The
1st Series Garbage Pail Kids — aka Original Series 1 or OS1, for short
— were released by Topps to a slow response from the public in the beginning.
However, a test release was sold around the New York area with and with growing
interest, mainly by word-of-mouth, the packs began to sell. The first wrapper
version contains the ’25¢’ logo on the pack; this is the suggested retail
price (SRP) for a wax pack of 5 stickers and a slab of gum at retail. The second
wrapper version does not contain the ’25¢’ logo on the pack; the hobby store
owner could apply their own price. Both box versions of the 1st Series through
the 15th Series of GPK, can be found with or without a 10×14 advertisement poster
that the retailer could display in their window. The 1st through 15th Series sets
also have a seller ad sheet used by wholesalers to solicit orders from their retailers;
these are not always series-specific. The 1st Series box is the only series so
far that can be found with a box dealer insert ad — that is GPK related.
The cards in both revisions of the 1st Series are the same except a gloss or matte
finish back can be found as well as an asterisk (*) or two asterisks (**); both
printing anomalies.

•

ARTISTS
: JOHN POUND & TOM BUNK — WRITER(S) : MARK NEWGARDEN

88
CARD SET : 82 CARDS + 6 VARIATIONS
VARIATIONS : 5a, 5b, 8a, 8b, 29a, 29b

•

The
Garbage Pail Kids™ trademark was filed on January 15th, 1985 with the registration
number ‘1359512’ for goods and services; “candy and chewing gum sold alone
and in conjunction with stickers”. The first date the Garbage Pail Kids word
mark was used anywhere or in commerce was November 11th, 1984; wrapper mock-up,
et cetera. The concept and greenlight for the series occurred late in 1984 and
took around six months to create the set. The trademark was approved for publication
on March 3rd, 1985 and the 1st Series was released in May of 1985; at first as
a test release on the East Coast before the nationwide release. The registered
trademark registration date occured on September 10th,
1985 which started to show up on packaging and on card for the 2nd Series released
in October of 1985.

NOTE: FOR THE OPC (O-PEE-CHEE) RELEASE VISIT THE CANADA
OS1 PAGE

PRODUCT
& PACKAGING

PARTIAL
UNCUT SHEET — 132 CARD SHEET — 11 x 12 FORMAT
CODE 4-494-05-01-5
— 44 SIZE SET x 3 SETS

•

DISPLAY
BOX — NO VARIATION — CODE 1-494-40-01-5

ARTWORK : JOHN POUND — BOX DESIGN : BRAD KAHLHAMER

•

WAX
WRAPPER — VARIATION 1 — CODE 0-494-21-01-5 — 25¢ CHEAP

RENDERED ARTWORK : TOM BUNK — DESIGN : BRAD KAHLHAMER

WAX
WRAPPER — VARIATION 2 — CODE 0-494-21-02-5 — NO PRICE
RENDERED
ARTWORK : TOM BUNK — DESIGN : BRAD KAHLHAMER

•

RETAIL
AD POSTER — CODE 4-494-08-01-5 — SIZE 10 x 14
ARTWORK : JOHN POUND
— DESIGN : BRAD KAHLHAMER

•

WHOLESALE
SELL SHEET — PRODUCT # 494 — SIZE 8 x 11
CARD ARTWORK : JOHN POUND
— REVERSE CARD: TOM BUNK

•

DEALER
BOX INSERT — PRODUCT # 494 — SIZE 5 x 7 HALF SHEET
CARD ARTWORK
: JOHN POUND — REVERSE CARD : TOM BUNK

ALSO:
WHOLESALE SELL SHEET — PRODUCT # 494 — SIZE 8 x 11
XEROXED, ENLARGED
& CROPPED VERSION OF THE BOX INSERT

•

GREEN
WHOLESALE ORDER SHEET — SIZE 8 x 11 — CODE 4-999-40-01-6
TOPPS
LINE-UP OF STARS — PRODUCT # 494 — FEBRUARY 1986 RELEASE

•

RED
WHOLESALE ORDER SHEET — SIZE 8 x 11 — CODE 4-999-40-04-7
TOPPS LINE-UP
OF STARS — PRODUCT # 490 — APRIL 1987 RELEASE

•

BLUE
WHOLESALE ORDER SHEET — SIZE 8 x 11 — NO CODE
TOPPS LINE-UP OF STARS
— PRODUCT # 490 — OCTOBER 1988 RELEASE

•

BLUE
WHOLESALE ORDER SHEET — REVERSE SHEET SIDE
TOPPS LINE-UP OF STARS —
PRODUCT # 490 — OCTOBER 1988 RELEASE

•

CASE
BOX — 24/48 CT. — PRODUCT #494
CODE 2-494-39-01-5 — DATE 7-85
— UPC 41116-00494

•

STICKER
ALBUM — OS1 & OS2 — 12 STICKABLE PAGES — ONE 6-POCKET SHEET
NOTE: THE RED ADAM BOMB SUIT WITH THE IMPERIAL BLUE BACKROUND;
OS2 WRAPPER LAYOUT
IMPERIAL TOY CORPORATION — ARTWORK : JOHN POUND

