TOPPS STUPID SMILES STICKERS 1989

In 1989 Topps released the Stupid Smiles sticker cards. Tom Bunk illustrated all of the 44 cards along with the package art.
Each card contains multiple stickers with different humorous variations of the smiley face with 241 gags in all which comes out to an average of 5 stickers per card.

Here is a scan of the box:



Here is a scan of the wax pack:



I bought a set of these last year and in hindsight wished I had bought two just so I had one set to save and the other to stick. There are so many great ideas in these that they are hilarious to look through.
The stickers are crammed onto the cards at different angles which makes these scans a neck breaker, but have fun looking through the collection! There are a bunch I should comment on but I may have to come back to that later.

























































































The backs of the cards contain pieces that form 4 puzzles of fine art masked by smiley faces. The Mona Lisa, Birth of Venus, Whistler's Mother, and The Persistence of Memory.









These would have made some great buttons or T-shirts. I might just select certain ones to send to people through Facebook just for fun?

STARTING OUT THE NEW YEAR 2011

It has been a while since my last post when I got addicted to my Donkey Kong game and got distracted from my blog.
This time my absence was based on a few reasons.
1.) I got a new computer and had to transfer all of my files to the new one (this took a lot more time than I'd expected).
2.) I got a case of the winter "blahs" which took away a lot of my motivation.
3.) I got addicted to yet another damn video game.

I bought a Playstation at a garage sale last summer for a dollar and had it sitting around until early December I decided to order one of my favorite old games Spyro the Dragon. I had a lot of fun replaying it again.



I had a really great holiday season and not only bought my family some great stuff, but got a few neat things for myself.

My dad gave me a $25 gift certificate to Barnes & Noble which was nice because I can always find so many cool books there that I wish I had.

I was scouring the discount and sale books when I came across "The Completely Mad Don Martin" which is Mad artist Don Martin's complete work in two large hardbound books. I saw this years ago for $150 but of course could not afford it at the time. It was marked 50% the discounted price of $25 which came out to $13. I couldn't believe I got such an excellent deal ($13 for a $150 book set). It's a large and entertaining read, I'm only 1/4 of the way through it.



I was lucky during the holidays to win a Ebay auction for a full box of Gross Bears pins which were illustrated by my favorite artist Tom Bunk in 1985. They are tough to find in general but even harder to find an original box full.

I stuck the box up on a shelf in my studio along with a new Donkey Kong figure to remind me how much enjoyment I got playing that damn game.



As far as the pins themselves, I mounted them on a board for display by my computer.





I also got myself a few Garbage Pail Kids items from my favorite card dealer Marchant Cards. They are the company I buy most of my old trading cards from. They had some excellent holiday sales and I got 3 GPK 3-d wall plaks for $4 a piece (cheap). They are 3-dimensional and have fake wooden frames.



I also ordered some other trading card crap from Marchant Cards including a full box of Trash Can Trolls from 1992. I actually remember buying these from the store when they first came out and how much they reminded me of the old GPKs. I had a full set but it was real nice to finally get a hold of the box which has fluffy troll hair on it and came in four colors.



I put it up on a shelf with my two-headed Norfin troll.



I also lucked out recently when I came across a nice bookshelf that someone had chucked to the curb. I needed one real bad for my Mad collection which had grown and threatened to collapse my old bookshelf which had began to buckle under the weight. I drug it home and it is just the size I needed.



Last of all, I finally completed my Diener space aliens/monster eraser collection. I've been trying to find them all for a while and acquired a whole bunch of other Diener erasers in the process. I've done a couple previous posts on these before but the monsters/aliens were always the ones I hoped to find the most. I filled my whole display.



One of my New Years resolutions is to blog frequently and now my only problem is what to post first. I've got a whole bunch of stuff to share, it's just a matter of where to start first.

IDLE HANDS...

It's been almost a full month since my last blog post. I get caught up in little projects and fixated sometimes and stay offline at times. I thought I'd share a few little things.

I dug out the Nintendo 64 and thought I'd take another crack at Donkey Kong. I played a few minutes of it years ago and couldn't really figure out the game and gave up but this time I got addicted pretty quick.



I spent over 60 hrs not only beating the game, but getting every single coin, golden banana, including all the secret ones. My problem with video games is I'm never satisfied with just beating them I have to get all the top scores and secret stuff. I haven't gotten hooked on a game for about five years for that reason. It's kind of like a good book you can't put down (more like a drug). It's better not to touch them as far as I'm concerned.

