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Artist Brent Engstrom hit the parody trading card scene at Topps during the Garbage Pail Kids resurgence for the All-New Series sets. Although the revival started in 2003, Engstrom jumped on board for the ANS5 thru ANS7 GPK sets, from 2006 to 2007; making quick strides (aka brushstrokes) with the GPK Flashback subsets between the years of 2010 and 2011; and then technically improving his skills per the GPK 'model sheet' bible for the Brand New Series GPK sets. Engstrom's GPK growth cannot be measured in angstroms, it's interatomically impossible. There seems to be no stopping Brent for the new 'Yearly' releases hitting the scene for 2014 and have been released through 2018; Engstrom has taken the helm of the GPK franchise and will be contributing more than 50% for each release. NOTE: This page showcases various freelance assignments that are GPK-inspired, often non-Topps related, and not always found in the above referenced sets




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STRANGE KIDS CLUB — COMIX ANTHOLOGY #1 COVER


The GPK OS1 ADAM Bomb-inspired character artwork encapsulates the iconic era of the 80's; a kaleidoscope explosion showcasing such images as the character Slimer from the Ghostbusters, masked wrestlers, Critters, GPK, Jason Vorhees from Friday the 13th, Freddy Krueger's gloved hand from A Nightmare on Elm Street, Gremlins and Gizmo, He-Man, et cetera, and Strange Kid himself brandishing an Atari controller and sporting Converse shoes. The original artwork with white background can be seen below along with the magazine image that was released on April 25, 2011 and sold out soon thereafter.





A caricature-like, self-portrait of Engstrom can be found on the Strange Kids Club magazine cover itself; a Topps trading card-inspired image from the Hollywood Zombies parody set released in 2007; the image can later be found on Engstrom's T-shirt apparel.




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VOLTRON: DEFENDER OF THE UNIVERSE — CIRCA '84


The parody character, the colour rough and final artwork displayed below were all created for the Wizard World St. Louis Comic Con that took place at end of March 2013 that celebrated Voltron's 30th anniversary. The Topps company gave permission for the 11x14 poster to be handed out as an exclusive give-away at the convention; the poster was on sale online for a spell after the show ended in April. The poster contains a blue GPK header and a Topps copyright in the lower left hand corner of the small poster.



The same image could be located within the BNS3 GPK set several months later released in October 2013 as cards #21a Volt RON and #22b Fe LINUS with a red GPK header and the same card number found on the poster; the set was most likely already in production when image licensed to the Wizard World Comic Con. Topps released a sheet of 24 Voltron tattoos back in 1985, see image further below.


*RELEASED SEPTEMBER 2014 VIA VOLTRON.COM*

*TOPPS VOLTRON TRADING CARDS RELEASED IN 1985*
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'30 YEARS OF GARBAGE' DOCUMENTARY : THE GPK STORY


Various artists provided artwork for a Kickstarter fundraiser campaign in late 2013 to include as reward levels for the 30 Years of Garbage : The GPK Story documentary. The Kickstarter goal of $75,000 was not reached, with 346 backers funding $49,208 by January of 2014. The fund raising was more successful on Indiegogo in early 2015 however, with a much lower goal, being backed by 327 funders raising $41,081 for the project.





The Brent Engstrom artwork on card was available in several reward levels for both campaigns, most noteworthy being the $75 Indiegogo JAY Decay level where you could pick up the 'Artist Card Set' with all seven GPK artist caricatures including Joe 'SLIMko' Simko, Layron 'DeJarnWET' DeJarnette, Mark 'PINKY-TORE' Pingitore, David 'GROWTH' Gross, Jeff 'ZaBATHEAD' Zapata, Tom 'JUNK' Bunk and Brent 'THINGstrom' Engstrom. The art on card was finally released and distributed as part of certain Indiegogo reward levels that came with the DVD in the the summer month of July, 2016 after the premier screening of the 30 Years of Garbage documentary in New York City over the 4th of July weekend. The card was also avaialable at the first annual GPK Con in Las Vegas in August of 2016.
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HELLBOY : 20TH ANNIVERSARY OFFICIAL TRIBUTE ART SHOW
+ 2016 SUPER TOY CON / GPK-CON PROMO CARD



The Hellboy character was created by Mike Mignola and first appeared in comic form during 1993. An impressive parody in GPK-style of Hellboy was conceptualized by Engstrom for the 20th anniversary tribute art show held on May 2, 2014 at the Hero Complex Gallery in Los Angeles. The untitled artwork piece, I'll coin Hell BOYD, would fit incredibly well into any recent GPK release by Topps.







