Garbage Pail Kids

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Image:8a adam bomb.jpg Garbage Pail Kids is a series of humorous trading cards produced by the Topps Company. The cards were originally released in 1985 and were designed to parody the Cabbage Patch Kids dolls made by Mattel, which were immensely popular at the time. Each sticker card featured a Garbage Pail Kid character and a humorous, wordplay-rich character name. Two (or sometimes three) versions of each card were produced, with variations featuring the same artwork but different character names. Fifteen regular series were released in the United States, with a variation of sets released in other countries. Two large format card editions were also released, as well as a set of posters.

The series was the brainchild of Art Spiegelman, who had been a consultant for Topps for 19 years and who came up with the product idea after the success of his other creations, Garbage Candy and Wacky Packages. The concept originally began as an unreleased Wacky Packages title, but the management at Topps thought it would be a good idea for a separate spin-off series. Spiegelman worked as the editor and art director, Len Brown was the manager, and the first run of the cards was drawn exclusively by artist John Pound. After the immediate success created demand for additional series, Spiegelman brought in his friend, Jay Lynch, as well as an ex-student and protege, Mark Newgarden, as writers (Newgarden inaccurately claims to be the inventor of the series, but he was in fact hired following the initial success of the series.) Several artists contributed to the card artwork, including John Pound, Tom Bunk, and James Warhola, among others.

The commercial success of the trading cards led to the production of a movie of the same name in 1987. The Garbage Pail Kids Movie was a financial failure and one of the most universally and vehemently panned films in Hollywood history.Template:Fact There was also an animated television series made that never aired in the U.S. because of parent complaints, but was briefly aired in Europe. However, last year, the movie was released on DVD by MGM Home Entertainment, and most recently the entire cartoon series was also released on DVD by CBS/Paramount Home Entertainment on April 4, 2006. The production of the cards themselves continued, although they underwent some redesign when Mattel sued Topps for infringement of the Cabbage Patch Kids trademark. By 1988, however, sales of Garbage Pail Kids had dwindled, and a planned 16th series never saw production.

In 2003, Topps reintroduced Garbage Pail Kids with all-new cards, dubbed the All New Series (ANS). The new cards feature unique ID numbers that can be redeemed online at the official Garbage Pail Kids website. Visitors can build and "gross out" their own Garbage Pail Kids. The more unique ID numbers applied to the characters, the more gross they can become. As of 2005, Topps has released four All New Series and has announced that a fifth series will be released in April 2006.

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