AUTOGRAPHED CARDS

I've been doing my best to get signed trading cards from my favorite artists and most of them have been really nice about signing them for me and returning them. Here are some of the ones I've received back in the mail. (Some of these scans extend off the screen so click on them to see the full image)



JOHN POUND GPK father signed this TEE-VEE STEVIE card for me from the first series (one of my favorite cards of all time). I'd say he was sort of like a God to me but God would have never influenced my artwork like John did.



Even though he didn't do the final artwork on this card JAY LYNCH another GPK pioneer was nice enough to sign this ADAM BOMB card from the first series for me. He also signed one of the new Wacky Packages cards he illustrated.



One of the best things about the early cards was the "Bazooka Joe" type comics on the card backs. I had to ask Jay to sign a couple that he illustrated for me. Love ya, always will.



BRENT ENGSTROM was nice enough to take time out of his Indiana Jones card sketching to sign me this TIE-DEE KNOT card from the ANS7 series, and a Hollywood Zombies card he illustrated.



He also sent me this nice little sketch.



JOHN CEBOLLERO sent me an autographed KARATE KYLE card from ANS5, along with SIKIRA from the HOLLYWOOD ZOMBIES. When it comes to intestines, John draws his guts out.



LUIZ DIAZ, bless his rotten soul, sent me BATTY BRAD from ANS5 along with a STARDUCKS COFFEE Wacky Package he painted.



FRED WHEATON, an all around great chap, sent me I-CLOD TODD from ANS6 along with the MIRACLE WEEP wacky package he painted.



Fred was sweet enough to sent me a sketch of the crying Miracle Weep man who obviously still hasn't gotten over his breakup with the Land O' Lakes Indian girl.

I want to thank all the artists who signed these for me, and if I get more in the mail I'll post them.

THE JOY OF FOOD

This is a little animation I made. It might make you hungry.

GARBAGE PAIL KIDS INSERT HELP

O.K., this is totally cheating but it's a really good way to increase your odds of getting the random insert cards. You have to buy a little key chain scale that measures ounces and grams (you can usually pick one up at a tobacco store) and take it with you to the store when you know your going to purchase these cards.



I know...I have no shame.
The insert cards almost always weigh more or less than regular cards so you just grab a box full of packs and start weighing them one by one. Do the math. This works really good. Here's a list of the different kinds of insert cards there are and how much they weigh.

REGULAR CARDS- 2g
SILVER FOIL CARDS- 2g
GOLD FOIL CARDS- 1g
POP-UP CARDS- 1g
TATTOOS- 1g
ALPHABET STICKERS- 2.5g
MAGNETS- 3g
ACTIVITY CARDS- 1g
LOCO MOTION CARDS- 3g

As you are weighing these in the store remember to bask in the warm fuzzy solitude of nerdom. Priceless.

FREE "CARL WRECK" GARBAGE PAIL KID CARD

Shortly after the new series 7 Garbage Pail Kids were released messages started popping up that the B2 bonus card (Carl Wreck) that was supposed to come in Target bonus boxes was impossible to find. The problem come to find out was that Topps didn't print up enough of the card and there were only a handful of people who actually found one. The card started appearing on Ebay for hundreds of dollars and collectors began to get frustrated. Enough people complained that Topps decided to give everyone a chance to get the card for FREE.

All you have to do is follow this link to the Topps website and print out a form to send in. You can get 2 cards per household.
http://www.topps.com/ent/brands/GPK7/GPK7Web-REDEMPTION.html

I'm sure this card will still be rare in the future, there's no telling how many people will actually take part in the redemption but it's a great opportunity to get one!