The same image, evidently not purchased by Topps for their bonus card releases, was later seen as a promo card as number 'P11' for the GPK artists card set that was given away exclusively at the GPK-Con (Super Toy Con) in Las Vegas in August of 2016. The promo cards could be collected in small groups at various events or collectively and sold at the 'GPK & Wacky Warehouse' booth who had the card printed up for the convention with room on the backside for a small sketch and autograph.
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FRIGHT-RAGS — HORROR APPAREL




Not enough can be said about Engstrom's GPK horror hodgepodge tribute; a screamfest shout-out to all of the great horror flicks including Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Hellraiser, Evil Dead II and Phantasm. The orginal pencil sketch with card mock-up and the final artwork is pictured above. The limited edition GPK shirts come in a variety of selections, pictured further below, and found in the two main Halloween colors with the twin names Fright Rag FREDDY — 'Fright Rag' = Fright Rags website + 'Freddy' Krueger from the A Nightmare on Elm Street, or Cinemaniac MIKE — 'Cinemaniac' = Cinema+maniac + 'Mike' (Michael) Meyers from the Halloween franchise.




The black Fright Rag FREDDY shirt was limited to 500 for $27 each, the black/gray Fright Rag FREDDY baseball tee was limited to 200 for $37 each, and the orange Cinemaniac MIKE shirt was limited to 300 for $27 each; all pictured above, respectively, for a total of 1000 shirts produced for the killer joint effort. The limited edition Fright Rags shirts were on sale for a limited time from May 23rd to May 30th, 2014 and were shipped in July.



The horrorfest images could later be found as bonus cards B13a Frightening FREDDY and B13b Maniac MIKE located within the hobby boxes of the 2014 Series 2 GPK set released, fittingly, in October of 2014. The character comes with new nomenclature and is printed with a black background, similar to the printed T-shirt, instead of the original, solid white background.
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IDW's GPK COMIC — DECEMBER 2014 'PUKE-TACULAR' ISSUE


IDW Publishing, Idea and Design Works, LLC, announced during the 2014 San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) in July that they would be partnering with the Topps Company to produce an anthology Garbage Pail Kids comic series to debut in December of that year; with the stories being relatively connected, but mainly stand-alone.






The new GPK character Comic-Con RON was created Peter Bagge, best known for the comics Hate and Neat Stuff, as the symbolic comic book mascot. Engstrom rendered and remastered the character for the exlusive bonus cards found within the Puke-tackular Deluxe Peter Bagge'd Edition. Brent's Monkeyboy character can be seen behind the character's head in the bag of swag.





The iconic character image can also be located within the Topps JUMBO 'A' cards set for card CC10a of the same name, available at the New York Comic Con (NYCC) in October 2014, and for card CC10b Bonus JONAS card, available as the JUMBO 'B' version sold exclusively via the Topps Online store. The masoct character can also be found within the 30th Anniversary 2015S2 set for cards 2a Comic-Con RON and 2b Cosplay CARL within the 'Comic Book Cover' subset along with Peter Bagge's original comic cover. Many more images and much more information can be seen and read within the IDW Comic page within the 'GPK~Land' section of the website.
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IDW's GPK COMIC — COMIC BOOK ISSUES


In early 2014, Idea and Design Works, LLC (IDW) landed the licensing for the Garbage Pail Kids' brand name and characters from the Topps Company, Inc. under their IDW Publishing division, right in time for the 30th anniversary of GPK in May, 2015.



February 2015, the 'Love Stinks' comic issue: Brent Engstrom's rendered and remastered tight pencil and final artwork based off of Peter Bagge's comic book cover artwork for the French Kiss TRISH character. The character can also be located within the 30th Anniversary 2015S2 GPK set for cards 4a French Kiss TRISH and 4b Booth BETH within the 'Comic Book Cover' subset along with the original Peter Bagge comic cover. Many more images and much more information can be seen and read within the IDW Comic page within the 'GPK~Land' section of the website.



April 2015, the 'Fables, Fantasy and Farts' comic issue: Brent Engstrom's rendered and remastered color rough card mock-up and final artwork based off of Shannon Wheeler's comic book cover artwork for the FELICIA Fantasy character. The character can also be found within the 30th Anniversary 2015S2 GPK set for cards 6a FELICIA Fantasy and 6b Dream Gal VAL within the 'Comic Book Cover' subset along with the original cover image. Many more images and much more information can be seen and read within the IDW Comic page within the 'GPK~Land' section of the website.



June 2015, the 'Gross Encounters of the Turd Kind' comic issue: Brent Engstrom's rendered and remastered tight pencil and color rough card mock-ups above and the touched-up and original final artwork images pictured below based off of Hilary Barta's comic book cover artwork for the Over KILLIAN character. The character can also be located within the 'Apple Pie In Your Face' 2016S1 GPK themed set for cards 1a of 4 Over KILLIAN and 1b of 4 Blasted BOB within the 'Comic Book Cover' subset. Many more images and much more information can be seen and read within the IDW Comic page within the 'GPK~Land' section of the website.





