The two production runs of the 14th Series Garbage Pail Kids—aka
Original Series 14 GPK, or OS14 for short—release
are the same except for their wrappers. The first production run wrapper
has the ’25¢ CHEAP’ logo and the second print run wrapper is without the
price logo. This is the forth series to inlude the ‘FLICK IT!’ section on the
reverse card backs completed by artist Richard Mcguire. With the GPK brand in
its final year of production, from 1987-1988, and the popularity slowing down,
the product is much harder to locate, raising the price per pack at certain retailers,
and increasing the demand for these cards by collectors years later.

Although the only Warhola artwork would be pulled
from the OS16 set, the remaining sets, including OS13, would only include the
longest running artists for the card fronts of John Pound, Tom Bunk and James
Warhola. The NPD team would once again have artist Richard McGuire work on the
‘FLICK IT!’ section; for sets OS11 through OS16.

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UNCUT
SHEET — 132 CARD SHEET — 8 x 11 FORMAT
CODE 4-490-05-01-8 —
NO IMAGE

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CASE
BOX — 24/48 ct. — PRODUCT #490-14
CODE 2-490-39-01-8 — UPC
0-41116-04490-8

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DISPLAY BOX — CODE 1-490-40-01-08 —
1 VARIATION
MAIN ARTWORK : JOHN POUND — SIDE ARTWORK : TOM BUNK
BOX
DESIGN : BRAD KAHLHAMER

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WRAPPER
#1 — CODE 0-490-21-01-8 — 25¢ PRICE —
1 VARIATION
RENDERED ARTWORK : TOM BUNK — DESIGN : BRAD KAHLHAMER

WRAPPER #2 — CODE 0-490-21-02-8
— NO PRICE — 1 VARIATION
RENDERED ARTWORK : TOM BUNK — DESIGN
: BRAD KAHLHAMER

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RETAIL AD POSTER — CODE
4-490-08-01-8 — SIZE 10 x 14
ARTWORK : JOHN
POUND — DESIGN : BRAD KAHLHAMER

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WHOLESALER
SELL SHEET — CODE # 490-14 — SIZE 8 x 11
PROTOTYPE ARTWORK : TOM
BUNK — DESIGN : BRAD KAHLHAMER

WHOLESALER
ORDER SHEET — NO CODE — SIZE 8 x 11 INCHES
OCTOBER 1988 — BLUE
SELL SHEET — PRODUCT # 490
NOTE : ONLY A PROTOTYPE OS14
SELL SHEET KNOWN
GPK BOX ARTWORK : JOHN POUND

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Per John Pound’s Notations
and references, cards 555a Alien ED and 555b Phone HOMER was an original 1st Series
piece of artwork where the eyes were later reworked to match the new eye shape
of the later releases. The piece definitely matches the aesthetic feel of the
OS1 set and the pencil sketch, color rough and final artwork most likely contain
notes of when it was completed. I speculate that the E.T. (film by Stephen
Spielberg) character may have been denied by upper management and Topps attorneys
similar to the Raggedy Ann concept. It’s interesting to note that Mars,
Inc., that produces the M&M’s candies, said no to Universal so the candies
Elliot ends up using to lead E.T. out of his room are Reese’s Pieces produced
by The Hershey Company; also, Topps was later pressured to change the OS4 name
REESE Pieces. It is peculiar to noate that an E.T.-type character does
show up on the reverse card artwork for the OS1 set.

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The character for cards 556a Mothy MARTHA
and 556b Nailed NATALIE, minus the new shape of the ears, looks to be as close
to the old Cabbage Patch Kids-style of GPK as possible,
including the five fingers and yarn-like hair. This particular piece of artwork
was also an earlier concept held off for a later release and ‘snuck’ into the
set.

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A few Color Rough
pieces by artist Tom Bunk showing different renditions with very subtle color
and clothing variations for cards 542a Jugglin’ JULIAN and 542b Up In The AARON
without the green juggling balls and with a different colored hat and gloves,
for cards 544a Zipped KIP and 544b JACK Tracks with different colored hair, a
fully zipped head (no brain matter) and no chest zipper and for cards 553a Cold
Sore LENORE and 553b Kissy MISSY with different colored hair and clothes and without
a hair bow or the single tooth.

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This OS14 Wrapper
mock-up artwork was rendered for the release by artist Tom Bunk who created the
wrapper artwork for all sixteen Original series sets. This marks the second release
where the wrapper character deviates from the display box character.