There was a guy who posted walkthroughs of the entire game on Youtube with commentary which I watched along with my play. By the time the game/videos were done I felt like I lost a nerdy friend which is pretty pathetic but totally me. I got used to his dorky humor and catch phrases. His Youtube name is GNRfan (Gun's and Roses fan?) he's done a lot of videos for different games and probably has about as many friends as I do.



Anyway, game has been beaten and done with. I drew a picture of Donkey Kong in my sketch book to seal the deal and remind me of those hours.



I'm too sentimental sometimes. Speaking of that, I was proud of myself for letting go of sentimentality the other day.
A lady I work with was collecting pop tabs for a donation to the Ronald McDonald House which I'm pretty familiar with as a cancer survivor. She had asked me if I had any cans I could pull the tabs off and immediately remembered the year 1997 when I decided just for fun to save the pop tabs off every can of pop I drank for an entire year. I was curious, and I know I drink a lot so on January 1st of 1997 I began pulling the tabs off every can I drank and sticking them in my back pocket. Before I went to bed every night I would stick them in a jug on my dresser. A year later on December 31 I dumped them on the carpet and counted them. There were 763. I strung them on a string and made a necklace which I've saved ever since.



So after a couple days I decided to donate my necklace to sick kids. I wanted to wear it for the last time and had my daughter Sam take a photo of me hopping around like an ape (too much Donkey Kong).



Not only did I neglect my blog/Facebook but I also try to do at least one drawing a day in my sketchbook to prevent "artist's block" and I was losing motivation. Usually when this happens I just dig around my studio for inspiration. One morning I heard a squeek and turned around to see my stuffed Gizmo doll from Gremlins fell off the shelf. He is from a mail-away from Gremlins cereal from 1984.





I decided to build some paper mogwais for a project and worked up some designs in my sketch book.







I wanted to make two brown/white furred mogwais and a black/white furred one based on an evil one from Gremlins 2.





It took about 6 hours to make the heads and another 6 to roll paper for the arms and make the bodies. The smaller they are the harder they are to cut, fold, and glue. They turned out just how I imagined they would.





I've got a couple projects on the shelf and with winter coming up I'm sure to be spending a lot more time in my studio.

A GIFT FROM JAY LYNCH

In a previous post I mentioned that I had sent a letter to artist Jay Lynch.
Jay is one of my favorite artists and has had his hand in everything I love (Mad Magazine, Garbage Pail Kids, Wacky Packages...) so of course I love him. He's extremely well-known for his work in underground comics.

He had mentioned on Facebook that he had a bunch of old personalized pens he came across in his home and would give one to anyone willing to mail a self-adressed stamped envelope. So of course as one of my heroes I had to do it. I had sent along a blank square of cardboard and asked if he had time to do a small sketch with the pen on it also. I figured the pen would mean a lot more to me if he had actually used it.

I don't know if the pen worked well or not but Jay was nice enough to mail back a fantastic self portrait on the card and gave me not only one, but two pens. What an awesome guy.

I told him I had a neat shadowbox I planned to display them in so when I got the letter back from him I went to work. I included an autographed card I got in one of the Wacky Packages series 7 packs also. Turned out fantastic in my opinion.

Thanks a lot Jay!

Here's the pics:



If you were wondering what "Um Tut Sut" means, Google it. It's a fun search.



Jay does these awesome commission pieces for fans based on characters from the Wacky Packages he's designed. I love his quick wit and sense of humor. Jay never seems to run short on ideas for new jokes and puns. Below are a few of my faves. I also included the original cards they were based on.

















This next one included three different characters from spoofs on three 80's toy lines.









Thanks again Jay, maybe someday someone will be wise enough to do an independent film based on your life and experiences in the world of underground comics and art and you can become a millionaire. It happens.

HALLOWEEN 2010

I try to draw a Halloween themed picture at this time every year and I have done quite a few but I wanted to post my favorite. This is "Internal Morgan" redrawn from a Garbage Pail Kid from ANS series 3. The original painting was done by John Pound. I did this in ballpoint pen and considered coloring two versions one on the computer and the other in colored pencil. Once I got it done in colored pencil I figured that was good enough.

Here's the original Pound card:



Here's my ballpoint drawing:



And the final colored version:



Happy Halloween!!!

Here's another recent GPK drawing I did of one of my favorite cards. "Leggy Lauren" from unpublished OS series 16 (saw the light of day in 2003 ANS 1) originally done by Tom Bunk.

Here's the original Bunk card:



Here's my ballpoint drawing:



And the final colored pencil version: