~
—
The rendered mock-up Display
Box and wrapper artwork was completed during production by artist Tom Bunk.
For this wrapper mock up, the GPK banner and ‘STICKERS’
plate were changed in color, the arrow was removed from character’s head and a
straight GPK banner, seen mainly on the box cover at the bottom, is placed at
the top and non-curved. This marks the last time ‘ALL NEW’ is used for the series
announcement until the ‘ALL NEW’ series of All-New Series 1 (ANS1) for 2003.

—
An unused OS7 mock-up Wax
Wrapper sketch was also fleshed out by artist Tom Bunk as an additional
sample for the packaging (L) with the yellow ‘spotlight’ seen in the background.
The image was created by Bunk directly using Pound’s tight pencil sketch (R);
Tom rendered all of the Garbage Pail Kids wax wrapper artwork for the OS sets.
The character for cards 251a Barfin’ BARBARA and 251b VALERIE Vomit ended up not
being chosen for the packaging but was picked as the puzzle character. The yellow
spotlight first seen on the OS6 wrapper was crossed out of the artwork but does
shows up on the final wrapper.

—
Part 1. GPK case-study:
the Eyebrows of the lowbrow character for cards 251a
Barfin’ BARBARA and 251b VALERIE Vomit. Collecter ‘Mad MIKE’ Boyajian noticed
in 2016 that the eyebrows of artist John Pound’s original concept (above, right),
drawn in late 1986, did not match the card artwork. Eyebrows were raised at Topps
and Pound was requested to revise the artwork; John did confirm that his b&w
photocopy of the original final artwork contains the thin eyebrows. Pound’s pencil
art was sent to Tom Bunk to render for the wrapper artwork (above L) where both
eyebrows are thin. The card artwork contains the updated thicker eyebrows, along
with the OS7 ‘puzzle preview’ card and puzzle piece. John Pound: “I think
Topps sent it back for a retouch on the eyebrows, perhaps they were too tilted.
The printed version […] looks familiar, like how I would have painted the change.
The final art […] also looks vaguely familiar, although not as good to look
at. I’m guessing […] I changed the eyebrows […] where I fattened up the forms
of the brows, to look like yarn, but only colored the top edge. That looked a
bit off or muddy, so I put 2 small pieces of tape (or sticky airbrush frisket
film) over the brows, and painted the full-on dark brows like yarn hair which
looked clearer and better. The darker version may have either fallen off, as the
stickiness weakened, or someone […] peeled it up and lost it.”

Part 2. The final artwork that was
sold on eBay (in early 2000) was missing part of the eyebrow (above right image)
— this image can be seen printed on the backside of the 2011 Flashback Series
2 cards 78a and 78b for the ‘Where Are They Now?’ subset (below left image). The
OS card image was most likely used for the 2011 Flashback Series 3 cards 31a and
31b which have the full, unplucked eyebrows back (below middle image). Mike superimposed
the original concept with the final arwork to create what the original final arwork
may have looked like — more of a surprised expression rather than a severe,
Groucho Marx look (below right image).

—
The
Topps Lawsuit with Original Appalachian Artworks
was settled at the same time that the OS7 installment was released to the public.
Although future sets could no longer resemble the Cabbage Patch Kids look, it
was ruled that any partially or fully completed material could still be released
at a later date, hence the OS8 and OS9 sets. The new Garbage Pail Kids look, with
the non-cloth doll appearance, began during the OS10 set.

—
Per an
acetate test card sold via eBay, card 260a was originally titled ‘ADAM
BOMB II‘ during the pre-production period but switched to the name ADAM
Boom prior to the printing phase. This would have matched the nomenclature of
card 260b Blasted BILLY II; both the original character and version two were painted
by artist John Pound.

—
The image
from the GPK Poster set #18 BUSTED! painted by artist
John Pound is used for the OS5 through OS8 retail ad posters with an enlarged,
straight Garbage Pail Kids banner at the bottom. The original poster contains
a much smaller Garbage
Pail Kids banner.
The
‘NEW‘ pink color of the OS6 retail poster has stayed the
same for the OS7 retail poster; the OS5 retail poster is yellow.