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These Tom Bunk Concept
Pieces for cards 546a Modern MARLISE and 546b Abstract
ABBY were completed in 1988 and reworked through art direction feedback;
the character was changed from a male to a female gender with drastically changed
backgrounds and reduced abstract body parts. The piece was tamed down quite a
bit for the final artwork with a teddy bear added and less abstraction to the
character itself and the background cleaned up.

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The OS14 FLICK IT!
section artwork on the reverse card backs emulates a flipbook was completed by
Richard McGuire. The OS14 Would We Lie To You? comie
artwork, a parody of Ripley’s Believe It, Or Not, was completed by artist
Tom Bunk while Jay Lynch and Mark Newgarden wrote the gags for the reverse card
backs. The creative force behind GPK listed on the eight tombstones within
the artwork, from top to bottom, left to right, are Topps employees and freelance
artists: ‘Arthur’ Shorin, ‘Jay’ Lynch, ‘Stan’ Hart, ‘John’ Pound, ‘Tom’ Bunk,
‘Art’ Spiegelman, ‘Len’ Brown and ‘Mark’ Newgarden; the creators went on to develop
two more sets — the OS15 and unpublished OS16 sets.

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Pictured below is one of artist John Pound’s
Color Rough samples for cards 580a Burnt-Out BRETT
and 480b BURNE Toast. Since very little thumbnail artwork 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. Notice the three GPK ears in the piece and the crossed-eyes.

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An Unpublished
OS14 reverse card back section sold on eBay through the Topps Vault,around 22
years after the image was drawn, was purchased by GPK collector Nate Lucius for
cards 565a Easter BONNIE and 565b Hard-Boiled MEG; this particular bottom right
hand section was not smooth like the other areas and had paper pasted over it
— an overlay sheet with changed text cut out from construction paper and
pasted over the original; a last minute change before publication. Tom Bunk’s
rough sketch concept image for removing warts with gasoline; a bib has been added
to Berserk KIRK:

Tom
Bunk’s final artwork measuring 10.5 x 7 inches with the original unpublished image
for ‘removing warts with gasoline’ covered over by the ‘removing pimples with
a guillotine’ piece; ‘The G.P.K. Acne Removal System’ text is missing from the
image:

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In June of 2015, Topps released their 30th
Anniversary Garbage Pail Kids set that contained a ‘Lost Alternate Art’
subset that included this John Pound artwork piece with the same naming as the
Original Series printed card. The vertical pieced was switched to a horizontal
format and shows the character in more of a defecated posture and the cracked
arm changed to a cracked leg.

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A second Unpublished
OS14 reverse card back section was also purchased by GPK collector Nate
Lucius through eBay via the Topps Vault for cards 560a Lappin’ LARRY and 560b
Guzzlin’ GUY; this piece was also not smooth to the touch on a smaller scale and
had artwork pasted over it. The published final artwork for ‘Mathematical Symbol
For – Vomit!!’ and the unpublished piece ‘Mathematical Symbol For – Egg-Salad
On Rye!’:

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The following Unpublished
Piece by James Warhola is rumored to have been intended for the OS14 set,
but was most likely rejected prior to this release. Artwork in which the higher-ups
at Topps found questionable in taste were held back and often resubmitted in future
sets to see if the paintings could be ‘snuck’ in for a later release. The last,
largest contribution from Warhola for the for the OS12 set and three pieces for
the OS13 set. Only one final artwork image made it into the OS14 and OS16 sets
each and were most likely images held back and re-submitted by the NPD (new product
development) Department. Warhola had this to say about the piece: “Yes it’s
one of my rare ‘not in the mood’ pieces, I think I was moving out of the city
and was rushed, thus the slightly different style. [The painting] is oils and
of course no one else used oils except me” [April 2016]. The piece does feel
‘off’ and not one of Warhola’s strongest offerings, but as mentioned, he was moving
out of NYC physically, and possibly, mentally checking out of GPK. Mark Newgarden,
one of the art directors for the set, mentioned no dates were located of when
this piece was planned or completed but “the sketch notes call for a few
of the coils and food splashes, but James really went overboard here. I’m guessing
that ‘Yes’, it probably sat around for quite awhile.” NOTE: On June 29, 2020,
Mark Newgarden mentioned, “This one never got seen (or rejected) by any Topps
“higher ups”… it just didn’t work out.”

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For the OS14 GPK Lay-Out
of the set, Tom Bunk completed the artwork for the first half of the set, cards
541-553, James Warhola completed the middle artwork piece for card 554 and John
Pound completed the remaining last half of the set, cards 555-580.