No longer content to stay on flea market dealers’ tables or locked away in teachers’ drawers after being confiscated, The Topps Company’s GARBAGE PAIL KIDS have leapt off the cards and onto the pages of a gorgeously disgusting new hardcover book from Abrams ComicArts. One of the men responsible talked about the vomitous volume with Fango.

Every card from series 1-5 are here and in full color, along with a special set of four limited-edition previously unreleased bonus stickers. The book also has an introduction and afterword by creators Art Spiegelman and John Pound, respectively. The latter tells Fango he’s happy to finally see his mucus-drenched masterpieces get the treatment they so richly deserve. “I love books,” Pound says. “It’s a great feeling to have these paintings for the cards appearing in a book. I have to thank the people at Topps and Abrams for making it happen. GARBAGE PAIL KIDS has been such a team effort.”

When Pound landed the gross-out gig back in the ’80s, Topps put the artist on a strict deadline, one that demanded he paint one Garbage Pail Kid a day. It was tough, but he he says he enjoyed the challenge. “The good side of that tight deadline was that I got a lot of art done in a short amount of time. That’s very rewarding. And there was no time to get sidetracked on unimportant tangents, indecision or perfectionism, or fuss over trying to make the art better.”

At the time, the cards were highly controversial (only to teachers and parents, though; kids loved the Kids), but there were a few characters that were too dark even for Topps. “They vetoed a couple of suicide-based paintings,” Pound recalls, “although recently they’ve been printed as ‘Lost GPKs’ bonus stickers.” As for his personal favorites, Pound says those change on a daily basis. “For today, I’ll say ‘Rappin’ Ron’ [#46a] and ‘Phony Lisa’ [#67a].” It’s tough having to choose between your kids…

You can pick up the GARBAGE PAIL KIDS book on-line or in bookstores everywhere; see Abrams’ official website here. 

---

News - Latest