Meanie Babies | Garbage Pail Kids World

In
1998, Comic Images, with distribution by Dark Horse Comics, came out with the
most innovative non-sport card parody set since the Garbage Pail Kids releases
called the Meanie Babies—right amidst the hype of the Beanie Babies collecting
craze going on at the time. The creative team behind these great pieces
of artwork were none other than artist extraordinaire John Pound of GPK fame and
writer Jay Lynch who worked on all of the reverse card backs. The cards came packaged
six to a foil pack with the possibility of a insert or chase card plus one sticker,
that measure 2.5 X 3.5 inches.

136 CARD SET : 61 BASE
+ 75 CHASE CARDS

CHASE CARDS : 61 STICKERS + 1 BONUS CARD
+ 3 PROMO CARDS
+ 3 SKETCH CARDS + 6 OMNI-CHOME CARDS + 1 AUTOGRAPH CARDS

COUNTER
DISPLAY BOX — TWO VARIATIONS : 30 COUNT OR 48 COUNT
ARTWORK : JOHN POUND

TRADING
CARD PACK — NO WRAPPER CODE

GUFF!
COMIC — INCLUDED CY-CLONE BONUS CARD

ADVERTISEMENT
SHEET — DESIGN BY MCNABB STUDIOS — 8.5 x 11 INCHES

MAIL-AWAY
BINDER OFFER — FRONT & BACK — MEASURES 10 x 11.5 INCHES

MAGAZINE
COVER — TUFF STUFF’S COLLECT! — JANUARY 1998

MAGAZINE
COVER — NON-SPORT UPDATE — VOL 9, NO.1 FEB-MAR 1998

—
Various Autograph Cards could be located in randomly
in the Meanie Babies boxes and signed by artist John Pound. The autographs could
be found on any of the three promo cards produced for the set, signed on the front,
with an ‘Authentic Comic Images Autograph’ sticker on the backside. 500 cards
were signed by Pound in total.

—
Besides the base card set, there is also a Parallel
Sticker Set that contains a blank, completely white reverse card back to
collect. Card #61, the checklist card, has card information only on the frontside
since the reverse card back is blank.

—
The Promo Cards were
distributed prior to the set being released and contained a GPK-like yellow nameplate.
The nameplate was dropped for the regular release with the card showing the characters
names in one of the six various colors found within the Meanie Babies header.
The reverse card backs give a nice break-down of the set.

—
Cards #3 UPCHUCK the Duck and #35 DOWNCHUCK the
DUCK are either the Same Character, vomiting after
stuffing its gullet and stuffing its gullet before vomiting, or they are antithesis
twins.

—
As pictured below, card #59 GRRRILLA the Gorilla
is the only card character that uses the Meanie Babies Logo
Header as part of the card humor.

—
A deluxe, three-ring Meanie Babies Binder
was offered on the back of the wrappers for only $19.95 and came with nine, nine-pocket
pages; pictured above in the ‘Product Overview’ section.

—
The first parody set to have random Chase
Cards located within the packs—not including the promo cards and bonus
card. Besides the harder-to-find Autograph Cards, the Sketch and Omni-Chrome card
could be found randomly in every box of Meanie Babies, averaging one sketch card
and 3 chromium cards per box. The Sketch card reverse backs give a humorous account
of the history of the three characters that John Pound created and contain the
color rough for the final card image. The Omni-Chrome reverse card backs are in
a vertical presentation rather than the horizontal layout of the base card and
has an altogether different rhyme.

—
Unfortunately, there is No
Puzzle within the release; the blank sticker backs would have been ideal
for several puzzles.

—
A Guff! Comic featuring
the Meanie Babies was produced by Dark Horse Comics around the same time the series
was released, featuring a storyboard by Jay Lynch and final artwork by John Pound.
As an added insentive, the comic included a Bonus Card
(CY-CLONE the Sheep)whose image cannot be found in the regular base set and whose
artwork is on the front of the comic; featured above in ‘Product Overview’ section.
The reverse card back layout is more like the vertical presentation of the Omni-Chrome
cards backs.

Card #38 SWAMPY has a Cabbage Patch Kid doll floating
in the sewer water—the brand that led to the Garbage Pail Kids brand and
to John Pound’s second parody assigment for the Topps Company after the Wacky
Packages.

