The
13th Series Garbage Pail Kids set was due on March 7th, 1988 for a June release.
The two production runs of the 13th Series—aka
Original Series 13 GPK, or OS13 for short—are
the same except for their wrappers.  The first production run wrapper has
the 25¢ logo and the second production run wrapper has no price. This is
the third set to inlude the ‘FLICK IT!” section on the backs of various cards
completed by artist Richard Mcguire. With the GPK brand in its final run from
1987-1988 and the popularity slowing down the product is harder to find raising
the price per pack at certain retailers and increasing the demand for these cards
by collectors years later.

ARTISTS : JOHN POUND,
TOM BUNK, JAMES WARHOLA, JAY LYNCH, RICHARD MCGUIRE & GARY WHITNEY
WRITERS
: JAY LYNCH

88
CARD SET : 80 CARDS + 8 VARIATIONS
VARIATIONS : 507a, 507b, 518a, 518b, 534a,
534b, 538a, 538b

Artist Jay Lynch
brought in friend and artist Gary Whitney to assist him on the artwork for the
card backs for the set; this would be the only known set that Whitney contributed
to and wouldn’t necessarily be on the Topps books. The NPD team would also have
artist Richard McGuire work on the ‘FLICK IT!’ section again; for sets OS11 through
OS16.

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UNCUT
SHEET — 132 CARD SHEET — 8 x 11 FORMAT
SHEET CODE 4-490-05-07-7
— NO IMAGE

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CASE
BOX — 24/48 ct. — PRODUCT #490-13
CODE 2-490-39-08-7 — UPC
0-41116-03490-9

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DISPLAY BOX — CODE 1-490-40-09-07 —
1 VARIATION
MAIN + SIDE ARTWORK : JOHN POUND
BOX DESIGN : BRAD KAHLHAMER

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WRAPPER
#1 — CODE 0-490-21-13-7 — 25¢ PRICE — 1 VARIATION
RENDERED
ARTWORK : TOM BUNK — DESIGN : BRAD KAHLHAMER

WRAPPER #2 — CODE 0-490-21-14-7
— NO PRICE — 1 VARIATION
RENDERED ARTWORK : TOM BUNK — DESIGN
: BRAD KAHLHAMER

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RETAIL AD POSTER — CODE
4-490-08-07-7 — SIZE 10 x 14
ARTWORK : JOHN POUND — DESIGN : BRAD
KAHLHAMER

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WHOLESALER
SELL SHEET — CODE # 490-13 — SIZE 8 x 11
ARTWORK : JOHN POUND —
DESIGN : BRAD KAHLHAMER

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Artist Tom Bunk often creates Color
Roughs with different perspectives; below are samples of a few of these
versions that can be compared to the final artwork for cards 514a Ampu-TED and
514b HANS Off where the head is being sawed rather than the hand; cards 520a Sprinking
JOSE and 520b JAY Spray showing a vertical version where the hose is positioned
through the mouth; and cards 527a Toilet BO and 527b Butt-Bit BRANDON where several
objects have been removed or added to the artwork; hat, toilet paper roll vs.
comic book, hair color, tank eyes, seat over, et cetera.

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Pictured below is a John Pound Pencil
Rough sample for cards 503a LOUISE Trapeze and 503b 3-Ring CYRIL and a
color rough for cards 519a Paddlin’ ADELINE and 519b RIKKI Racket. Since very
few unrevised thumbnail sketches by Pound have been available to the public there
are very few changes, if any, that can be found between the tight pencil, color
rough and final artwork since they are photocopied and colored and painted over.

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This Tom Bunk final Artwork
Variant was finished in 1988 and reworked for the set; the image
was changed from a boy to a girl with a kitchen background added to become cards
536a Scrambled AGGIE and 536b SONNY Side Up. In June of 2015, Topps released their
30th Anniversary set that contained a ‘Lost Alternate Art’ that included the artwork
piece with the same naming as the OS printed card except the ‘b’ name was changed
from Scrambled AGGIE to Scrambled EGON due to the male gender.

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The Color Rough
for James Warhola’s artwork for cards 504a COOPER Scooper and 504b JESS Desserts
went through several changes from start to finish. Besides a drastic change in
clothing and a hat added, the character’s tongue has been removed, the left arm/hand
does not show up on card and the left eye is missing (instead of the right eye).
The layout of the picture became horizontal with a neighborhood and ice cream
truck added to the artwork. It is interesting to point out that part of The
Eyescream Boy title shows up in the final artwork as the name of the ice cream
truck.

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For the pencil and Color Rough of Tom Bunk’s
artwork for cards 507a Target PRENTICE and 507b Blow HARDY, he was asked to place
the GPK banner within the final artwork for the dripping snot placement; the final
artwork can be seen within the ‘Artwork Gallery’ section.

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The OS13 FLICK IT!
section artwork on the reverse card backs emulates a flipbook-type effect
was completed by artist Richard McGuire. The Puzzle Puke
backs were completed by artist Jay Lynch who completed the color roughs and final
artwork assisted by artist and friend Gary Whitney.

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Certain Topps Super
Star baseball cards from 1988 can be found with Garbage Pail Kids card
backs. These ‘mule’ cards are basically a printer’s waste product where some preparatory
or ‘work-up’ sheets are created by running through sheets to locate any ink issues
or find any faults that might be present on either side of the once blank sheets.
These type of ‘forced’ card issues are quite interesting and curious how they
find their way on the market. These Canadian baseball cards, much like many older
UK and European trading cards, are the smaller ‘cigarette card’-sized cards; the
larger GPK card size will never be found lined-up properly with the smaller baseball
cards.

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GPK Flowcharts
were created for the later releases which showed the art director how the progress
of the new set was going. It displayed what artist was working on which concept
piece and the stage in which the painting had been completed. Oftentimes, concept
pieces were denied and the department tried to work them into later sets. A list
of additional concept pieces was found at the bottom of the flowchart in case
pieces could not be used. The OS13 set contained the following ideas which either
replaced denied concept pieces within the set, were saved for a later series or
never saw the light of day: Johnson Smith suicide (Johnson Smith Catalog), kid
with dog on hand and arm, bugs swarming head (OS16), cigarette lighter, kangaroo
killer (unpublished).