Garbage Pail Kids to return

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Garbage Pail Kids, the grandfather of gross-out, set to return

By Lukas I. Alpert, Associated Press, 7/9/2003 10:34

NEW YORK (AP) Long before ''South Park'' or ''Beavis and Butthead'' were

entertaining kids with lowbrow toilet humor there were the ''Garbage Pail

Kids.'' Now, the grandfather of gross-out is making a comeback.

After being off the market for 15 years, a new series of the hugely

successful stickers that entertained children in the mid-1980s with

depictions of bodily functions and other unsavory concepts will be released

in August by The Topps Company, Inc.

Garbage Pail Kids still maintain a cult following, with several dedicated

fan Web sites and an active trade on Internet auction sites.

But will the stickers, which originally were conceived as a spoof of

early-1980s it-toy, The Cabbage Patch Kids, find an audience among kids

raised on the hyper-potty-humored ''Jackass'' and the sophomoric ''Sponge

Bob Square Pants?''

''I think gross-out has always been and will always be of interest to

kids,'' said Arthur T. Shorin, chairman of Topps, whose lower Manhattan

headquarters is crowded with mountains of candy and collectible cards.

''Garbage Pail Kids was a phenomenal fad it really struck a funny bone and

we expect kids will still enjoy them because it's a spoof on real life.''

The new series finds plenty of new things to make fun of, like ''Fartin'

Martin,'' who gaseously propels himself on a Razor scooter, or the heavily

pierced ''Metallic Alec,'' who is pulled out of his shoes by a magnet.

They even take a shot at the bespectacled child wizard ''Harry Potty''

toilet plunger in tow, doing his business in the loo.

Also, to help modernize the series, Topps plans to launch a Web site in

August that will let youngsters create their own Garbage Pail Kids and take

a tour of a Garbage Pail Kid city, among other things.

Not all the ideas are new. About two-thirds of the series is made up of

original art drawn for stickers 15 years ago that were never released.

The company ran 15 different series of Garbage Pail Kids from 1985 through

1988, earning the company millions, Shorin said. The unreleased art was

drawn for the 16th series, which never saw print because the stickers'

popularity had waned.

When the old drawings came out of the archive, Shorin felt the company had a

good thing on its hands, but said he didn't rely just on a hunch. It was

shown to a research group of children.

''And they loved it,'' Shorin said.

Back in the 1980s, Garbage Pail Kids suffered a backlash of sorts from

parents who thought gross-out humor was detrimental to children something

that probably spurred their popularity.

''I would get letters all the time from parents saying, 'This is in poor

taste.' Well, of course it's in poor taste!'' Shorin said. ''But it's not in

wrong taste; we would never do that.''

Some are still skeptical about Garbage Pail Kids.

''I'm kind of surprised they're releasing it, because I think kids may be

beyond this,'' said Mark Long, author of ''Bad Fads,'' and operator of the

Bad Fads Museum Web site.

Shorin argues the stickers are not only fun, but educational, helping

children face ideas that are difficult to talk about.

''Garbage Pail Kids deals with bodily functions and death and dismemberment,

which kids are very much aware of, but it deals with it in a humorous way,

which helps kids confront these things.''

On the Net:

Topps Company: http://www.topps.com

Bad Fads Museum: http://www.badfads.com