August 2015, the 'Go Hollywood' comic issue: Brent Engstrom's rendered and remastered tight pencil, color rough card mock-up and final artwork based off of Sam Kieth's comic book cover artwork for the Methane Max character. The character can be found within the 'Apple Pie In Your Face' 2016S1 GPK themed set for cards 3a of 4 Methane MAX and 3b of 4 Road WARREN within the 'Comic Book Cover' subset. Many more images and much more information can be seen and read within the IDW Comic page within the 'Yearly Sets' section of the website.
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FRIGHT-RAGS — HORROR APPAREL




The final artwork images by Brent Engstrom for the T-shirts is pictured below along with a selection of tight pencil and color rough card mock-up artwork. All four characters could later be found as A and B-name cards located in hobby boxes of the 'American As Applie Pie - In Your Face!' Series 1 (2016S1) GPK set within the 'Horror Stickers' subset as cards 1a of 4 Krampin' KEVIN and 1b of 4 KENNY Krampus, 2a of 4 Wretchin' REGAN and 2b of 4 Possessed PAULINE, 3a of 4 Howlin' HOWARD and 3b of 4 Transformin' TRAVIS and 4a of 4 Plungin' PENNY and 4b of 4 Bobbin' BOB.









A plethora of more horror and gore images on T-shirts; a screamfest shout-out to iconic killer characters from various horror flicks and folklore including An American Werewolf In London-esque generic werewolf, Krampus, Regan MacNeil of The Exorcist and Pennywise the clown from Stephen King's IT. The limited edition GPK shirts come in a variety of characters on a specific colored T-shirt: Howlin' HOWARD — the Scott Howard character name from Teen Wolf, Wretchin' REGAN — the possessed Regan Theresa MacNeil character from The Exorcist, Krampin' KEVIN — the German 'Krampus' folklore character, and Plungin' PENNY — the Pennywise clown character from Stephen King's IT novel. Several images that Engstrom completed for the project remain unpublished including an Alien movie concept, the main antagonist from The Shining, and a multi-headed monster mash character; images published in later Topps releases.









As listed on the Fright Rags website in May of 2015, the T-shirts are a limited edition run and once sold out are gone — unless voted back. Orders began on May 27th for the four different T-shirt designs and product started shipping in the month of June. The Plungin' PENNY character t-shirt was reprinted in 2019, four years later.
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SVENGOOLIE — HORROR MOVIE SHOW HOST


A GPK-style parody of the horror movie host Svengoolie, a telescoping of Svengali — a villainous hypnotist in the 1894 novel Trilby by George du Maurier, plus ghoul — an evil spirit or phantom. The show was developed by Rich Koz from 1979 to present, and previously by, Jerry G. Bishop from 1970 -1973 which telecasts from Chicago, IL and airs low-budget horror and sci-fi movies. Engstrom painted the piece 'for the fun of it' and sent the image to Svengoolie's Facebook page and was told it would be shown on a future program. The untitled artwork piece, I'll coin SVEN Ghoulie, would fit incredibly well into any recent GPK release by the Topps Company.



The artwork was considered for the Topps GPK Revenge of "Oh, the Horror-ible!" Series 2 (2019S2) set in October 2019 but replaced by a parody for the thriller movie 'Us' instead. The suggested names were 'SVEN Goolie' and 'Rotten RICH', per tight concept.
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RIOT FEST — MUSIC FESTIVAL CARDS




An eight-card 'Riot Fest' music festival set was available exclusively at the Riot Fest show in Chicago for the dates of September 16th-18th, 2017; Engstrom painted three of the eight images. RiotFest.org website details: Somehow the wonderful people at Topps approved Riot Fest to have its very own Garbage Pail Kids Series just in time for the festival next week in Chicago (Sept. 16-18). And we couldn’t be more thrilled. When we caught word that this would be actually happening, we immediately called some of our Riot friends to see if they’d be into having their own Garbage Pail Card. And within hours, Riot Fest Series One Garbage Pail Kids was born. And it’s fucking awesome. These exclusive cards will ONLY be available in limited quantities at Riot Fest Chicago. And, by limited, we mean limited. So, if you want a pack—which contains the entire series—be sure to visit the Riot merch area on Friday because something’s telling us they won’t make it past the day.