FINAL ARTWORK SAMPLES

#2 SNOTTY	#15 FLUSH	#27 FLAT
#38 SWAMPY	#47 GONUTS	#48 EXSTINKT
#50 BEAVIS	#52 GAME-BOAR	#57 HOT LIPPS

—
Comic Images had artist John Pound helmed the entire
Meanie Babies set himself containing 61 different card characters; almost roughly
20 more images than a regular Garbage Pail Kids set; ie. Pound completed 41+ pieces
for the OS1 set. The entire first printing sold out but the Beanie Babies’ lawyers
politely asked with a cease and desist letter that Dark Hourse not reprint the
cards, let alone think about a second series. Card #45 POUND the Groundhog is
a self-named card after the artist’s last name and is reminiscent of the Whac-a-Mole
game—which is called Mole Buster in Japan when translated to English.

—
During 2003, artist Jay Lynch was commisioned by
the Topps company to create character drawings for a potential new parody set
called Garbage Pail Pets. Although the product was
never produced, Lynch developed three pre-production pen and ink concept sketches
for the proposed set. Instead, Topps slightly rendered and eventually released
the unpublished OS16 set from 1988 re-titled All-New Series from their non-sport
card division. The idea is very similar to the 1998 Meanie Babies set by Comic
Images, though the Garbage Pail Pets are a parody of the GPK format. The artwork
was redrawn by artist Mark Pingitore and included in the Garbage Pail Pets subset
for cards #1 through #3 for the 2015S2 30th anniversary set.

—
Artist and writer Jay Lynch
wrote all of the limericks on the reverse card backs for the set and mini-profiles;
his writing is exceptional as usual, and is very reminiscent of the profile backs
of some of the earlier GPK card backs.

