RELEASE
PERIOD : SEPTEMBER 2018

The horror
and sci-fi thematic ‘Oh, the Horror-ible!’, 2018 Series 2 (aka “2018S2”
project, for short), GPK set announcement was released by the Topps Company, Inc.
on Friday April 27th, 2018—roughly three months
after the ‘We Hate the 80s’ 2018S1 set release—with hobby and retail electronic
sell sheets breaking down the source material with mock-up promotional images.
The horror-ific parody set was scheduled to be released on Wednesday September
19, 2018 and stated that “the [set] features all-new art, parodying monsters
and horror & sci-fi films and TV shows, broken down into era-specific subsets.
Includes ’80s Horror and ’80s Sci-fi parodies!”.

def’n:
OH, THE HORROR — The phrase stems from the literary
excerpt “The horror! The horror!” taken from Joseph Conrad’s “Heart
of Darkness” novella published in 1899.
def’n: HORROR
— An intense feeling of fear, fright, panic or disgust.
def’n:
HORRIBLE — To cause horror. Terrible, shocking,
gruesome, ghastley, et ctera. informal. Something very unpleasant.

The
GPK series includes all-new artwork and contributions by artists Brent Engstrom,
Joe Simko, David Gross, Layron DeJarnette, Neil Camera, “Smokin’ Joe”
McWilliams, Miran Kim and JungHwa Im with Colin Walton (editor, art director,
writer) and Mark Von Ohlen (brand manager); most individuals involved submitted
their own concepts and nomenclature. The set also includes ‘Classic’ artwork by
artists John Pound and Tom Bunk. The base set size has jumped from 180 cards to
200 cards for a complete set and new purple ‘Jelly’ parallel chase cards introduced.
Each foil or plastic pack, with a suggested retail price of $1.99, contains eight
sticker cards, except for the Hobby Collector Edition box with exclusive premium
content packs that contain eight stickers per pack or may contain seven stickers
per pack with a special insert.

WRAPPER
ARTWORK : JOHN POUND — BOX ARTWORK : JOHN POUND
SIDE ARTWORK : POUND,
SIMKO, GROSS + KIM — LAYOUT DESIGN : COLIN WALTON

200
A+B CARD SET : SUBSETS BASE CARDS
SUBSETS : 30 CLASSIC FILM MONSTER + 30 RETRO
HORROR + 30 ’80s HORROR + 30 MODERN HORROR + 20 FOLKLORE MONSTER + 30 RETRO SCI-FI
+ 20 ’80s SCI-FI + 10 MODERN SCI-FI

BASE
+ CHASE INSERT CARDS
1,676 Total Cards = 200 Base Card Stickers + 200 Puke
Splatter Parallel (R+H) + 200 Phlegm Splatter Parallel (Target gravity feed—cancelled
in June 2018; located within Blaster packs) + 200 Spit Splatter Parallel (HC)
+ 200 Bruised Splatter Parallel (HC) + 200 Bloody Nose Splatter Parallel (HC)
+ 200 Fool’s Gold Parallel (R+H) + 200 Jelly Parallel (R value fat pack) + 20
Classic GPK Monsters (R fat pack) + 20 Classic GPK Monsters (HC)
+ 10 Wacky Trick or Treats (R) + 10 Horror Film Poster Parodies (H) + 6 Bathroom
Buddies bonus (Target value box) + 1 Standard Sketch (R) + 1 two-panel Panoramic
Sketch (R value fat pack) + 1 three-panel Triptych Sketch (HC) [replaces Dual/Double
artist Panoramic Sketch] + 1 Garbage Can Shaped Sketch (H+HC) + 1 Coffin Shaped
Sketch (H+HC) + 1 four-regular Loaded Puzzle Sketch (R value box) + 1 Artist Autograph
[8 dif’t artists] + 1 Printing Plate + 2 NYCC Promo Cards

HOBBY
& RETAIL PRODUCTION RUNS
MAIN BOX
+ WRAPPER ARTWORK : JOHN POUND
ADDITIONAL CHARACTERS : BRENT ENGSTROM, ETC.
DISPLAY BOX : 2 VARIATIONS + 2 BONUS BOXES, ETC.

