Wacky Packages: relive the gross old days
There's a new book out that tells the story of Wacky Packages, the popular Topps product-parody stickers from the '70s. Pulitzer Prize winner Art Spiegelman (Maus) created some of the Wacky Packs. Who knew? I can recall entire desktops at Jane Ryan Elementary decorated with those (mildy) grotesque images, most of them affixed by me. The satire prefigured (and clearly inspired) everything from Saturday Night Live's parody commercials to AdFreak. In that Wacky world, Minute Rice became "Minute Lice," squirming in the bowl. Cap'n Crunch morphed into "Cap'n Crud," which made broccoli (every 6-year-old's nemesis) seem appealing. Monopoly was "Monotony," which was truth in advertising, as far as I'm concerned. And Comet was re-imagined as "Commie Cleanser" ("Gets rid of reds, hippies, yippies, pinkos and flippies"). Crest, of course, was "Crust," a personal favorite. While the real products could always be made "new and improved," their Wacky renditions achieved timeless perfection. Crust! It still works after all these years. —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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August 13, 2008 in Gianatasio, Trading cards | Permalink |
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Interesting, when does the sequel about the Garbage Pail Kids come out?
http://www.garbagepailkids.com/
Posted by: Rebecca Cullers | Aug 13, 2008 10:11:16 AM
So is this the reason Gen-X has such resistance to advertising?
Posted by: Steve | Aug 13, 2008 2:30:45 PM
Greetings, my name is David Gross. Topps will be putting out a NEW Wacky Packages set this summer (most likely in August). I did all the writing and painting for this set as well as planning out the concept for the set. I painted about half of the All-New Wacky Packages that came out in recent years and did some new Garbage Pail Kids as well. The set is chock full of extras including Jay Lynch sketch cards (Lynch was one of the writers for the original Wackys). EVERYONE that buys a box will get a sketch card. The sets are designed to be like a 17th series of the original stickers which will parody 1970s products that Topps had not done at that time. All new artwork in EVERY series, no reprints. 33 stickers each set with 9 piece old school style checklists, boxes and wrappers. I have promos and fliers available on Ebay for anyone interested (see ebay seller salandrei). These are available at no profit for me, just covering costs. More info to be announced soon so you can keep visiting www.toppsonlinestore.com. Long Live Wackys!
Thanks!
Posted by: Dave | Jul 9, 2009 12:55:14 AM