Unlike most Topps GPK releases these images had to be okayed by the musicians and management so the process took a bit more time. Concepts and final artwork were created and painted by GPK artists Brent Engstrom, Joe Simko, David Gross and Mark Pingitore. Riot Fest submitted their own concepts for NOFX's 'Fat MIKE' (to be extra fat) and the 'Riot FESTUS' image, the Bitchin' Camaro car used to promote the festival that pays tribute to OS5 cards 205a Hot ROD and 205b BUD Buggy; which in turn is a GPK tribute to Ed Roth's Hot-Rod artwork.







All three of Engstrom's tight pencil concepts and final artwork for the 'Riot Fest 2016' Series One musical festival set for cards #1 Fat MIKE (NOFX), #5 Riot FESTUS (Riot Fest's Bitchin' Camaro) and #6 Awesome ANDREW (Andrew WK). Information for the complete set can be located within the 'Con & Fest Cards' page within the 'GPK~Land' section.
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'ART OF HALLOWEEN MASK' EXHIBIT — L.A. ART EXHIBIT


The painting for the GPK Halloween exclusive online subset for cards 8a Masked MASON and 8b HAL O. Ween was completed by Engstrom for the 'Art of the Halloween Mask' artwork exhibit that took place in Los Angeles from Oct 15th through Nov 15th of 2016; Brent's brother does work with latex masks and was the connection for the project.








The masks within the painting are based off of the Topstone 'Hallween Masks' catalog pictured above. The original concept was created for the 2016S2 'Prime Slime Trashy TV' release for the Face-Off show on Syfy but not picked for the 'Reality TV' subset. The image was later purchased by Topps after the L.A. art exhibit to include within the online exclusive October 2016 Hallowe'en set for cards 8a Masked MASON and 8b HAL O. Ween.
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'THE ROCKETEER: A GROUP ART TRIBUTE TO
DAVE STEVENS' EXHIBIT : CREATURE FEATURES


Engstrom was asked to submit GPK-inspired tribute to 'The Rocketeer' exhibit, a group art tribute to Dave Stevens and hosted by Creature Features out of Burbank, California. The event took place on April 22nd and ran through May 7th, 2017.



Details: In 1982, Cliff Secord, aka The Rocketeer, made his first appearance in comic book form, signaling the birth of artist Dave Stevens' most iconic creation. Now, 35 years later, Stevens' beloved universe of high-flying daredevils, curvy damsels and canine cafés have endured as popular icons, peaking in 1990 with Walt Disney's live-action feature directed by Joe Johnston, while IDW has graced the comic landscape with its own series of further adventures. This spring, Creature Features pays tribute to this extraordinary artist, who sadly passed away in 2008, with this group art show saluting Stevens and his world of The Rocketeer. Curated by Special Effects Artist Dan Crawley and gallery owner Taylor White, this exhibit will showcase the works of over 50 artists working in the fields of film, TV, comics, fine art and more. The exhibit will also feature a collection of original Dave Stevens artwork, displayed during the opening reception, courtesy of Jennifer Stevens Bawcum of the Dave Stevens Estate. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of all art and merchandise will be donated to the Hairy Cell Leukemia Foundation.
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RIOT FEST — MUSIC FESTIVAL CARDS




A ten-card 'Riot Fest' music festival set was available exclusively at the Riot Fest show in Chicago for the dates of September 15-17, 2017. RiotFest.org website details: Riot Fest Garbage Pail Kids are back. The wonderful people at Topps let us lampoon some of our favorite past and present Riot Fest bands again for Riot Fest Garbage Pail Kids Series Two. If you’ll recall, that’s when we brought you Garbage Pail Kids of Fat Mike, The Lawrence Harmed, Ray Gun, Mad Milo, Riot Festus, Awesome Andrew, Taking Back Tidal Wave, and GWAR Noir. This year, we have ten more to add to your collection. These exclusive cards—which you can peep below—will ONLY be available in limited quantities at Riot Fest Chicago. And by limited, we mean limited. So, if you want a pack—which contains the entire series—be sure to visit the Riot Fest merch area on Friday because something’s telling us they won’t last long.



Unlike most Topps GPK releases, these images had to be okayed by the musicians and management so the process took a bit more time. Concepts and final artwork were created and painted by GPK artists Brent Engstrom, Joe Simko, David Gross and Mark Pingitore. Riot Fest requested a concept for their 'Riot Beast' mascot and a 'Riot Feast' theme via Topps from the artist. Engstrom created a beast with a forked tongue for the first concept where Riot Fest had a 'regular', aleit very long, added and strumming lines were added to both the tongue and tail areas for the second, updated concept. Riot Fest had a lollipop sucker held by the beast added which was then changed to a slice of pizza seen within both color concepts... after the final artwork was created, Riot Fest requested the lollipop once again, but Topps stated it was too late in production since the final artwork was already completed.







