 |
 |
 |
Learn More About Topps' "Wacky
Packages" Trading Cards
 |
MARCH 23RD, 2004
In the spring of 1973, the
Topps Chewing Gum Company manufactured a line of trading cards
that were advertising parodies known as Wacky Packages. To
learn more about “Weakies - The Breakfast of Chumps” and
“Cap'n Crud Cereal,” log on to http://www.wackypackages.org/.
This
collector's paradise is run by Greg Grant, and he has images
from all sixteen Wacky Pack series available for viewing on
the website. Start by tapping the “All Images” option on the
main menu page, then just pick a year between 1967 and 1976.
Classic stickers like the ones for “Jolly Mean Giant
Peas,” “Gadzooka Gum” and “Minute Lice” all appeared in the
first few years. But the gags just kept getting better, and
it¹s no wonder: The artists and writers who worked on these
cards include Art Spiegelman, the Pulitzer Prize winning
author of “Maus,” Jay Lynch, a famed Mad Magazine cartoonist,
Kim Deitch, a pioneering underground comic book artist, and
Norman Saunders, who illustrated some of the best-known pulp
detective novels in the world.
And once you're
finished laughing over “Pupsi Cola,” the soft drink for dogs,
and “Life Servers,” the candy for convicts, I suggest browsing
the Norman Saunders website at http://www.normansaunders.com/. But don't go
away yet, because there's lots more to see on the
wackypages.org website too, like a collection of unpublished
titles including “Hawaiian Punks Vicious Fruit Punch” and
“Rotting Zone Magazine.”
Grant has gathered a wealth
of historical data, like a bibliography of newspaper and
magazine articles about Wacky Packs that includes the New York
Magazine cover about this "new fad for the children of the
skeptical 70’s." And there's even a Wacky Pack phylum that
counts the number of times a bird, fish, or dog has ever
appeared on a pack.
Although Wackys faded away in
1976, it spawned the Garbage Pail Kids parody that can be
found online at http://www.garbagepailkidsworld.com/.. And
in May, Topps is planning to publish an all-new line of Wacky
Pack stickers featuring send-ups of modern products like
“Foolgers Coffee” and “Frosted Snakes Cereal.”
For
more information, visit http://www.topps.com/, or just keep going
back to the ultimate Wacky Packs shrine at http://www.wackypackages.org/.
-
Noah Robischon
Entertainment Weekly
|
| |
|
 |
 |
Buy NY1 Items Online
Show your NY1 colors
with our exclusive outerwear items, including baseball caps
and t-shirts, available at NY1's online
store. |
|
Power Play?
Mayor Michael Bloomberg this week
reshuffled the Panel for Educational Policy so his plan
to eliminate social promotion would be approved. Tell us
if you support his tactics in our NY1
poll. |
|
Itching For Politics?
Get your daily
political fix with NY1's Political
ItCH, Bob Hardt's thoughtful yet irreverent look Inside
City Hall. |
| |
