From the incredibly exhaustive, often reviled and mind-numbingly extensive Wikipedia we define a few words. First up, chibi:

Chibi(term), Japanese word meaning “short person” or “small child”

Second, the more familiar, monster:

Monster: a fearsome creature.

These terms are not mutually exclusive. Anime watchers and manga readers have long known about Japans fascination with making things cute. And by “things” we mean “everything.” We recently learned Japan’s uncontrollable urge to “cute up the place” is related to kawaisa which started in the 1970s. Kawaisa can be translated to mean “precious”, “lovable” or “innocent”.

Fast forward a decade or two. The USA has fully embraced chunks of Japanese culture thanks to the mainstream audience finally catching up to what anime-subbing nerds have been on about since they first watched Akira or Robotech.

Now we get comics artist, Eric Merced, chibi monster creations of the classic Hammer film monsters from days of about the 1950s to 1970s.

What was the ultimate lesson here? Mashups remain king and cute monsters are cute.

Look at these guys. They’re like Japanese influenced Drak Pack of the 21st century .

Three more classic monsters live on Merced’s posterous.

via eric merced