All three of Engstrom's final artwork pieces and various concept and color roughs for the 'Riot Fest 2016' Series Two musical festival set for cards #1 Riot BEAST (Riot Fest), #3 AGNES T. Me! (Against Me!) and #10 Riot FEAST (Riot Fest; concept by artist Joe Simko). Additional Information on the complete set can be located within the 'Con & Fest Cards' page within the 'GPK~Land' section.
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SUPER TOY CON / GROSS CARD CON 2 — PROMO CARD


The GPK-CON2, rechristened 'Gross Card Con' with a new logo created by artists Joe Simko and Jeff Zapata took place back in Las Vegas during the weekend of February 23rd thru 25th, 2018 at the Super Toy Con.



Engstrom created a wrestling concept for his #3 promo card character (mock-up images above) found within the GPK artists card set that was given away exclusively at the convention to V.I.P. holders or sold as a set at the 'GPK & Wacky Warehouse' booth who had the cards printed up for the convention with room on the backside for an autograph; a limited edition prismatic set was also available. Brent also sells large prints of his GCC characters exclusively at the shows.
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PHILLY NON-SPORT SHOW : ALLENTOWN, PA; APRIL 7TH & 8TH


Although this is not necessarily a Topps licensed issue for this particular release, it's still in the same vein and shows the collaboration between the original client, GPK Customs and the freelance artist. In late 2017, several artists were contacted by the Roxanne Toser Enterprises, Inc. team to participate with a TV parody set titled 'Philly Phavorites' for their Spring 2018 show.



Through the agreement of GPK Customs, the previously commissioned artwork image was submitted for the card set and was originally cropped in order to fit a single card. Since the set was one artist shy the team decided to create a 2-piece puzzle card at the end of the set and have them printed on metal card for a total of 250 sets. An all-white metal set of nine cards was also printed with a short-run of ten sets. Autograph cards could be located with a 1:3 ratio within the sets. Three of the cards within the set have GPK-like characters.





The original mock-up card image was modeled after the other trading card images within the set before it was changed to a two-piece puzzle, metal card layout and format. The placeholder of 'PARODY TITLE' would have read 'THE STERLING ZONE' had it been printed as a single card. Much more of the image can be seen within the two-piece puzzle layout.




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FRIGHT-RAGS — HORROR APPAREL




Pictured below are Engstrom's final and tight pencil artwork images for the 2018 Fright-Rags GPK apparel line. All four characters were approved and created for the 2018S2 GPK Horror-ible Kids 'Yearly' set and pulled from production to be placed within the Fright-Rags licensed clothing line. A similar agreement occured between the Topps Company and Fright-Rags in 2014 and 2015 where all images could later be found on card as hobby bonus trading cards. The limited edition T-shirts went on sale on July 18th online and once sold out were no longer available — unless voted back at a later date.



The Jabbed JASON T-shirt was available in a dark heather gray color that ran sizes S-3X with a $27 pricetag; raised to $28. Engstrom's parody painting pays tribute to the iconic mask of killer Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th franchise. The GPK character face shows off the dull white hockey mask with three red triangles that first made its appearance in Friday the 13th III: 3D in 1982. The facial mask also shows off the famous blood-stained axe mark first caused at the end of Friday the 13th III and appearing in subsequent movies in the franchise. Engstrom had suggested the names 'Slayed SLADE' and 'Jacked-Up JASON' for the 2018S2 card release. The Crystal Lake blue eye really stands out within the bloodbath.



The Lost ROY T-shirt was available in a heather royal blue color that ran sizes S-3X with a $27 pricetag; raised to $28. Engstrom's parody painting pays tribute to the iconic killer mullet of the vampire character David (actor Kiefer Sutherland) from the Lost Boys movie; as well as paying tribute to the enironment of the iconic OS1 vampire image of card #1 with the GPK-bat and crescent moon. The earring from the tight pencil was switched for the final artwork to match the earring worn by the character in the movie. Brent had suggested the names 'Killer KEIFER' and 'Lost ROY' for the 2018S2 set release. The splayed mullet hairstyle mimics the spreading out of bat wings.



The Hallow JEAN T-shirt was available in a dark heather gray color that ran sizes S-3X with a $27 pricetag; raised to $28. Engstrom's parody painting pays tribute to the three kill-by-melting rubber trick-or-treat masks from the Halloween III: Season of the Witch cult movie; the only Halloween movie missing the series antagonist, Michael Mysers. Only the lower half of the masks are melting in the final artwork, a hoodie replaced the flannel shirt, and spiders, snakes and a green eyeball were added. Engstrom had suggested the names 'Season of the MITCH', 'Worst JUAN' and 'Hallow JEAN' for the 2018S2 card release. NOTE: CPK-esque shoes with green stripes.



