with the eyes of providences in an eight-figure.
- The head of "The Fool" is that of a pyramid with a singular eye.
- Inkblot Cartoon Style: All of the characters (and objects too) are Cartoon Creatures who sport rubber-like limbs without knees or elbows. You won't catch any of them without gloves or shoes. They are also Pie-Eyed.
- Mocky Mouse:
- The shoes and pants worn by the men from "Three of Wands" and "Page of Cups" are an obvious reference to Mickey Mouse's default design.
- The "Two of Wands" wears a red hooded robe and shoes, and has a pair of brooms that brings to mind Mickey Mouse's appearance in "The Sorcerer's Apprentice".
- Mushroom Man: "Nine of Cups" features an anthropomorphic mushroom, complete with the red, white-spotted toadstool for a hat (or hair?).
- Our Minotaurs Are Different: Both "The Empress" and "King of Pentacles" are anthropomorphic bovines that, while not going full Informed Species, are still Pie-Eyed Cartoon Creatures with no joints whatsoever.
- Our Mermaids Are Different: The titular "Queen of Cups" has a red-headed mermaid with a crown sitting on a beach with a cup. There is also a baby mermaid (complete with Seashell Bra), a pacifier, and a bonnet.
- Screwball Squirrel: The two joke cards "Happy Squirrel" and "Sad Squirrel" are anthropomorphic squirrels in overalls.
- Shout-Out:
- The puppet body, hat, donkey ears, and bindle on "The Fool" are references to Pinocchio. The last two, in particular, allude to when the wooden kid runs away from home and gets transformed into a donkey as a consequence of foolish behavior.
- The "Page of Pentacles" looks similar to Tom Sawyer. It likely alludes to Sawyer's The Trickster nature and cruel streak.
- The "Two of Swords" is an Ace of Hearts that looks like one of the playing cards in Alice in Wonderland.
- The "Seven of Swords" has an Aladdin-like appearance.
- The deck includes a bonus "Happy Squirrel" card that references the one that appears in The Simpsons episode "Lisa's Wedding".
- The redhead girl riding a lion on the box is a dead ringer to Betty Boop. Well, if she wore a green cap, anyway.
- Spider People: "Five of Wands" features an anthropomorphic spider in a baseball uniform, wielding five baseball bats and a catcher's mitt with a baseball in it.
- Themed Tarot Deck: It's fashioned after the Inkblot Cartoon Style from The '30s. In other words, it features Animate Inanimate Objects and wobbly limbs. Furthermore, the characters always sport gloves and shoes in their attire. Most of them are deliberate shout-outs to the golden era of the Disney Animated Canon.
- Witch Classic: "Eight of Wands" features a coven of robe-and-hat witches on flying broomsticks.