FUJIYA AND MIYAGI

I found out about this group last year through their videos on Youtube which I thought were the bee's knees. I got hooked on the catchy electronica. Since then they have started to get a little more popular and I've heard them popping up on some TV ads. They have 2 albums "Electro Karaoke in the Negative Style · 2003, and Transparent Things · 2006. Check out two Fujiya and Miyagi videos with these links:


ANKLE INJURIES
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5XVeENmLMk


COLLARBONE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMBndXAaPrw&feature=user

SUMMER TATTOO PLANS

I've been thinking a lot lately about covering a large portion of my body with tattoos. I'm always drawing them up for other people so I figure maybe I should put a bunch on myself. Right now I've only got a couple and they are in bad shape and need to be retouched or covered anyway. I'm also covered with a lot of ugly scars from surgeries I went through when I had cancer in 1999 and just other dumb shit I did to destroy my body. So here's my ideas.
As you can tell I didn't use photoshop to retouch my body or hide how chubby I'm getting so if you don't like it too bad.



What I'd like to do is retouch the tattoo I have of the logo from my favorite band "The Pixies" on my right shoulder and then I'm going to add the words "TROMPE LE MONDE" underneath it which means "fool the world" in French and was the title of their fifth and final album.

I'm going to get "COOEY" written over my heart on the left of my chest because that's always been my pet-name for my wife.

The number 13 will go across from that on the right. That's for the Pixies song "No. 13 Baby", "She's got a tattooed tit, says number 13"

Alfred E. Neuman's head goes on my left shoulder with the words "Quid, Me Anxius Sum?" underneath which is "What Me Worry?" in Latin.



On my back a big old Adam Bomb, the most classic Garbage Pail Kid ever. What do you think, black or color? Leave your comments.

THE WORLD OF TELEVISION

This is a little animation I made about television. Enjoy!!

GARBAGE PAIL KIDS TRADING CARDS

My favorite thing to collect Is Garbage Pail Kids trading cards. For those of you who have never heard of these I'll give you a quick history...
Back in good ol' 1985 when Cabbage Patch Kid dolls were a serious craze, Topps trading cards began selling the most wonderful set of new cards spoofing the dolls called "Garbage Pail Kids" or GPK's. Each amazingly illustrated card portrayed one of the "kids" doing something repulsive or strange. Most of the cards primarily dealt with some sort of gag revolving around snot, barf, decapitation, or anything disgusting. If you ask me they were way ahead of their time.
The first series of 41 different cards was released in 1985 and each card had an a and a b card with two separate names totaling 82 cards in the first set.





At the time they came out I was in third grade and as soon as the first cards started hitting the playground we were all hooked. Across the street from the school in Cedar Falls was this little grocery store called Lewellen's Grocery and they had this big candy counter where old man Lewellen and his wife would be waiting after school got out. Our parents would always give us 50 cents and you could stand in line with the other kids and get a bag of penny candy. At that time a pack of 5 Garbage Pail Kids that came with a stick of gum cost a quarter so we all stopped buying candy and started collecting these awesome cards. The cards were also stickers which was good and bad because a lot of kids ended up sticking them all over the place or getting them confiscated by teachers. Soon how popular you were on the playground had a lot to do with how big of a stack of cards you had in your fist.





The Garbage Pail Kids cards were so popular that additional series continued going up to series 15 in 1988. There were a total of 1240 cards to collect in the 1-15 series.
As the series progressed Topps got sued by the creators of Cabbage Patch Kids a few times but made slight changes in the logo or character models so they could continue.

A lot of 80's kids lost our old cards or stuck them on our bedposts and closet doors over the years or may not have continued collecting or even being able to find the cards eventually. I remember our school principal had a drawer in his office loaded with cards confiscated at school and at one point they had to send a note home to parents warning them about nasty trading cards.

About ten years ago I started building up a collection of cards from scratch when I was in High School and it was so much fun seeing those familiar images. I started out by just asking people if they kept any of them around and surprisingly enough boys and girls had shoeboxes full of them they had saved as a kid and were kind enough to donate or sell them to me. Now I'm old enough not only to get a real kick out of the humor, but also appreciate the artwork.

So over time I built up my collection of the original cards as a hobby, and then something really neat happened. In 2003 Topps released a new series of Garbage Pail Kids for all of us big kids and a new generation of children to corrupt. So now we can collect the new ones while going back and filling in our old collections. Fun, fun, fun. The new cards referred to as "ANS" cards are currently on the seventh series and are sold at stores like Target or Walmart with the rest of the trading cards. The original cards have gained quite a bit of value over the years and are highly collectible.