WRAPPERS : 5 VARIATIONS + VALUE

*

PRODUCT
RELEASE SHEETS
SALE
e-SHEETS + PROMOTIONAL PICS : HOBBY PAGES 1-4 + RETAIL PAGES 1-4

‘CLICK’
PIC TO VIEW

*

HOBBY
PRODUCTION RUN

HOBBY
+ RETAIL BOX ODDS
BASE PARALLELS
splatter borders: green Puke — 1:1 (H + R) + Fool’s Gold (50
per subject) – 1:44 • PRINTING PLATE card — 1:1,320 • SKETCH card
(H & R exclusive): Standard — 1:248 • ARTIST AUTOGRAPH card
(25 per subject) — 1:103 • TRICK OR TREAT cards (H exclusive) —
1:3

DISPLAY
BOX — PKG007493 — UPC 8-87521-07409-9 — 24 PACK; NO ‘H’ ON BOX
NOTE:
TRICK OR TREAT INSERTS
CARDBOARD CASE BOX — PKG007494 — FGC003065
+ 3067 — UPC 8-87521-07410-5 — 8 BOX / 24 PACK CT
FOIL PACK —
PKG007492 — UPC 8-87521-07408-2 — NO ‘H’ ON WRAPPER : $1.99 SRP

*

HOBBY
COLLECTOR PREMIUM BOX ODDS
BASE PARALLELS
splatter borders: blue Spit (99 per subject, HC exclusive) – 1:3,
Fool’s Gold (50 per subject) – 1:44,
black Bruised (HC exclusive)
– 1:1, red Bloody Nose (75 per subject, HC exclusive) – 1:4 • PRINTING
PLATE card – 1:260 • SKETCH cards: garbage can or coffin Shaped (HC exclusive)
– 1:115 + three-panel Triptych (HC exclusive) – 1:572 • ARTIST AUTOGRAPH
card (25 per subject) – 1:41 • HORROR FILM POSTER PARODIES cards (1 per box,
HC exclusive) – 1:24 • CLASSIC MONSTER PATCH cards (99 per subject,
HC exclusive) – 1:59

DISPLAY
BOX — PKG007497 — UPC 8-87521-07412-9 — ’24 PACK’ + ‘H’ ON BOX
:
NOTE: POSTER PARODIES + PATCHES
BOX ART INLAY — PKG007496 —
ARTIST DAVID GROSS
CARDBOARD CASE BOX — PKG007498 — FGC003066 —
UPC 8-87521-07413-6 — 8 BOX / 24 PACK COUNT
FOIL PACK — PKG007495
— UPC 8-87521-07411-2 — ‘EXCLUSIVE PREMIUM
CONTENT’ ON WRAPPER

*

RETAIL
PRODUCTION RUN

RETAIL
BOX ODDS
BASE PARALLELS splatter
borders: green Puke — 1:1 (R + H), yellow Phlegm (R exclusive;
Target gravity pack—cancelled; located within
Blaster packs) — 1:4, purple Jelly (R exclusive; fat pack) — 1:1, Fool’s
Gold (50 per subject): retail/value pack — 1:44 + fat pack — 1:18 •
PRINTING PLATE (4 per subject): retail pack — 1:1,320 + value pack —
1:1,317 + fat pack — 1:525 • SKETCH cards: Standard (R & H exclusive);
retail — 1:248 + value pack — 1:247 + fat pack — 1:99 two-panel
Panoramic (fat pack exclusive) — 1:712 + four-regular sketch Loaded
(value box exclusive) — 1:108 • ARTIST AUTHOGRAPH card (25 per
subject): retail/value — 1:104 + fat pack — 1:42 • BATHROOM BUDDIES
cards (Target value box exclusive) — 3:1 • CLASSIC MONSTER cards
(fat pack exclusive) — 2:1

VALUE
‘FAT’ PACK — PKG007503 — UPC 8-87521-07417-4 — $4.99 SRP
NOTE:
CLASSIC MONSTER CARDS
CARDBOARD CASE BOX —
PKG00? — FGC00? — UPC 8-87521-? — 1/108 COUNT

BLASTER
VALUE BOX — PKG007506 — UPC 8-87521-07420-4 — ‘5 PACKS’; TARGET;
w/ $9.99 SRP
NOTE: 3 BATHROOM BUDDIES
CARDBOARD CASE BOX — PKG007507
— FGC003070 — UPC 8-87521-07421-1 —
16/5+1 COUNT
FOIL PACK — PKG007505 — UPC 8-87521-7419-8

BLASTER
VALUE BOX — PKG007508 — UPC 8-87521-07422-8 — ‘5 PACKS’; WAL*MART;
w/o $9.99 SRP
NOTE: 3 BATHROOM BUDDIES
CARDBOARD CASE BOX — PKG007507
— FGC003071 — UPC 8-87521-07423-5 —
16/5+1 COUNT
FOIL PACK — PKG007505 — UPC 8-87521-07419-8

