~
—
The beheader final
artwork for card characters 137a MAX Axe and 137b Deadly DUDLEY by John Pound
was inspired by Frank Frazetta’s CREEPY #17 cover
released in October of 1967 titled the ‘Executioner’. Per Mark Newgarden, “[The
artwork] was meant to stand on it’s own and wasn’t meant to be an explicit parody
but we both knew it well. I was eight when I bought this off the newsstand!”
Pound titled his concept ‘AXE MAN‘ during the developmental
stage of the piece. In comparison to Frazetta’s artwork, the hood was drawn to
be more revealing to show off the CPK facial features, the axe position and arm
stance remained the same and the dagger remains tucked into a belt (vest removed)
with some chest hair spilling out; the chopping block was removed and replaced
with a head basket (filled with body parts) and a token skull remains along with
the blood dripping from the blade.

—
GPK
artist Tom Bunk had started working on card front artwork during the OS3 set after
having completed the backs for the OS1 and OS2 sets. Bunk re-worked the art for
seventeen characters for the WANTED card backs taken
from previous Wanted Stickers and Wanted Posters sets by Topps, while art directors
Mark Newgarden and Art Spiegelman rendered the written text or created new content
for the release. Visit the ‘Reverse Card’ page for more detailed information along
with later points within this ‘GPK History’ section.

—
Per John Pound’s website;
the characters for cards 138a Alien IAN and 138b Outerspace CHASE had a major
Color Variation for the skyline. The orginal color
rough depicted the character within a purple, velvety night sky instead of the
blood-red sky version that was chosen. Topps employer, and infamous reverse card
writer, Gary Gerani created the concept drawing for the Mars Attacks GPK parody
and Mark Newgarden added the sneakers to the overall gag.

—
The
snowman concept that artist Tom Bunk executed for OS4 characters 158a Meltin’
ELTON, 158b CRYSTAL Gale, and name change 158b Ig LOU had a significant Rhinoplasty
Nose Job for the final card image. The NPD department at Topps
requested that the carrot nose be shortened for the printed card so that it looked
more CPK-like. The artwork was changed either within the art department, or possibly
by artist Tom Bunk, but two final versions are available; at least in digital
format. Once the extended carrot was removed the snow run-off from the nose was
worked into the face of the snowman, the blue background remains dark with snow
added, and no second ruddy cheek was added to the character. The 1986 card version
has not made a reappearance since the resurgence of the GPK franchise; the long-nosed
image was sent by Topps to LTL and Walls 360 in 2010 for repositional self-adhesive
poster prints and to Abrams in 2012 for the GPK art book. Notice the original,
curved GPK header was able to be used for the book project (pictured below, left)
and the same image also made an apperance in the 2013 holiday Greeting Cards set
sold online by Topps as one of the card fronts and a ‘card’ image on the backside
used the GPK banner (pictured below, right); the character has been brought forward
in the image with a greatly reduced font size on the nameplate for this card image.
Additional images can be seen within the ‘Art Gallery’ page further above. The
long-nosed character also appears in the 2022 OS Chrome 4 set.

—
Although Uranus
Strikes cards were not sold in packs and boxes until 1987, in 1986 they
could be found as complete sets. A parody set created by Bob Ting poked fun at
the Topps Mars Attacks trading cards. The last card in the set, card #36 ‘Invasion
Synopsis!’ whose checklist name is Starry IDA, meaning: starry-eyed, portrays
an alien kid who has crawled out of a garbage pail, holding a CPK-looking
doll and blasting its brains out with a laser gun. In the same year Topps released
the OS4 set that includes a parody of their own Mars Attacks franchise for cards
138a Alien IAN and 138b Outerspace CHASE.

—
In early 1986, artist
George Wright sent Topps three pieces of original Garbage Pail Kids artwork in
hopes of joining the rank of freelance artists working for the Topps Company at
that time. In May of that same year, at the time of the OS4 release, the Creative
Director at Topps, Len Brown sent George a Rejection Letter
stating no further GPK artists were needed at that time. Mr. Wright was an avid
collector of Topps’ Wacky Packages product and went on to create the cover for
Roxanne Toser’s The Beat Goes On (1990s) book, that covered 30 years of
the brand, and eventually came full circle and worked for the Topps Company on
several All-New Series Wacky Packages in the 2000’s and one GPK character.

—
In 1975, Topps released
the Wanted Stickers set and in 1986 Topps released
the OS4 Garbage Pail Kids set and revised the older artwork for the card backs,
ten years later. Artist Tom Bunk created the new reverse art for the card backs
while Mark Newgarden rendered the writing. Out of the forty-two Wanted Stickers,
eighteen of these concepts were used in the OS3 set and fifteen were used in the
OS4 set. The OS4 titles: Postman, Pet Dog, Fat Slob, Chain Smoker, Lazy Bones,
Bus Driver, Pet Cat, Wiseguy, Mechanic, Lunch Room Cool, School Nurse, Big Brother,
Plumber, Librarian, Baby Sitter, Nerd and Subsititute Teacher. Wanted Stickers
titles not used in any GPK set: Disc Jockey, Baby, Maid, Telephone Operator, Taxi
Cab Driver, Door-to-Door Salesman, Butcher, T.V. Repairman and Policeman. See
the OS3 page and ‘Reverse Card’ gallery section above for more information.

—
In 1980, Topps released the
Wanted Posters set with sharper artwork and expanded the writing from the 1975
release Wanted Stickers and In 1986 Topps released the OS3 Garbage Pail
Kids and revised the older artwork for the card backs, five years later. Artist
Tom Bunk created the new reverse art for the card backs while Mark Newgarden rendered
the writing to bring it up-to-date. Out of the twenty-four Wanted Posters, eighteen
of these concepts were used in the OS3 set and three were used in the OS4 set. The
OS4 titles: Big Brother and Librarian, Babysitter. Wanted Posters titles not used
in any GPK set: School Flirt, Butcher and T.V. Repairman. See the OS3 page and
‘Reverse Card’ gallery section above for more information.

NOTE:
‘WANTED!’ OUTLINED IN YELLOW; ‘FOR NEGLECT OF DUTY’ CHANGED TO RED, ETC., FOR
THE POSTER.

—
Spiral
Notebooks were used for the earlier GPK series
as miniaturized flowcharts. The art director’s notebook showed how the work of
the set was going; sketches of concept art, which artist was working on which
concept piece and the stage in which the painting had been completed. Often, concept
pieces were denied and the department tried to work them into later sets. A list
of concept pieces was kept in case pieces could not be used. The OS4 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: strapped on car like
deer (OS4), Moby Dick,
wristwatch (OS16), toasted marshmellow on stick, Cleopatra, gargoyle, grim reaper
(OS3), GPK collector with wrappers (OS6 with stickers), female body builder (OS4),
Mars Attacks alien (OS4), superhero charging brickwall, Lochness monster, bigfoot,
Samurai, grave-robber, Jack T. Ripper, blob?, trumpet player blowing out brains
(OS4; farting), GPK artist, femme vampire (unpublished), walkman/breakdance, dog
catcher, animal experimentation, Scrooge, femme warrior, Rocky/Rambo (OS4), cockroach/scorpion.