SPRING 2008 – SUMMER
2008

1.
For starters, I believe you could be the youngest, if not one of the youngest,
contributors of Garbage Pail Kids. Can you tell us a bit about your GPK background,
like your experience collecting the cards as a kid and what they meant to you,
and any shock you might have had at their re-introduction in the 2000’s?

I think I am the youngest contributor
to GPK. I started working on concepts when I was 23, and literally graduated from
college the week that I first talked to Jeff Zapata. I remember that I was about
to get on the train for my commute home, when I got a call from Jeff. I was trying
to find a spot to get good reception in the train station, and I was talking about
the concepts that I had submitted. I was so excited, and was hoping that I didn’t
lose my connection. I’m sure people thought I was crazy discussing snowmen
with human body parts and monkeys eating brains.

ANS7: 15a PRIME NATE & 15b SIM IAN

I loved Garbage Pail Kids when I was younger. I would carry my large stack of
cards with me everywhere I went. I even have a Christmas home video where I’m
opening series 10 packs that were in my stocking, and you can see how excited
and hyper I was looking through each card. It’s hilarious. I also remember
sometimes getting packs of GPK for treats after meals. I’d say that the art
really influenced my personal style, and it’s always stayed with me.

Somehow I lost all of my cards after they stopped making them, except for a couple
that my mom saved in a big box of photos from when I was growing up. She says
that I stuck them all somewhere and those were the only ones she managed to salvage.
Many years later, I stumbled upon ALI Gator which was one of the cards that was
in that box, and I found a trading card company that was selling unopened full
GPK sets. Over the next few months, I saved up my money, and re-bought every single
series. This was in like ’97. Back then, I thought that there was no way
that GPK would ever come back. Little did I know what was to come. Jump to 2003,
I find out that Topps is bringing them back, and was psyched.

2.
As a fellow collector and GPK enthusiast, some of the GPK community may have an
occasional concept slip through the system and get published, or dream up some
crazy concept idea or name, but you took it a step further and went full-steam
ahead by contributing some amazing concepts for the ANS sets… how did you
go about contacting Topps, and how exactly did work find you there?

Well, like I said, I
was just finishing school when I started sending stuff to Topps. I was putting
together my portfolio, and I was looking for full-time jobs in the animation business,
which is what I went to school for. Getting your foot in the door can be a long
process, so it seemed like a good time for me to try to contribute in some way
to the new GPK, which is something I had always wanted to do. ANS4 had come out,
so I had GPK on the brain. Basically, I just started sketching up ideas, looking
through my cards for inspiration. After I had some that I liked, I didn’t
really know a direct way of contacting anyone at Topps, or even who to contact,
for that matter, so I started sending them to the different collectors who ran
GPK fan sites to see if anyone knew who I should be sending my ideas to. I believe
I actually sent them to you, and you were very encouraging, but it was Wayne of
Wayne’s Garbage Pail Kids Reference who actually sent them along to
Jeff. Eventually, I was talking directly to Jeff, and that’s how I got started.

3.
Can you share your initial experiences with submitting your concepts to Topps
and any feedback you may have received about your work?

It was very cool when I got
to the point where I was consistently sending stuff to Jeff, and getting feedback.
For ANS5 there was a pretty consistent flow of ideas going back and forth between
him and me. In the beginning, I was emailing Jeff really rough ideas as I came
up with them. He would let me know which ones he liked, which ones he hated, and
what to change or add. Then I would do a pretty tight pencil drawing of them.
Eventually I started just sending the tight pencils. I like getting them as close
to how I think the final card should look as I can. I think altogether I ended
up submitting around 30 ideas for my first series. Jeff was very patient and helpful
in taking the time to explain the business to me, since this was really my first
professional job, and I was pretty green. I have to be honest though, I was a
little intimidated by Jeff in the beginning. He let me sweat it out a little as
far as letting me know if my ideas were going to be used, but he was always encouraging.
By the end of ANS5, I had gotten better at drawing GPK, and had a better idea
about which ideas would be accepted. The last few ideas were approved pretty quickly.