GRAVITY
FEED BOX — PKG007511 — UPC 8-87521-07425-9 — 4 CARDS PER PACK;
SPECIALTY STORE
NOTE: BOX ARTWORK BY POUND, SIMKO, ENGSTROM + IM
CARDBOARD
CASE BOX — PKG00? — FGC00? — UPC 8-87521-? — ? PACKS
PLASTIC
PACK— PKG007509 — UPC 8-87521-07424-2 — $.99 SRP

— A Black
& White C-name subset was suggested to Topps for the “Oh, the
Horror-ible!” release that would have captured the feeling of B&W films
of yesteryears, prior to the invention and creation of Technicolor film processing.
Collectors would have found a few of the Classic Film Monsters in grayscale on
card stock to collate, however, the idea did not come to fruition and the characters
can only be located in their regular full color spectrum. Sample images included:
Frankenstein, The Wolf Man and Creature from the Black Lagoon.

—
The Nameplate for the
Retro Horror card 12b of 15 for character Sacrificed STEVIE is found with the
descriptive word ‘SACRIFICED’ in much larger font than the smaller forename of
‘Steve’; the first name should be found in larger print.

—
Concepts
for the Horror-themed set were requested from the artists by Topps near the end
of December, 2017. A Sci-fi element was also added later in the process with a
mid-January 2018 concept deadline. Around the middle of February concepts were
approved with a further batch accepted in mid-March. Final artwork started to
be completed throughout the month of April into the month of May. At the end of
March, artist Brent Engstrom was assigned to paint four new t-shirt images for
the ongoing license agreement with Fright-Rags. The
four concepts were pulled from the Horror set batch which included: Friday
the 13th, Lost Boys, House of 1000 Corpses (Captain Spaulding)
and Halloween 3.

—
As with the last several releases, the card Mock-Up
images created by Topps for social media have the nomenclature on the nameplate
seen in red font, posted in early September for cards 10a Creep-
JOE (’80s Horror) and 4a DEXTER Terrestrial (’80s
Sci-Fi), but eventually printed in black ink for the actual release. The former
being painted by artist Joe Simko and the latter being painted by artist Brent
Engstrom for the two different ’80s subsets. The Creep Show comic-esque
cover showcases a plethora of Original Series characters on sticker, poster and
as Funko figures.

—
The Base Set jumps
up to 200 cards from the 180-card size of the previous past few releases. The
Yearly sets, debuting in 2014 started out with 132-card sized base sets until
2015’s 30th Anniversary set which found the set Mega-sized to 220 cards.

—
The GPK Concept for
The Amityville Horror card, for Retro Horror cards 10a AMY T. Ville &
10b Amity BILL, was created by artist Brent Engstrom and transferred over to the
card mock-up template supplied by Topps. Engstrom eventually darkened up the environment
to a night-time setting in order to get the conceptualization of the glowing eyes
of the house to stand out and help sell the idea to the folks at Topps. The original
concept has a completely intact fence railing that somewhat masks the house’s
mouth; Engstrom ended up breaking up the wooden fence to look like broken teeth
as part of the gaping mouth for the final artwork, unbeknownst to Topps.

—
Artist John Pound’s irresistible Original
Series characters once again find themselves as the main mascots for the
“Oh, the Horror-ible!” packaging and sell sheets, as well as the first
three images within the Classic Monsters (retail Jumbo/Fat pack exclusive) subset.
Of all of the bi-Yearly thematic sets, thus far, “We Hate the ’80s”
is the only release where a new character can be found on the trading card packs,
but not the box packaging. The Weird WENDY character became the main packaging
mascot for the second 2019S2 “Oh, the Horror-ible!” set.

—
The 2018 Series 2 release loses the popular dual/double artist
two-panel panoramic Sketch Cards (although Panoramic
sketches still exist within the set executed by the same artist in retail Fat
packs) and replaced with the three-panel Triptych sketch cards, both a Collector
hobby box premium exclusive. The former may have taken time and Topps some money
to have shipped to both artists to complete and the later nicely ties into the
horror-ific theme and the GPK realm in general. The set also has new coffin-Shaped
sketch cards to go along with the garbage can Shaped sketch cards.

—
Two of artist David Gross’ horizontal concepts were
switched to a vertical Card Layout for the final
artwork for ’80s Horror cards 15a Children Of The BJORN & 15b CORNELIUS Cob
and Folklore Monster cards 5a Loch NESSIE & 5b SCOTT Land. Other suggested
names for the card nomenclature also included Munching MALACHI, Corn FIELDING
for the Children of the Corn parody and Loch NELLY (changed to ‘NESSIE’)
and Loch NESTOR for the Loch Ness Monster parody.