The Sick SID T-shirt was available in a dark heather Caribbean blue color that ran sizes S-3X with a $27 pricetag. Engstrom's parody painting pays tribute to the character Captain Spaulding (played by actor Sid Haig) from the House of 1000 Corpses horror film; owner of a gas station and museum of curiosities. The movie was written, co-scored and directed by Rob Zombie (previously of White Zombie) in his directorial debut. Engstrom had suggested the names 'Fried FRED' and 'Sick SID' for the 2018S2 card release. Although the bucket of fried human is reminiscent of artist Fred Harper's ANS7 GPK artwork (concept by Fred Wheaton), it's actually an 8th Series Wacky Packages card image from 1974, a spoof of Kentucky Fried Chicken.

The popular Fright-Rag FREDDY character was resurrected and available as a black color T-shirt that ran sizes S-5X for men and XS-2X for woman with a $27 pricetag; packaged in the limited edition 'Wax Pack'. A periwinkle blue, red-ringer tee was also available again in the same sizes as the T-shirt with a $29 pricetag (seen within the banner above) along with a pair of limited edition custom knit crew socks (only 190 produced) with a $12 pricetag. Engstrom's parody painting pays tribute to a mash-up of horror films (listed within the 2014 section) that was originally seen on a white background for the final artwork and placed on a black and orange background for the previous T-shirts and on a black background for the hobby bonus cards.

The Fright-Rag FREDDY character could also be purchased as a limited edition 'T-Shirt Wax Pack' that included a ringer tee, an enamel pin and a 5x7 trading card with a $40 pricetag; only 200 produced. Website: LIMITED TO 200 ONLY! Our very own official GPK mascot - FRIGHT-RAG FREDDY is back in this limited edition wax pack t-shirt set! Artwork by Brent Engstrom. Officially Licensed. Each pack comes with: Exclusive Fright-Rag Freddy T-Shirt printed on our super soft 4.5oz, 100% pre-shrunk ringspun cotton, Fright-Rag Freddy Enamel Pin , 5x7 Fright-Rag Freddy GPK card, Everything comes wrapped in an oversized wax wrapper.





Instagram Post (07/16/2018) : COMING THIS WEDNESDAY at 10am (EST)! Our very own Officially Licensed FRIGHT RAG FREDDY design will be available as part of a Limited Edition T-SHIRT WAX PACK! Bundled inside an oversized Wax Pack (just like the original Garbage Pail Kids cards were, only HUGE!) will be a black Fright Rag Freddy tee (Mens and Womens styles available), a First Pressing Enamel Pin and a Collectible 5x7 Trading Card! All for only $40! They are limited to only 200 packages, so make sure to grab yours at 10am (EST) this Wednesday 7/18! Art by Brent Engstrom. Note: This is a pre-order.
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TOYXPO / GROSS CARD CON 3 — PROMO CARDS


The Gross Card Con / GCC3 took place back in Santa Clara, CA during the weekend of August 24th and 25th, 2018 at the ToyXpo. The artists were asked to complete two images for the exlusive card set, a skateboard character and an 80's character. Engstrom created a Star Wars / Ewok parody concept for his 1A promo card character and a Bones (Powell Puralta) skateboard deck for his 1B promo card character, both found within the GPK artists card set that was given away exclusively at the convention to V.I.P. holders or sold as a set at the 'GPK & Wacky Warehouse' booth.







GPK & Wacky Warehouse had the cards printed up for the convention with File Card backsides reminiscent of OS5 and OS7 reverse card backs; a limited edition matte-finish set was also available. Concepts and card mock-ups are pictured above; streaming tears from high winds were added to the Ewok parody character after the conceptualization. Brent also sells large prints of his GCC characters exclusively at the shows.




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THE PHILLY NON-SPORT CARD SHOW — PROMO


The Non-Sport Philly Card Show took place in Allentown, PA during the weekend of October 20th and 21st and included a promo card for all attendees that was a Ghostbusters parody piece by artist BRENT Engstrom which paid specific tribute to the Tosers whom took over organizing for the show in 2012 and have been instrumental within the non-sport card community for several decades, starting out with a mail-order business and then publishing the Non-Sport Update collector magazine.





The social-media promotional ad is pictured above along with Engstrom's final artwork that was updated with the Tosers uncanny likenesses. This particular promo is card '1a' with a different background, nomenclature and reverse card text to go with the May 2019 '1b' promo card.




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SUPER TOY CON / GROSS CARD CON 4 — PROMO CARDS


The Gross Card Con / GCC4 took place in Las Vegas, Nevada during the weekend of March 1st thru 3rd, 2019 at the Super Toy Con. The artists were asked to complete two images for the exlusive card set, a surfing character and/or a popular toy character(s). Engstrom created a Ghostbusters / Gozer parody concept for his ? promo card character and a Star Wars / Boba Fett parody concept for his ? promo card character, both found within the GPK artists card set that was given away exclusively at the convention to V.I.P. holders at different events or sold as a set at the 'GPK & Wacky Warehouse' booth. Warehouse had the cards printed up for the convention with ? card backs. Brent also sells large prints of his GCC characters exclusively at the shows.