AS
CAN BE DISCERNED FROM L-R, FROM THE ‘SCHOOL’ SIGN TO THE GROUND:
45a Leaky Lindsay & 45b Messy TESSIE, 27a Brainy JANIE & 27b JENNY Genius,
49a Double Heather, 49b Schizo FRAN/FRAN FRAN, 30a New Wave DAVE & 30b Graffiti
PETEY, 8a ADAM Bomb & 8b Blasted BILLY, 73a Gorgeous GEORGE & 73b Dollar
BILL, 3a Up CHUCK & 3b Heavin’ STEVEN, 83a Ugh LEE & 83b Sumo SID,
77a Ghastley ASHLEY & 77b Acne AMY, 54a Fryin’ RYAN & 54b Charred CHAD,
79a Sewer SUE & 79b MICHELLE Muck, 74a MARK Bark & 74b Kennel KENNY, 57a
TOMMY Gun & 57b Dead FRED, 67a Phony LISA & 67b MONA Loser, 43a Smelly
KELLY & 43b DOUG Plug, 44a SY CLOPS & 44b One-Eyed JACK, 66a MATT Ratt
& 66b RACHEL Rodent, 62a Greaser GREG & 62b CHRIS Hiss, 5a Dead TED &
5b JAY Decay, 65a Shrunken ED & 65b Cheeky CHARLES, 42a PATTY Putty &
42b Muggin’ MEGAN, 18a Cranky FRANKIE & 18b Bad BRAD, 75a Off-The-Wall PAUL
& 75b ZACH Plaque, 46a Rappin’ RON & 46b RAY Gun, 4a Fryin’ BRIAN &
4b Electric BILL, 39a Buggy BETTY & 39b Green JEAN, 41a Mean GENE & 41b
Joltin’ JOE, and 40a Unstitched MITCH & 40b Damaged DON.

—
The poster image can also be found
as card #14 BUSTED! from the GIANT GPK card set with
the original curved Garbage
Pail Kids header rather
than the straight Garbage
Pail Kids banner at
the bottom. In both the posters and card, along with various award and license
card backs, there are several OS1 and OS2 characters found throughout the image.

—
The
following Tom Bunk Unpublished Garbage Pail Kids
concept was completed in 1986 or so as an idea sketch intended for the OS7 release.
The artwork or a similar concept was later
painted by artist James Warhola to become cards 291a HOMER Runt and 291b Screwball
LEW. The baseball head remains intact for both pieces, however, the head is part
of the character for the published piece with a fleshed out baseball field and
players. The ‘J’ on the hat most likley stands for ‘James’ for the artist.

—

Per John Pound’s meticulous GPK Notes and
references the tight pencil sketch concept for cards 254a CHRIS Mess and 254b
SANDY Clod was created during the OS6 set and the sketch concept for cards 286a
HALEY Comet and 286b JUNE Moon was created during the OS4 set. The tight pencil
artwork for cards 266a ROY L. Flush and 266b Shuffled SHERMAN suggested that the
nameplate be across the center of the card and the logo be a bit smaller and placed
at the top and at the bottom of the image to match a real playing card; sadly,
this was not realized and the ‘K’ and apple were removed from the concept.

—
The OS7
reverse card artwork contain File Cards that were
written by Mark Newgarden and Art Spiegelman for the Garbage Pail Kids set while
the rendered artwork on the back of the cards was completed by artist Tom Bunk.
The card back sample below contains the OS1 characters from cards 1a Nasty NICK
and 1b Evil EDDIE.

—
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 examples, 264a PETE Seat and 264b NOEL Bowl and 272a Elastic ELWOOD and 272b
FLETCHER Stretcher:

—
Large
GPK Flowcharts were
created for the releases after the OS4 set which showed Mark Newgarden, the GPK
editor at the time, 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. Often, 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 OS7 flowchart
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: ghost,
staple gun (OS7 – stapler), butcher block, kangaroo (unpublished), pilgrim in
stockade (OS7), iron maiden, porcupine (TCT; GPK FB), scalped (OS9), cow kid branded
(unpublished), Merlin, toes as GPK heads (TCT), dog catcher, tied to anchor –
sharks (OS12 + TCT), Mickey Mouse-type (OS16), pumping self with bike pump (OS8),
bowling ball (OS8), justice with scale, aligator wrestler (OS15), tar and feathered,
fondue, atlas (GPK FB), knit (OS8), embryo, wooden Indian on fire, Xmas ornaments.