ANS6: 31a LYIN’ RYAN and 31b TALL TALE TIM

4.
Do you have any art schooling in your past? Or have you always been artistic?

I started drawing when I was
very young. I spent a lot of time trying to reproduce all of my favorite cartoon
characters and superheroes, as well as my favorite GPK. I clearly remember drawing
stuff as far back as 1st grade, trying to impress my classmates, and I always
loved art class whenever I had it. No one ever sat down and taught me how to draw
when I was younger, but over the years I have taken some painting classes and
general art classes to try to expand what I could do. I think I really started
to approach art in a different way when I went to The Art Institute of Philadelphia
for animation. I learned a lot about composition and planning out my drawings.
I also got a lot of practice with various figure drawing classes I had to take,
which I found really helpful when applying that to drawing more stylized characters.

5.
What other projects or work preoccupies your time besides your work at Topps?
Have you considered working on other Topps projects or have been approached to?

Besides
working on GPK, I am currently the Lead Animator for an animation studio in Hamilton,
NJ called Two Animators! (www.twoanimators.com).
I’ve been working there with a very talented group of artists for almost
two years now. We do a lot of web animation for various animated series and games,
as well as other original concepts. Whenever I have some time to spare, I also
tinker around with some of my own animation ideas.

PINGITORE’S MISC. ARTWORK SAMPLE

I did some concept work for Topps’ Hollywood Zombies series. That was a lot
of fun, but I wasn’t able to contribute as much as I wanted to, due to a
busy schedule. I haven’t been approached to work on any other series, but
I’d definitely jump on the opportunity to work on Wacky Packages. I was a
big fan of the series that came out in the early 90’s, and I know I could
come up with some nasty product parodies.

6. I
know for Wacky Packages concept artists, walking through the grocery store
can inspire ideas for their work… when do concept ideas for the “Kids”
‘pop’ into your brain?

It’s kind of a similar process for me. For the most part, I don’t sit
down and try to think of new ideas. I’ll be going about my business, and
something I see or think about will spark an idea. Another thing I do is try to
think of things that I enjoyed as a kid, such as games I played (Tether BILL),
making snowmen (Armless AARON) and winter (Ice COLE), opening presents (PETER
Package), milk (Milkin’ MILT) and cookies (Licked VIC), my birthday, which
is Valentine’s Day (Courtin’ CODY), as so on. Other times I’ll
get ideas from a movie I’m watching. For example, I thought of “TODD
Da!” while watching The Prestige, and “Inmate NATE” while
watching Saw.

ANS5: 33a TETHER BILL and 33b SPORTY SPENCER

7.
Is there a certain concept process you follow… as far as checking that GPK
concepts remain fresh and unused (to adhere to strict GPK fans rules and regulations)?

As I think of ideas, I’ll
usually jot down a short description in my sketchbook, or do a quick thumbnail
so I remember it. When I’m ready to start submitting concepts, I’ll
flip through all of the previous cards, and make sure none of my concepts are
too close to something that has already been done. If I find a similar idea, but
I think I could take it farther, or add something to it, I’ll submit it,
but if not, I don’t. “MIKE Strike” was an example of this. There
was a card in the original series of a bowling ball with a GPK face on it, and
I thought it would be cool to show the kid throwing his head as the ball and have
his eyeballs stuck to his fingers watching his own head go down the lane. After
I choose which ones I want to use, I’ll do a rough sketch to lay out how
I see the composition of the card. That’s usually what I send to Jeff, and
then I do a final tight sketch and incorporate any changes or additions.

ANS6: 26a MIKE STRIKE & 26b BOWLING FOR DALLAS

8.
So you’re basically handing over your art to Topps to distribute to other
artists to complete for the final artwork. Do you have a say in where the concepts
go, or does Zapata (the art director for GPK) choose who he feels best fits the
mold for the concept?

No, I don’t have any say in who does what concept. It’s always fun discovering
who got which concept though, and what their interpretation of it is. I suspect
who gets what concept is decided by both who has time, and whose style would work
best for it.

9.
How do you feel about seeing the different interpretations of your concepts once
the final artwork is completed — and has most artists stayed pretty true to your
ideas? Do you see the final artwork before its released on card?

It’s always interesting to see what an artist will do with the concept that
I submit. I have a picture in my head about how I envision the final card looking.
Sometimes the final card will be different from what I expected, but that’s
not necessarily a bad thing. I’ve experienced both. Luis Diaz has done the
final paintings for a lot of my concepts, and he always keeps the idea of my original
concept, but also puts his own spin on it, or adds things that I wouldn’t
have thought of. It’s very much a collaborative effort. On the other hand,
Layron DeJarnette has also done a number of my concepts, and he tends to stay
pretty close to what I draw, but just tightens everything up, adds details, and
gives it a nice glossy finish. His painting of “Armless AARON” is dead
on to how I wanted that card to look. I’ll never forget seeing it for the
first time. So, it can work both ways. Occasionally I do get a sneak peak of the
final paintings that were based of my concepts, which is always a nice bonus.