The Gozer gag was originally created for the 69th Philly Non-Sports Card Show, as seen in the post above, but the image was given a make-over and updated digitially to enhance the Tosers caricatures as a tribute to the showrunners. The Mandalorian concept contains a bantha skull-and-crossbones gag, Brent mentioned that "the [skull] is on the original Boba Fett toys and they had to recall them because the missile actually shot out and kids were choking on them", he later went on to say that "this was a pretty fun painting. I went to Walmart at like midnight and bought cheap 50-cent paint because I knew they'd have those weird colors they made Boba Fett for the original toy."
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BLUE POINT BREWING COMPANY / BUBBLE BRAIN — BEER LABEL ARTWORK


Engstrom had the opportunity to work with the Blue Point Brewing Company who reached out to the artist to work on a bottle/can label for their 'Bubble Brain' brand of pale ale beer (6.5% AbV). The American style of pale ale is brewed with fruit and other natural flavors and contains a bubble gum aroma and flavor.



The tight pencil artwork was created in January 2019 and showed a younger character with glasses blowing a chewing gum bubble and sporting a graduation cap; the concept was changed to a 'BREWMASTER' older character and employee with 'BUBBLE BRAIN' spelled out in the brain matter and the character now sporting a 'BLUE POINT' trucker hat. Additional objects were added to the background including two beer vats, a garbage can, chewing 'GUM' wrappers and ABC (already been chewed) bubble gum.




The final artwork was completed in February 2019 and approved for printing. A total of four colored cans were in circulation for the 'Bubble Brain' bubblegum brand: yellow, green, pink and blue.




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THE PHILLY NON-SPORT CARD SHOW — PROMO


The Non-Sport Philly Card Show took place in Allentown, PA during the weekend of May 4th and 5th and included a promo card for all attendees that was a Ghostbusters parody piece by artist BRENT Engstrom which paid specific tribute to the Tosers whom took over organizing for the show in 2012 and have been instrumental within the non-sport card community for several decades, starting out with a mail-order business and then publishing the Non-Sport Update collector magazine.





The social-media promotional ad is pictured above along with Engstrom's final artwork that was updated with the Tosers uncanny likenesses. This particular promo is card '1b' with a different background, nomenclature and reverse card text to go with the October 2018 '1a' promo card.
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FRIGHT-RAGS — HORROR APPAREL


  Fright-Rags
08/01/2019 : Instagram Story

Garbage Pail Kids T-Shirt Ad

GPK World write-up: The terror continues ... the new Fright-Rags x GPK collection will be released NEXT Friday. Per usual, ALL artwork by artist BRENT Engstrom which showcases an early sneak peek of three of the upcoming Revenge of 'Oh, the Horror-ible' card images from the Fall GPK set due to be released in October. A reprint of Plungin' PENNY from 2015 will also be available to take advantage of the 'IT Chapter Two' movie release in September.

The new t-shirt collection covers the 1981 'My Bloody Valentine' movie and the pickaxe-wielding mining-geared murderer, the 1986 'Maximum Overdrive' movie and the black Western Star 4800 sporting a giant Green Goblin mask on its grille, and a six-headed killer mashup including Pinhead from 'Hellraiser', Michael Myers from 'Halloween', Chucky from 'Child's Play', Freddy Krueger from 'A Nightmare on Elm Street', Jason Vorhees from 'Friday the 13th' and Leatherface from 'The Texas Chain Saw Massacre'. The reprint t-shirt portrays Pennywise from the 'It' movie.


For the first three releases, the artwork was brand-new and could later be found as bonus cards in Topps GPK set hobby releases. The latest 2019 release was originally a directors-themed t-shirt set of four characters in an ADAM Bomb-style scenario that was brought to a final artwork stage but was cancelled due to possible lack of rights. Topps and Fright-Rags settled on pulling four images from the 2019 Series 2 'Revenge of Oh, the Horror-ible' release, including the Tall Man parody character, the main antagonist from the Phantasm franchise, but a reprint of the 'It' character from 2015 showcasing Pennywise the Clown was chosen instead.



The RICK Axe t-shirt was available in a red heather color that ran sizes S-3X with a $28 pricetag; a t-shirt ready mock-up and tight concept sketch is portrayed above; the final artwork is on a red background. Engstrom's parody painting pays tribute to the miner maniac from the My Bloody Valentine cult movie from 1981 and a 3-D remake in 2009. Engstrom had suggested the names 'VAL Entine', 'Bloody BUDDY', 'RICK Axe' and 'Bleeding Heart ART' for the 2019S2 card release.