—
The only set that has the GPK header with the ‘TM’ (™) Trademark
Symbol on the card front and wrapper; not including the Giant 1st Series
cards which has the registered trademark symbol since
it was released later during the 2nd Series when the registration for the trademark
had been processed.

—
Glossy-finish and Matte-Finish card backs
have been found in both print runs of the 1st Series release. A possible production
error or an difference in how the reverse card was treated; most older Topps sets
have card backs with the matte-finish treatment; especially movie tie-in cards.

—
The first of two GPK Series sets that have stickers with a Pink
Header instead of the regular red or blue header logo for cards 12a Furry
FRAN and 12b Hairy MARY. Visit the 4th Series page to view the second pink GPK
header.

—
The only GPK Series with No Puzzle; the releases
going forward will all have one or two puzzles per set on the reverse card. Per
Mark Newgarden, a puzzle was never discussed for the OS1 set.

—
The only GPK set that has a red and Yellow Header
for cards 18a Cranky FRANKIE and 18b Bad BRAD. This helps the logo, usually
in white, not blend into the all off-white background of the artwork; the logo
color matches the character’s clothing color pattern. One of the original concepts
by Mark Newgarden had the infamous red and blue Raggedy Ann doll being
stuffed into the grinder; it was ultimately changed to the red and blue books
late in production for the release. Visit the ‘ART Gallery’ for more information
and imagery.

—
The only GPK Series box and poster that has a Blue
Header surrounded by the color yellow — pictured above in the ‘Product’
section. Several GPK boxes and posters can be found with this same or similar
color pattern.

—
The set has a Light Pink, dark blue, dark pink (magenta),
yellow, and red Nameplates … no light blue nameplates
in this series.

—
An Unpublished Wacky Packages concept titled Garbage
Pail Kids was pulled from production and never made the 1985 release. The term
Garbage Pail Kids and the unpublished 1984 prototype were created by Mark Newgarden.
Topps was in cahoots with the doll-makers of the Cabbage Patch Kids to possibly
produce a card set, but OAA eventually turned down the potential deal. Topps was
a bit peeved and a new parody series had been born, inspired by the pulled Wacky
GPK piece. The final Wacky artwork was completed in 1984 by John Pound who had
worked on the 1985 Wacky Packages release with several other artists. Pound went
on to draw and color the card fronts for the first two GPK Series and more than
half of each sets thereafter. Tom Bunk completed the reverse card artwork and
started card fronts during the 3rd Series set while Mark Newgarden rendered or
wrote the card backs. The red banner ‘Juvenile Doll-inquent’, above the GPK logo,
read ‘Garbage Can DAN’, with various art alterations, for a series of Lost Wacky
bootleg cards.

There does exist a tall tale that then CEO
Arthur Shorin was so upset about the OAA saying ‘NO!’ to a CPK license that he
demanded the final artwork to be brought to his office where he burned it. Shorin
did indeed tell Topps employees that the artwork had been destroyed, but realistically
speaking, this was most likely shared around the time of the GPK lawsuit, in 1986,
when Topps was subpoenaed to submit any documents or artwork relating to CPK to
opposing counsel. In the fall of 2023, Heritage Auctions, based out of Chicago,
IL, put the final artwork up for auction, where John Pound let GPK World and Mark
Newgarden know, “The Heritage Auctions Wacky GPK image you sent me looks
totally like the final art I did. The colors, textures, lettering all look exactly
right. Looks like it’s the real thing. Technically, I painted it in the fall of
1984, 5×7 inches. I think I used 2-ply bristol board.” The artwork was pulled
in anticipation of the CPK license, not due to any backlash; the legal action
came at least a year later, in 1986, after GPK had already been on the market.