#	CARD & STICKER NAME + MINI MEANINGS	ARTIST	WRITER
1	HAIRBALL the Cat — def’n: A ball of hair formed in the stomach from licking fur.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
2	SNOTTY the Baby Bull — def’n: A cow’s runny nose.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
3	UPCHUCK the Duck — def’n: To vomit; throw up.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
4	SPHINXTER the Baby Sphinx — def’n: sphinx + sphincter, the muscle of the anus.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
5	NO BRAINER the Camel — def’n: parody of Joe Camel, the cigarette mascot.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
6	PICKLES the Pickled Pig — def’n: pickled pig feet + pickled cucumbers.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
7	LITTERS the Cat — def’n: kitty litter box.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
8	BABY CUE the Unicorn — def’n: barbecue skewer.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
9	SCUMMY the Baby Pond Scum — def’n: a mass of algae formed on stagnant water.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
10	WARTY the Frog — def’n: warts + frog, although, toads have warts, not frogs.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
11	VAL the Crow — def’n: Velcro + black crow, fastening strip.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
12	FROGENSTEIN the Frog — def’n: frog + Frankenstein.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
13	MOLDIE the Dead Goldfish — def’n: fungus growing on damp decaying organic matter.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
14	ROADHOG the Pig — def’n: road hog, a motorist who drives recklessly or inconsiderately.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
15	FLUSH the Alligator — def’n: a parody of ‘sewer alligator’ stories, urban legends.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
16	E.COLI the Baby Bacteria — def’n: Escherichia coli bacteria that lives in the intestines.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
17	EDDIE the Yetti — def’n: rhyming parody of a mythical apelike creature resembling Bigfoot.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
18	BAD HARE the Rabbit — def’n: bad hair + hare, a fast-running, long-eared & hind legs mammal.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
19	SALMONELLA the Salmon — def’n: a bacterium that occurs in the intestine; food poisoning.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
20	PIERCY the Rhino — def’n: body & face piercing + rhinoplasty; thick skinned.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
21	FARTFACE the Bear — def’n: slang for worthless talk + gas releasing magical beans.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
22	SPRITZER the Cobra — def’n: spitting cobra + spritzer, a mixture of wine & soda water.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
23	HIPPY the Hippopotamus — def’n: hippy + hippo, similar-sounding.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
24	ROTO ROOSTER the Domestic Fowl — def’n: a parody of Roto-Rooter plumbing service.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
25	PICKY-PICKY the Elephant — def’n: to pick with the fingers (trunk proboscis), pick the nose.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
26	ZIPPITY the Bunny — def’n: to zip or zipper + hippity hop bunny movements.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
27	FLAT the Squished Cat — def’n: roadkill flattened by traffic; parody of Goodyear tires (marks).	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
28	BUM-BEE the Bee — def’n: bum + bumblebee, no money/no honey panhandling parody.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
29	DOWNSIZE the Dog — def’n: to make smaller, to press.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
30	HOLEY COW the Heavenly Cow — def’n: holy cow exclamation + swiss cheese w/ holes.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
31	SUCKER the Mosquito — def’n: bloodsucking mosquitos + an easily deceived person.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
32	SPOT-LESS the Dalmation — def’n: Spot the dog + spot remover = spotlessly immaculate.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
33	CLEARCUT the Beaver — def’n: clear cut forests + beaver felled trees.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
34	BIG MOUTH the Mouse — def’n: the juxtpostion of a very small rodent + largest mouth.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
35	DOWNCHUCK the Duck — def’n: down-chuck means to drop or ‘throw down’; an idiot.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
36	VILE-RUS the Computer Virus — def’n: vile + walrus, an extremely unpleasant infective agent.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
37	RAT-RACE the Rat — def’n: a frustratig, hard-to-break financial lifestyle; competitive.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
38	SWAMPY the Sewer Creature — def’n: a murky, muddy, dirty conduit for waste & refuse.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
39	PIDDLES the Poodle — def’n: piddle, to urinate, or the act of urinating; puddles of piddle.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
40	OXYMORON the Ox — def’n: ox + moron (stupid person), opposing terms appearing in conjunction.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
41	DE-ODOR-ANT the Ant — def’n: de- prefix (to remove) + odor (unpleasant body stink), conceal.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
42	HUNGRY the Lion — def’n: a strong desire for food, hungry like a wolf, bear, etc; self-cannibalism.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
43	BULL-ONEY the Bull — def’n: foolish talk, nonsense; the variant of bologna mystery meat product.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
44	MAGGOTY the Maggot — def’n: the legless, soft-bodied, wormlike larva found in decaying matter.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
45	POUND the Groundhog — def’n: to hit severely; a pounding, splitting headache; Bayer aspirin.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
46	SMARTASS the Donkey — def’n: smart + ass (a hoofed mammal, jackass or stupid person).	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
47	GONUTS the Squirrel — def’n: idiom, to do something enthusiastically; squirrels zipper & eat nuts.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
48	EXSTINKT the Saber-Toothed Skunk — def’n: stink + extinct, to smell + no longer exist.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
49	NOSEJOB the Reindeer — def’n: a Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer parody; rinoplasty.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
50	BEAVIS the Butt-Erfly — def’n: Beavis and Butt-head protagonists name parody, MTV show.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
51	WHINOSAUR the Dinosaur — def’n: whine + dinosaur, to cry, wail or weep loudly, a tantrum.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
52	GAME-BOAR the Wild Boar — def’n: Game Boy, the Nintendo handheld gaming system + a boar.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
53	CHESTER the Turtle — def’n: chest of drawers, a bureau, furniture with stacked drawers.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
54	WEBSTER the Spider — def’n: spider web + WWW, a network of fine threads + World Wide Web network + the online Webster dictionary.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
55	ARMPIT the Amorphous Creature — def’n: a bushy armpit + an unclassifiable undefined form.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
56	HOUSEFLY the Fly — def’n: quite literally, a fly shaped like a house.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
57	HOT LIPPS the Dragon — def’n: in the heat of the moment; unresistable; kissable; trumpet player.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
58	HOOOTERS the Owl — def’n: hoot + hooters, an owl noise + chichis, a woman’s breast.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
59	GRRRILLA the Gorilla — def’n: Grrr + Gorilla, a growling, angry sound + a chest-beating great ape.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
60	TICKED OFF the Deer — def’n: ticked off + deer tick, upset or angry + an ixodid tick, parasitic on deer that transmit infectious agents including the bacterium causing Lyme disease.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
61	CHECKLIST	NONE	NONE
#	CHASE CARDS — BONUS, PROMO, SKETCH, OMNI + AUTO	ARTIST	ARTIST
B	CY-CLONE — def’n: Guff Comic Bonus Card); closed, rotating circular fluid motion + clone, a organism or cell, or group, produced asexually from one ancestor or stock; genetically identical.	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
P1	LITTERS	JOHN Pound	NONE
P2	UPCHUCK	JOHN Pound	NONE
P3	SPHINXTER	JOHN Pound	NONE
S1	VILE-RUS	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
S2	NO-BRAINER	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
S3	BAD-HARE	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
O1	FLUSH	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
O2	WARTY	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
O3	MOLDIE	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
O4	BABY CUE	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
O5	ROTO ROOSTER	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
O6	ZIPPITY	JOHN Pound	JAY Lynch
A1	LITTERS — Autograph Card w/ Seal	JOHN Pound	NONE
A2	UPCHUCK — Autograph Card w/ Seal	JOHN Pound	NONE
A3	SPHINXTER — Autograph Card w/ Seal	JOHN Pound	NONE
#	CHASE CARDS	ARTIST	ARTIST

Leave a Reply