The Hit And RON t-shirt was available in a black color that ran sizes S-3X with a $28 pricetag; a t-shirt ready mock-up and tight concept sketch is portrayed above; the final artwork is on a black and blue background. Engstrom's parody painting pays tribute to the murdering mack truck and goblin grille from the Maximum Overdrive cult movie from 1986. Engstrom had suggested the names 'MAXIM Overdrive' and 'Hit And RON' for the 2019S2 card release.



The Killer KILLIAN t-shirt was available in a dark blue heather color that ran sizes S-3X with a $28 pricetag; a t-shirt ready mock-up and tight concept sketch is portrayed above; the final artwork is on a blue background. Engstrom's parody painting pays tribute to six infamous slayers from six different cult thrasher movies. Engstrom had suggested the names 'Sla-SHERMAN' and 'Killer KILLIAN' for the 2019S2 card release.
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PHILLY NON-SPORT CARD SHOW — PROMO CARDS



The Non-Sport Philly (PNS) Card Show took place in Allentown, PA during the weekend of October 19th and 20th and included two official Topps promo cards printed for the weekend event and two exclusive metal cards printed by Faerie Metal for the Saturday night Meet and Greet. A duo Garbage Pail Kids character was painted by artists JOE Simko and BRENT Engstrom, a combined tribute to the Topps GPK parody brand and the popular OS stitched together characters; think Mixed-Up MITCH with a Double HEATHER feel. 100 cards of each twin were printed by Topps and sold at the show to cover travel and lodging expenses for the artists. The special metal cards were kept to the number of attendees at the Meet and Greet with a 64 limit headcount and created and printed by Faerie Metal. The cards numbered 1a Paint-Job JOE and 1b Brushwork BRENT, for Simko and Engstrom, respectively. Per artist Brent Engstrom on social media after the concept stage: "I'm on an official gpk card along with Joe Simko. I painted my half and then mailed it off to Joe to paint his half. As far as I know it's a GPK first!"






The promo card image contains final artwork from various GPK projects and sets for both Simko and Engstrom, including the PNS artwork right in the middle above their heads. Joe's side contains artwork from the 2018S1 We Hate the '80s set, '80s Culture subset for cards 2a Neon ART and 2b Futuristic RIC, the FYE Garbage Pail Kids cereal, from the 2019 Valentine's Day is Gross online set for cards 1a ADAM Bomb and 1b Blasted Billy, and from the 2018S1 We Hate the '80s set, The Golbergs subset for cards 1a A.V. ADAM and 1b Grand GOLDBERG, for the creator and director Adam F. Goldberg. Brent's side contains artwork from the 2013 BNS2 set for cards 131a Hoodie HARLAN and 131b Inside Out OSCAR, from the 2017 Halloween online set for cards 8a Fiery FREDDY and 8b Roasted ROBERT, from the 2018S2 Oh, the Horror-ilbe! set, Modern Horror subset for cards 14a Mute MICHAEL and 14b Hollow DEAN, and from the 2019 WWE x GPK online set for card #13 Undead TAKER. I was excited to attend the show and felt privileged that the Tosers had me be a part of the Engstrom and Simko project by providing the reverse card text and the nomenclature that ties into the amazing artwork and theme by Joe and Brent; freelance job/work.
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BLOCKCHAIN HEROES — DIGITAL PROMO CARD



The Topps Company partnered with Bad Crypto and Infomedia Inc., through their WAX Blockchain license, to release a GPK x Blockchain Heroes ('BCH' or 'BH') promo card. The P1 Atomic ADAM card, painted by GPK artist BRENT Engstrom, was dropped on Wednesday night, August 5, 2020. Each WAX cloud wallet account holder received the exclusive digital card plus a parallel version of the image to chase; viewable via Atomic Assets only. The artwork was used to promote the Blockchain Heroes launch and marks the first time original GPK artwork was created for the digital 'card-collecting' realm. NOTE: The fore(head) skin curlycue, great touch.




Blockchain Heroes: "is a collectible digital trading card set featuring original characters inspired by the top creators, defenders, builders, and boosters in the blockchain space! This set of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) will be available exclusively on the WAX blockchain." The August release also has redeemable PHYSICAL cards. Atomic Assets: "is a standard for Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs) on the eosio blockchain technology. Anyone can utilize the Atomic Asset standard to tokenize and create digital assets and buy, sell & auction assets utilizing the Atomic Assets marketplace." There are seven different versions for this digital card image, including parallel chase cards found with different odds; more information can be seen within the 'GPK 2020 Licenses' page.
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