Ah the Garbage Pail Kids, the misfit island version of the Cabbage Patch Kids. In 1985, Topps launched the oddball card series to compete with the popular Cabbage patchers, introducing a lineup of characters that had comical abnormalities and/or suffered some horrible fate, usually relating to their word play-rich names. Adam Bomb, for instance. The kid with an exploding scalp and a mushroom-shaped cloud rising from his head. Or Cheese Louise, a demure girl made of cheese, casually grating herself into slices. Now we get to see our favorite musicians get the GPK treatment.
Some three decades after they first arrived, the Garbage Pail Kids continue to get new series of demented trading cards. The latest, the American As Apple Pie: Best Of The Fest series, features some of the ebbing summer’s staple festival headliners. Miss Win Butler and Arcade Fire this year? No worries, check out their less winning alter egos, Lose Butler and Arcade Fired. Didn’t win the ticket lottery for the Grateful Dead? Well at least you’re not Bob Weird (Weir), who’s so weird that the rest of the band decided to run him over with a train. Radiohead (Radiodead), (Decked) Beck, Red Hot Chili Peppers (helmed by Fiery Flea and Affably Anthony), The (Crying) Cure, and The (Tree) Roots are just a few of the other mad mash-ups.
The Best of the Fest series is only available this week, as Stereogum reports, so hurry over to Topps and pick up your set. Who knows, even though the sports cards industry has tanked in recent years, the same might not be true for the Garbage Pail Kids. So invest in your future.
Check out the gallery below and let us know your favorite Garbage Pail Kid in the comments below.
Images: Topps