On
September 22, 2023, collector Brandon Zuern reached out to let me know he had
posted an article on Patreon (www.patreon.com/posts/89631136), which explains
how the original Wacky GPK artwork found its way to Heritage Auctions, and the
story of Len Brown walking into the Austin Books & Comics shop in Texas, where
Brandon manages & grades, on February 17, to potentially sell some items.
Brandon had actually emailed me earlier in the year to ask about the Wacky GPK
image that showed up in the 30 Years of Garbage GPK documentary, and the
Garbage Can DAN bootleg card. What a great story and outcome—although, I
wish Pound was getting the money for the sale of the three pieces that were eventually
put up for auction. Mark Newgaren was also told by Arthur Shorin that the artwork
had been burned, but Len saved it from its destruction. As Pound agreeably summed
things up via email, “That really explains the Wacky GPK art mystery nicely.
So much more satisfying than the art being burned up.”

AUCTION
DESCRIPTION: Garbage Pail Kids/Wacky Pack
Juvenile Doll-inquent Unpublished Illustration Original Art (Topps, 1985). This
disgruntled little guy is the very first Garbage Pail Kid design ever made. Painted
by John Pound, the piece was originally intended to be used for the 1985 Wacky
Pack series, a famous parody card line at the time. However, due to backlash and
legal threatening by Cabbage Patch Kids, it was decided by Topps CEO Arthur Shorin
to not publish it. A famous rumor was that the piece was even requested by Shorin,
who personally burned it. Luckily for collectors, this wasn’t the case! Topps
eventually decided to create a new series separate from Wacky Packs that we all
now know as the Garbage Pail Kids series. The rest of the story is pop-culture
history, as this series went on to become extremely successful. This original
Garbage Pail Kid design is a one-of-a-kind treasure, sure to be the centerpiece
for any trading card collector. The art is done on an illustration board and measures
5″ x 7″. In Excellent condition.

—
During the developmental stage of creating potential new product, the art team
created a Mock-Up Card using a test piece that was
painted by John Pound using the curved CPK-esque logo taken from unreleased Wacky
Packages GPK image (image above). The curved GPK logo eventually became
a dripping blood-like substance. The black vignette outline seen on Wacky Packages
for die-cut purposes is present on the image. The nameplate concept of ‘Baby Barfy’
was later changed to un-proper phrases with popular first name; the eventual use
of two different names for each image doubled the set and future sales. The side
notes on the mock up picture suggests using an air-brushed gradation of bright
or pastel colors which shows up in John Pound’s brilliantly executed air-brushed
backgrounds. Several internal Topps sketches were also turned in for possible
concepts for the GPK project: a ‘FRANKIE’ image by Gary Gerani with a final image
painted by Mae Jeon that shows subversive character humor. A second sketch by
Art Spiegelman showing a more perverse character ‘NED’ with a more grotesque vision
similar to previous Topps releases such as Ugly Stickers by Basil Wolverton and
Norman Saunders. Three artists were assigned to this concept, John Pound, Robert
Grossman and Howard Cruse; out of the three John Pound was chosen to complete
the art for the new parody set.

— The
Topps Chewing Gum (T.C.G.) company released the Nutty Awards
Postcards in 1964 which were completed by Jack Davies. In 1985, the Topps
company rendered almost every idea from this set for the 1st Series Garbage Pail
Kids card backs, 20 years later. Artist Tom Bunk reworked and created new art
for the backsides and drew the spiral border while Mark Newgarden rendered the
writing as well as creating new material including the ribbon artwork in the bottom
right hand corner. Out of the 32 Nutty Awards card set, 31 of these concepts were
used in the GPK release. In 1967, the Topps Chewing Gum company published
the 44 card Kooky Awards Stickers set painted by
Norman Saunders and five completed by Tom Sutton; several ideas were recycled
from the 1964 Nutty Awards Postcards set which in turn were used on the majority
of the card backs for the 1985 Garbage Pail Kids set. The following example for
the ‘Bull Throwers Award’ which can be found in all three sets used the same tagline
at the end “Cows may come and cows may go – but your bull goes on forever!”

—
During the process of developing a new product test products are sometimes created
from existing releases. The first Prototype Wrapper
for the Garbage Pail Kids™ was rendered from the Funny Li’l Joke Books set
using the wrapper. The Funny Li’l Joke Books set of 44 was released in 1970 —
notice the old Topps emblem and price tag of 5cents — and completed by Art
Spiegelman, Jay Lynch, Ralph Reese, Wally Wood, Rich Varisi, and Tom Sutton. The
1st Series Garbage Pail Kids set of 44 x 2 was released in 1985 with the new Topps
emblem and a price tag of 25cents. The main purpose was to get the GPK logo on
an image for trademark filing.

—
Garbage Pail Kids Uncut Sheets were auctioned off of eBay through the
Topps Vault in the Winter of 2007 (around November); A front image for the 1st
Series GPK set (two ‘b’ sets and one “a” set) with the sheet code number
4-494-05-01-5. This uncut
sheet contains the standard 44 card sheet format that Topps uses during printing
(132 cards per sheet) with the inclusion of three duplicate images due to the
rejection and removal of artwork.

—
The Wrapper Artwork was later rendered by
artist Tom Bunk from the ADAM Bomb character painted by John Pound. The popular
image would be used for the wrapper of the first five Original Series GPK sets
— the color rough concept can be seen below. The box and wrapper layout was designed
Brad Kahlhamer, a staff member within the NPD (New Product Development) department,
along with the rest of the GPK crew. The NPD staff picked what character ended
up on the wrapper and box, what color the packaging would be and what image ended
up as puzzle characters (for later releases). The tight ink artwork was also used
for the GPK Chew Candy bag and wrapper as well as on the checklist for the GPK
Cheap Toys release.

—
A 1st Series Wrapper Proof as auctioned off of eBay
via the Topps Vault and resold in December of 2015; this type of ‘wrapper’ was
submitted by Topps as ‘proof of publication’ to register the series title as a
trademark months in advance. The ‘494’ within the wrapper code (0-494-21-01-5)
and UPC number identifies this product as Garbage Pail Kids, and most specifically,
as the 1st Series; the ‘-5’ in the code for the year 1985. This proof does not
contain the ‘25¢ CHEAP‘ star that is often associated
with the first wrapper for a series, identified as ‘-01-‘ within the product code.
This is a proof to test the colors and layout of the item and not the final product
— the most evident change is removing the orange color and replacing it with
the iconic pink color found on the ADAM Bomb card image, per the NPD crew, he
was the obvious choice for the packaging mascot. The color red for the detonation
box (black on the card image) was also replaced with the color pink reducing the
number of colors needed for printing. Lastly, it’s humorous to point out that
yellow is spelled ‘yelo’ on the proof.

—
Per John Pound’s notes and references card #5 ‘Have a Nice Day’ and card
#8 ‘Take a GPK to Lunch’ from the Giant 5×7 GPK set were Unpublished
1st Series (OS1) paintings. Giant card #5 ‘Have a Nice Day’ has a #25 on the top
left corner of the concept, color and final artwork pieces — the number tells
what order in which the artwork was completed by Pound. The image for OS14 cards
555a Alien ED and 555b Phone HOMER was also intended for the OS1 set but the eyes
were reworked to match the new eye shape of the later GPK releases. All of the
the pieces match the aesthetic feel of the OS1 set. This would have completed
the 44 cardsheet for printing; any pieces removed would be replaced by duplicate
artwork which led to card variations — cards with different backs.

—
Artist Dave Newtown worked within the Topps Art Department under the tutelage
of and worked on the first GPK T-shirt that went
on sale during the OS3 release: “Back in the eighties I did the t-shirt art
for ‘Adam Bomb’, which I think was the first Garbage Pail Kids shirt. We had 4
color process separations created but for some reason (Topps or my bosses?) we
decided not to use them. They had me hand stipple all the color separations instead
(this was in the pre-digital days). A very fun, but time-consuming, project!”

—
A set of twelve GPK Buttons was released in 1986
with seven 1st Series images and five 2nd Series images which, instead of a nameplate,
contained an expression. The character image for cards 30a New Wave DAVE and 30b
Graffiti PETEY was used for the GPK Button box artwork painted by Mae Jeon; the
original artwork was auctioned off of eBay during July of 2008. The characters
for 1st Series cards 8a ADAM Bomb and 8b Blasted Billy and for the 2nd Series
cards 42a PATTY Putty and 42b Muggin’ MEGAN and 45a Leaky LINDSAY and 45b Messy
TESSIE (with full snot strands) can be found as the button images on the box with
blank nameplates. The die-cut is not the original sticker die-cut but a generic
die-cut used for all of the buttons.

—
In 1989, Topps consigned artist John Pound to create a GPK image for their Rot
‘n Roll Bubble Gum Cassettes product using characters from the 1st Series
set. Characters 8a ADAM Bomb and 8b Blasted BILLY playing the keyboard, 3a Up
CHUCK and 3b Heavin’ STEVEN as the lead singer, 19a Corroded CARL and 19b Crater
CHRIS playing the guitar and characters 14a Potty SCOTTY and 14b JASON Basin “playing”
the drums. The label artwork became the mini-cassette insert and the tape case
contained a gum-shaped cassette tape. The set was art directed by MAD Magazine
co-editor Nick Meglin for the Topps company. The band members names (not the card
nomenclature) can be found on the casette tape insert. Another version imported
by Holland with ingredients in Scandinavian languages and slight changes is also
available.The tight pencil, color rough, final product and sell sheet for The
Barf Boys cassette tape. The product number 4-999-40-24-0 was released in
1990.

—
In August 2017 artist John Cebollero, who started working on GPK during the All-New
Series phase, posted on social media a tight pencil he completed based off of
a Jay Lynch concept for an unreleased Topps project titled Wacky
Hackers; a mash-up of Wacky Packages and Garbage Pail Kids nomenclature
and card design. Pre-production allegedly began in 1999 and lampooned popular
video game box artwork and computer games; the sketches by Lynch were due in early
February, 2001 and faxed in. Cebollero completed the final artwork for the image
during production in 2001 but the project was eventually shelved, like so many
Topps projects. Lynch noted “RECALLING THE GPK CHARACTER BRAINY JANEY”
for OS1 cards 27a Brainy JANIE and 27b JENNY Genius.

—
Garbage Pail Kids Chewy Candy
was produced in 1986 after the release of the 1st and 2nd Series sets and in 1987
after the trademark lawsuit. The candy product used characters from the 1st and
2nd Series sets as mascots on the candy wrappers. Three assortment of flavors
can be found; cherry (blue and red wrapper), grape (yellow and purple wrapper)
and strawberry (pink and green wrapper). The images are very similar to the rendered
artwork found on the GPK wax wrappers; however, the NPD (New Product Development)
department at Topps in the ’80s was responsible for the GPK cards, while the Art
Department created the packaging and images for licensed products — oftentimes
using in-house art staff or other freelance artists not associated with the GPK
franchise. Although Tom Bunk worked on the image rendering for the OS1 thru OS16
wax wrappers, including the 8a ADAM Bomb image below, the remaining artwork was
executed by artist George Evans. Five of these black and white rendered artwork
pieces can also be found on the GPK Cheap Toys candy checklist. The product was
made in Argentina (South America) by the Stani company for Confex, Inc., located
in New Jersey and licensed by the Topps company. Various candy wrapper images
can be viewed within the ‘Art Gallery’ above and within the ‘Chewy Candy’ page.

The 1986 release displayed the ADAM Bomb character and the straight
GPK header which can also be located on the wrapper; the 1987 release displayed
the JENNY Genius character and the new banner-style GPK header which can also
be located on the wrapper. There are sixteen characters found for each release
for a total of thirty-two characters. Each full bag contains a 240 count of three
assorted candy flavors and random characters. 2nd Release images and information
provided by collector Luis Thompson. Both releases contains 48 wrappers for each
character: 16 cherry, 16 grape and 16 strawberry; for a total of 96 wrappers.

1ST
RELEASE : 1ST SERIES CHARACTERS

RAY DECAY 2b, ADAM BOMB 8a, SPACEY STACY 13b, DRESSY JESSE 20b, FAT MATT 26b,
JENNY
GENIUS 27b, SAVAGE STUART 33b, THIN LYNN 29b
1ST RELEASE
: 2ND SERIES CHARACTERS
MUGGIN’ MEGAN 42b, ONE-EYED JACK 44b, FRAN
FRAN 49b, BRETT SWEAT 51b, BRUTAL BRAD 55b,
BRUTAL BRIDGET 56b, PEGLEG PETER
61b, CHRIS HISS 62b

2ND
RELEASE : 1ST SERIES CHARACTERS

EVIL EDDIE 1b, DRUNK KEN 9b, TV STEVIE 10a, ASHCAN ANDY 13a, WEIRD WENDY 16a,
BRAINY JANIE 27a, BONY JOANIE 29a, GRAFFITI PETEY 30b, MAD MIKE 33a, ANNA BANANA
34b, ROCKIN’ ROBERT 35b, TOMMY TOMB 36b, SLIMY SAM 38a
2ND
RELEASE : 2ND SERIES CHARACTERS
RUSSELL MUSCLE 51a, HAIRY GARY 55a,
JOLLY ROGER 61a

—
Possibly coincidental, but there are several GPK characters with a very R.
Crumb feel to them. Artist Robert Crumb’s artwork tends to display nostalgic
contemporary American folk culture, but oftentimes from a satirical viewpoint.
Card example 10a Tee-Vee STEVIE and 10b Geeky GARY:

—
The soon-to-be Brand would go on to spawn sixteen
sets in the ’80s (one unreleased), spin-off products, and merchandise; along with
international releases and a revival of the franchise name in 2003 for many more
sets and years of the Garbage Pail Kids lineage.