CREDIT: IDW Publishing
Rating: 4/5 – Suggested for Immature Readers 13+
by ComicSpectrum reviewer Adam Alamo.
Long before I knew anything about comics, I was a young kid saving up my quarters, riding my bike to the gas station, and buying copious amounts of Garbage Pail Kids cards. I’d trade them with my friends, stick them all over my school folders, and use them as inspiration to create my own whacky characters. Fast forward 30 years and I can’t remember the last time I saw Garbage Pail Kids cards. Yet, the memory remains, as evidenced by playfully calling my chubby baby “Cheeky Charles” and “Peter Pudge” (because every Garbage Pail Kid had two names). A couple weeks ago I walked into my local comic shop and what did I see but a near perfect replica of my childhood obsession sitting up on a shelf (the cover to the deluxe edition is made to look like an oversized Garbage Pail Kid card). I knew in an instant that I had to get it, as much for the nostalgia factor as for the hope that Marty McFly would soon be making his jump to 2015 and I could use the DeLorean to take this giant, faux Garbage Pail Kids card to my younger self and he could revel in the glorious things that the future holds! Sorry, I got excited.
Featuring a cast of writers and artists as varied as any Garbage Pail Kids series, this puke-tacular one-shot contains a half dozen zany stories about our favorite Bizarro Cabbage Patch Kids. There are plenty of puke, poop, fart, and booger jokes to satisfy those of us with a humor that never matured past seventh grade (really, this is the bread and butter of the Garbage Pail Kids), but also some great comic-con parody stories, a puke-felt tale about being an outsider, and a parable that teaches us that crime just doesn’t pay. Every square inch of my favorite story, “How to be a Garbage Pail Kid 101,” by writer/artist Joe Simko, is jam-packed with ridiculous imagery and bodily excrement. I got lost in Simko’s meticulously illustrated panels and spent a good few minutes on each exploring the details and “sub-stories” that were going on. It seems he crammed the full cast of the Garbage Pail Kids second series (that was MY series) into his story and it was like reminiscing with old friends. Simko’s art is also my favorite of the book, with his characters looking like they just walked off the cards, followed closely by the art of Peter Bagge, which really captures the comic-nerd essence. The Garbage Pail Kids have a pretty consistent house style, which is what makes them recognizable as such. Still, each artist managed to add their own style and flair to the characters so that the book features an assortment of fantastic and unique illustrations.
If, like myself, you hold a bit of sentimental recollection for the disgusting little rug rats known as the Garbage Pail Kids, you can’t go wrong with this collection of repulsive stories. It’s a pretty funny book overall and features a great array of writers, artists, and poop jokes. IDW is set to release their next Garbage Pail Kids one-shot in time for Valentine’s Day and nothing says love like giving your wife a book titled “Love Stinks.” Which is why I won’t be doing that, but I may very well pick it up for myself based on this book. And yes, I know there was that one Garbage Pail Kid that actually had THREE names. Also, “Comic-Con Ron” is my new favorite Garbage Pail Kid.
Reviewed by: Adam Alamo
(adam@comicspectrum.com)
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