—
When artist Layron DeJarnette posted the final artwork
on eBay for the Retro Sci-Fi subset cards 8a BOB Slob & 8b Slimey STEVE portraying
the pivotal scene in the movie where the creature starts to attack the town, shown
exiting the Colonial Theatre (in Phoenixville, PA), a much larger image was included
showing off the contents of the Blob’s “Stomach”
which includes three mini-GPK characters in the process of dying or already deceased;
other remnants include from L-R: dismembered arms, dismembered leg, sunglasses,
several popcorn containers, movie reels and film strip, theatre seats, film projector,
pools of vomit, et cetera.

—
After two decades of rectangular Value/Bonus boxes,
Topps changed the appearance of the Blaster Box into
a brilliant tombstone-shaped container that encapsulates the card contents. The
box not only contains a very rare all-black Garbage Pail Kids logo, but also a
cherub (plural Cherubim) skull with angel wings that’s very reminiscent of the
OS8 character cards 334a ASHLEY to Ashes & 334b DUSTIN to Dust.

—
Three paintings created by artist Smokin’ Joe McWilliams
for the Retro Sci-Fi subset pay a Poster Parody tribute
the movies Forbidden Planet, Invasion of the Saucer-Men and Robot
Monster released in the 1950’s for cards 11a Rampagin’ ROBBY & 11b Forbidden
JANET, 12a Saucy SAMMY & 12b Inva-SHAWN, and 13a ROB Bot & 13b In 3 DEE,
respectively. Only the last antagonist is portrayed holding the damsel in distress
that’s a Garbage Pail Kids character and not a human lady that has fainted from
the shocking experience. The eyes for both 6a This Island EARL & 6b Crusta-SEAN
and 11a Rampagin’ ROBBY & 11b Forbidden JANET have been changed to look more
GPK-like and the final artwork updated.

—
Artist Brent Engstrom gave several shout-outs to
the Original Series GPK characters throughout the
new release with a special nod to the Godfather of Garbage Pail Kids, John Pound.
Painted tribute pieces included: Classic Horror card #4 (OS1 dracula + GPK bat;
head #12), Modern Horror card #7 (OS5; Engstrom had the procurer and connoisseur
of fine meats character in mind), Modern Horror #14 (OS4 pumpkin), ’80s Sci-Fi
card #1 (OS2; with tin can, apple core and fish bones), ’80s Sci-Fi card #2 (OS4,
unzipped), Modern Sci-Fi card #1 (OS2, OS3 split personalities).

—
For ’80s Sci-Fi cards 6a Rita Reptillian & 6b Venomous
VANESSA, Topps had artist Brent Engstrom change the V parody subject matter
of the Original Concept from a human GPK character
revealing lizard skin to a “Visitor” alien revealing a nastier GPK character.
The suggested nomenclature listed on the submitted concept were Venomous VE and
RITA Reptilian. Engstrom added some additional alien language/writing GPK acronyms
to the final artwork to the jacket and belt of the alien race jumpsuit.

—
The “Oh, the Horror-ible!” set adds a
new splatter Purple Border parallel color to the
chase card line-up called ‘Jelly’. Collector’s might recall that although this
was never an official parallel for the “American as Apple Pie in Your Face!”
set, it was the card mock-up template that Topps used for artist JungHwa Im and
Miran Kim’s artwork. More information and images of the unofficial ‘Jelly’ border
can be seen within the ‘Fun Facts’ section of the 2016S1 page. The project code
was identified as “16GPAP”; year 2016, GPK brand, Apple Pie set.

—
The Modern Sci-Fi card image 2a ERIN Flux & 2b ANNIE
Mation , an Æon Flux parody painted by artist David Gross, can also
be located as the special Collector’s Box Insert
(inlay) picture. The Mystery Science Theater 3000 parody cards 4a Jaded
JOEL & 4b MST3 KAY found within the same set subset pokes fun at The Garbage
Pail Kids Movie by incorporating the title into the logo of the card and the
reviewers vomiting.

—
Although a parody for the newer iteration of Westworld
is found within the Modern Sci-Fi subset as cards 5a WES World & 5b Shoot
To CAL, painted by artist Smokin’ Joe McWilliams, the Retro
Poster image used for the GPK card is actually The Gunslinger A.I. antogonist
of the original 1973 Westworld film, portrayed by Yul Brynner, and in the
1976 sequel, Futureworld., and not The Man in Black portrayed by actor
Ed Harris in the new series; it really should be in a retro subset. The 1980 television
series, Beyond Westworld, is also part of the canon.