Garbage Pail Kids cards will most definitely a topic of future blogging but that's all for now.

STEVE'S NEAT FIND

My sister Cathy told me about this thing called "The Worlds Biggest Garage Sale" which I'm sure isn't true but we went anyway and you had to pay a buck to get in. I took my family and my niece and nephew and sister and after we paid to get in we found out everyone was packing up and the thing was over in five minutes. There was way too much stuff to look at so we just split up and dashed around real quick looking at whatever was left out. I guess this was a good time to shop because the vendors were exhausted and were making good deals. I was looking around and I found a box with a bunch of autographed photos in it. I asked the guy if they were real and he said they were. I looked at them real good and saw that they were legitimate so I asked him how much they were a piece. He said I could take the whole box for five dollars. So I bought them all. I didn't really have too much time to look at them until I got out to the car, but the ones I got were:
* Bridgette Bardot (actress)
* Jimmy Buffet (singer)
* Art Carney (actor) deceased
* Tammy Wynette (singer) deceased
* Milton Berle (actor/ comedian) deceased
* Kenny Rogers (singer)
* Dolly Parton (singer)
* Jack Palance (actor) deceased
* Peter Boyle (actor) deceased
* Rod Taylor (actor)
* Ursula Andrews (actress)
and
* Clay Aiken (singer)

The only one I really was excited about getting was Rod Taylor just because I'm a big Hitchcock fan and he was in "The Birds", also he was in "The Time Machine" which is a great sci-fi flick. I framed the Clay Aiken photo and gave that to my mom for her birthday and she freaked out, and I gave Ursula Andrews to my son Jack because he's a big James Bond fan and he wanted to have an autographed Bond Girl photo on his wall.

RAINBOW BRITE

Rainbow Brite
Red Butler

Patty O'Green

This is a perfect example of something I would have never thought I would ever buy, but there they were, 3 Rainbow Brite dolls from 1983. I saw them in a ziplock bag at a garage sale and I could tell that they were in good condition. All three of them had the original clothes on and came with their little star sprites. I never watched Rainbow Brite when I was a kid but one of my sisters would kill me if I didn't even ask how much they were. The lady sold them to me for a dollar and now I am the proud owner of Rainbow Brite, Red Butler, and Patty O'Green.

SPRING CLEANING IN THE STUDIO/ garage sale addiction

One of my favorite things about springtime is cleaning up all the mess I made during the winter when I was inside screwing around. My studio where I work on a lot of my artwork is usually what I save for last, however this year I'm going to leave the garage.
Last year I didn't have a gallery show because I ran out of artwork to sell the year before and I didn't have much of anything left over. Since I never got into making prints, I would sell the original artwork and that would be the end of it. I figured the best thing to do was spend the winter building up a good deal of art so I would have that stuff in the spring and summer for art festivals and shows.
This didn't end up working out so hot because I got in this mode of drawing up all these small illustrations and not stretching any canvas or doing anything of any real size. I had a lot of fun drawing them but the small stuff never sells as good as the big paintings. Oops.
As I was straightening up the studio I realized that I need to cut down on all the junk I keep buying. I thought I had it under control and made it a point to sell off some of my bigger collections a year ago on Ebay but I can't stop buying this crap. Thrift stores and garage sales are the killer. All these old people around here have no clue how wonderful all this 80's crap is to people like me and thier kids are all moved out so they take all this treasure and haul it out of the attic and stick it in the thrift store or garage sales. I can't resist to pass up a garage sale so I come along and make off like a bandit and bring all this stuff home I don't have room for. It's a vicious cycle.

WELCOME TO MY BLOG

My name is Steve Potter and I'm a freelance cartoonist/illustrator from Iowa. I love reading other people's blogs so I decided to try one out for myself. You'll have to let me know if we share similar interests or share tastes. I supposed I'll just begin by posting what happens to be on my mind any particular day, or what I find interesting or exciting at the moment.