ANS5: 15a ARMLESS AARON & 15b UNARMED ADRIAN

10.
As ‘next generation’ GPK artists, you and Luis Diaz are considered somewhat
of a GPK ‘dream team’… he seems to receive quite a few of your
concepts. Is this coincidence? Your “Ice COLE” concept, and Diaz’s
finished piece is simply mind-blowing.

Luis does amazing work. Like I said, he’s done a lot of my concepts, and
if I find out that he’s working on my stuff, I know they’re in good
hands. He painted all of my ANS6 concepts, except for one, and all of his paintings
from ANS7 were based off my concepts.

ANS7: 19a ICE COLE & 19b STUCK BUCK

11.
How often are you asked to re-do concepts? Or are some of the ideas accepted loosely
and then twisted or re-imagined by the art director or other artists?

It’s not unusual for Jeff
to ask me to make some changes to the stuff that I submit. Ideas are constantly
evolving. It’s always good to get some fresh eyes to look at something. It
usually makes the final concepts stronger in the end. I’m personally always
trying to improve my own concepts even after the original idea has been accepted.
Like I’ll think of another way of doing something that I had just submitted
the day before. For the glassblower GPK, I originally had the stick with the glass
head coming from a hole in his neck, but the next day, I thought it was a cool
image, but that didn’t make much sense to me, so I reworked it to how the
final card is. Also, sometimes ideas will be accepted, and Jeff, or the artist
who paints them will change it around a little. For example, my sketch for the
water fountain GPK was pretty straight forward, and it was Jeff who twisted it
a little and had Fred Harper make it really creepy and cool.

ANS7: 28a GLASS BLOW JOE & 28b GAS-BLOWIN’ OWEN

ANS7: B1 LEAKY LESLIE

12.
At the recent Philly Show, in Allentown, PA this past October – during the
Q&A session with the Topps panel (including John Williams, Jeff Zapata, Jay
Lynch and Dave Gross), you were in the audience with us collectors and it was
a ‘bonus’ to meet you at the convention (along with Fred Wheaton and
Fred Harper) – Zapata was pretty darn adamant about you churning out some
final artwork for future GPK sets or projects. Would you consider this? Or at
least partake in sketch cards if the opportunity arose and sketch cards were considered
again?

I would definitely love to do final paintings of my concepts. That’s really
my ultimate goal. I’ve been working behind the scenes to hone my skills.
It just takes practice to get to the point where they look how I know they should
and want them to. Sketch cards are another thing that I’d love to do. I’ve
seen how much collectors like them, so that’d be really fun, and I’d
love to put my own spin on some of the older cards.

13.
You’re my first “all” GPK concept artist I have interviewed, but
I found it important because a lot of the final work stems from these pieces of
work and you have submitted a staggering amount of ideas for the ANS releases
… but there is one painting that you initially started to paint but it was
taken over by Brent Engstrom. Can you tell me about this piece in more detail
and will the GPK community ever lay eyes on this original piece that you painted?

Well, I had always been mentioning
to Jeff that I wanted to try painting one of my concepts some day, because I have
dabbled in oil and acrylic before, so eventually when ANS7 was winding down production,
he told me to give my Oreo GPK concept a try, which was a concept that had been
floating around since ANS5. He said if it turned out good, he’d use it. So,
that was my first try at painting a GPK ever, and it was a huge learning experience
for me because time was limited, and I was painting digitally, and wasn’t
experienced with blending paint in Photoshop, so it didn’t turn out as well
as I wanted it to.

TEST PAINTING: 48a DEL ICIOUS & 48b LICKED VIC

Looking
at it now, it’s very flat, the shadows are weird, and there wasn’t enough
rendering and depth. Jeff gave me some notes, and I was working on revising it,
but there just wasn’t enough time left for me to finish it off, so Brent
ran the last base on that one for me. That being said, I’ve been working
on painting GPK, and I am much happier with how I’m progressing, so look
out for paintings possibly coming to a future set near you.

Thanks Aaron!