—
The Classic GPK retail chase cards for this release covers
ten ‘Monster(s)’ characters from the Original Series painted by John Pound and
Tom Bunk for the OS1, OS2 and OS3 sets. Much like the sketch card layout, the
Classic cards also have a very Hallowe’en feel to them using specifically an orange
and black color scheme as the theme. Unlike the orginal card image, the hellfire
is placed over the GPK logo and as a possible first, the flames have also
been placed over the nameplate for cards 7a Hot SCOTT & 7b Luke WARM.

—
A ten-card Trick or Treat
chase set incorporating GPK characters into the Wacky Packages brand can be located
as a hobby box exclusive. The Original Series GPK characters have been re-rendered
onto the Wacky packaging, integrated from the original Wacky Packages card images
that span several releases and were also found with ten additional products in
the 2018 Wacky Go to the Movies twenty-card Concession Stand chase set with a
movie-themed border. Per Wacky collector Patrick Zimmerman, minus the added GPK
characters, the only change is the ‘squaring up’ and image skewing of the dentures
and mint for the Junior Mints ‘Senior Mints’ parody card.

—
Besides the Stranger Kids parody card release at the
New York Comic Con and On-Demand, a Netflix Stranger
Things and Topps GPK mash-up set, the Topps Company also handed out an exclusive
Saturday-only promo card for their ‘Oh, the Horror-ible’ release from the Classic
Film Monster subst for card image 10a JACK Lagoon painted by artist Brent Engstrom.
Artist JOE Simko also signed a NYCC-specific autograph card for an hour on Saturday,
Oct 6th for his artwork image for the ’80s Horror subset card 10a Creep-JOE which
kept the nomenclature within the nameplate.

—
The “Oh, the Horror-ible!” GPK series
includes all-new artwork and contributions by artists Brent Engstrom, Joe Simko,
David Gross, Layron DeJarnette, Neil Camera, “Smokin’ Joe” McWilliams,
Miran Kim and JungHwa Im (with assistance by husband and art director Colin Walton).

The
2018S2 ‘Oh, the Horror-ible!’ release is the seventeenth GPK set to contain Sketch
Cards numbering 1/1 (one-of-a-kind) found within hobby and retail boxes. The layout
once again borrows an Original Series GPK character that matches the theme to
be the packaging mascot. The header contains a very rare black Garbage Pail Kids
logo and the card itself is seen with Hallowe’en colors for a close October release,
but the packaging ended up having a more classic red-blood horror feel to it.
Standard sketch cards (retail and hobby box), die-cut Shaped sketch cards
(garbage can or coffin—new to this release; hobby collector exclusive),
three-panel Triptych sketch cards (hobby collector exclusive)—new
to this release, ‘folded’ two-panel Panoramic sketch cards (retail value fat
pack exclusive) and Loaded sketch cards (four regular sketch cards; blaster
value box exclusive). No double-artist ‘dual’ Panoramic sketch cards (hobby
collector exclusive).

Fifty-eight
artists contributed to the Sketch cards for the 2018S2 set—listed alphabetically
by first name: Bobby Blakey, Brent Scotchmer, Bryan Abston, Cathy Razim, Chad
Scheres, Chris Meeks, Clinton Yeager, Dan Burn Webster, Dan Contois, Daniel Goodroad,
Darrin Pepe, David Acevedo, David Dabila, David Gacey David Gross, Dennis Gortakowski,
Emma Burges, Gavin Williams, Greg Tilson, Jasmine Contois, Jason Crosby, Jason
Heil, Jay O’Leary, Joe Grotesque, Joey Fitchett, John Brewer, John Monserrat,
Jon Gregory, K. GRiMM, Kelly Greider, Kevin Lea, Lily Mercado, Lowell Isaac, Matt
Steffens, Mike Barnard, Mike McHugh, Mike Stephens, Neil Camera, Patrick Chaimuang,
Patrick Giles, Paul Mangione, Quinton Baker, Rich Molinelli, Rickey Kipfer, Robert
“el smetcho” Garcia, Robert Jimenez, Robert Sumner, Rory McQueen, Ryan
Moffett, Sebastian Cortez, Shawn Cruz, Simon Jacobsohn, Simone Arena, Smokin’
Joe, Steve Potter, Todd Rayner, Victor Moreno and Vincent D’Ippolito.