Wacky Packages by The Topps Company
|
List Price: Buy Used: from $5.36 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
(Click here)
Book Reviews of Wacky Packages
Book Review: A Wacky Packages Family Album
Summary: 5 Stars
This beautiful little coffee table book is a finely printed Wacky Packages photo album. Covering Series 1 through 7 (1973-74), each 5-1/2" X 7-1/8" page reproduces one larger-than-actual-size Wacky sticker. (All 223 of them! -- even the Choke Wagon and Bum Chex rarities from Series 4).
The beautiful thing about this book is the high-quality production (printed and bound in China). The dust jacket effectively replicates an original wax wrapper. The indicia states "Most of the images in this book were reproduced from transparencies made off the original art," and it really shows: Not only is the artwork 150-200% larger than the actual stickers, the four-color printing is very fine -- looks to be 400-line resolution. Super pretty -- even if not bubblegum scented!
There's an interesting foreword and afterword here, too, by original Wacky illustrators Art Speigelman and Jay Lynch respectively. A concise image index completes the 240-page book.
Topps would go on to produce nine more of these "original" series of Wacky Packages; not covered here are Series 8 through 16, ending in 1976. But Wacky Packages stickers never truly went away, having appeared and re-appeared sporadically as sets during 35 years ever since. In fact, they're currently enjoying a bit of a renaissance in the form of the 2008 'Flashback' series -- a 'new' collection of 72 Wacky Packages stickers that, in fact, reproduce quite a few of the original old Wackies as shown in this book.
But besides tickling the nostalgia of anyone who was around back then, who appreciated the nutty gross-out humor of these parodies, it's these remarkably skilled illustrations that still prove worthy. The years saw many knock-offs and outright rip-offs of Wacky Packages, but none of them touched the really well-done artwork showcased here. It's great to see them reproduced here so clearly. Serious eye-candy for art and illustration fans.
Icing on the cake? This first edition has four "Lost" Wacky Packages stickers inserted in a little cellophane envelope stuck to the back inside cover (Slopps Boozeball, Muller Low Life, Granny Hairs, and Sea Honkies). Nicely priced, and highly recommended.
Book Review: Stunning archive edition of these great Topps sticker cards...
Summary: 5 Stars
For the last 10 years I've been dreaming of a book just like Abrams' Wacky Packages archive. Like a lot of kids growing up in the 70s and 80s I had a huge collection of Topps branded sticker cards, from brightly colored and iconic-bordered die-cut movie and TV show sticker subsets, to the sets of beautifully painted parody sticker sets. My main focus was in collection Garbage Pail Kids, but when one looks back we wouldn't have had those without the many Wacky Packages sticker sets. Guys like Len Brown, Woody Gelman, Kim Deitch, Jay Lynch, Art Spiegelman, Peter Orens, Norm Saunders, Ray Hammond, and the Shorin Brothers, the Topps old guard as they were, were the equivalent to trading cards what the staff of MAD magazine was to humor comics, pumping out hundreds of hilarious and deftly rendered product parodies from the late 60s through to the late 80s.
This Abrams coffee table book serves as a cleverly designed art book and an archive of the first seven Wacky Packages series. All of the paintings are presented one to a page and at about double the size of the original stickers in full color. The hardback book itself is smaller than most coffee table volumes (about the size of a standard DVD case), and is wrapped in a nostalgia inducing wax-paper dust cover that resembles a pack of the Wacky Packages stickers. This volume features an interview with Art Spiegelman and a forward by Jay Lynch, as well as some never-before-produced Wacky Packages stickers. It serves as an excellent way to flip though the stickers without having to spring for the long out of print original stickers on the secondary market.
Abrams is also releasing a second volume, titled Wacky Packages New New New, which will feature all of the stickers from series 8 through 14. It's the perfect gift for anyone who loves sticker collecting, Topps, or sticker cards like Garbage Pail Kids, Weird Wheels, and the granddaddy of them all the Ugly Stickers from the 60s.
Book Review: A childhood dream come true
Summary: 5 Stars
I found my first Wacky Sticker on the sidewalk walking home from school in 1973. It was the Schtick Razor sticker. After showing it to some older kids in elementary school I found out they had it too and much more. They gave me a few of their duplicates and I was hooked for about the next four years. It was always hard for me as a kid with little to no money to buy Wacky Packages and even harder to get my parents to buy me some packs but I did OK and was able to get most of them. The bulk of them being from the 2nd through 12th series. Over those four years of collecting I longed for Topps to just make a book of their Wacky art. It was this dream book that propmted me to make my own book with staples and heavy paper with cover and all. I stuck all my stickers by series on to the pages of my book. I never gave thought to collector value at the time, nobody ever thought of that back then. The end result all these years later is having a fraction of my Wacky Packs surviving and of those survivors they are only good for nostalgia. So it was a real kick to get both the first and second volumes of the Wacky Packages series. These books are a real gem and for me childhood dream come true. Although I suppose having all my original stickers still surviving in mint condition would be great I find these books much better than sifting through handfuls of baseball card size stickers. What I loved was the art and the silliness of it all and could care less about collector value. If you were a fan of the Wacky Packages series then both books will not disappoint. I love the wax pack paper wrapper for dust covers and the bonus stickers inside. A very nice touch and overall excellent quality for the money. Topps should think about authorizing more of these types of books like the 1960s Monsters cards for example.Book Review: GREAT BOOK FOR FANS OF THESE FUN STICKERS! ...WHERE IS VOLUME 2 !???
Summary: 5 Stars
I was born in Philadelphia and when I was growing up in the 60's, one of my vices was.......Wacky Packages! These fun sticker trading cards were like "crack" to kids in my neighborhood! The twisted parodies were all done by some very famous artist and today the stickers can empty your wallet faster than you can chew bubble gum!
I am a collector of many things and I am also a complete-ist! Which would make collecting these stickers very expensive! I collect Monster and Super Hero statues, figures, magazines, trading cards, films, and way too much more! I also collect other items from my youth and I was going to venture into Wacky packages, but after some research, I found it would be too costly to complete the collection.
There is also a lot you need to know before you start buying/collecting these cards, spotting counterfeits and re-released versions is just part of the chaos and then finding them in good condition from reputable sellers is another.
This book will solve the problem for most nostalgia hunters and definitely for me! The book is laid out so that every sticker is presented on it's own page. The pictures are beautiful and clear and are in order of release separating each series with a divider page. It's a sweeeet little book that measures 7 1/2" tall and 5 3/4" wide and the dust jacket looks like a Wacky Packages wrapper to boot!
This Hard cover book has very little text and only covers the first 7 series of cards, but it's well worth the price if you like these stickers. I can only hope that there will be a second volume with series 8 through 16 included! I'll buy it and I'm sure anyone who bought this volume will too!
As a bonus there is a collectors pack of four classic "Wacky Packs" stickers! Very Cool!
Book Review: Memoriessss.........everybody SING!
Summary: 5 Stars
Now I have that stupid song stuck in my head. But this little gem of a book brought back a lot of laughs long stifled since my childhood. We went nuts for Wacky Packages and we swapped and we traded and we bartered and all of that stuff. My neighbor had some real old vintage ones on her refrigerator that I would go crazy for. But it seems like they haven't included ALL of them. There has to be a sizable number of images that didn't make it into this book. Perhaps I'm mistaken and this book only offers up a few volumes in the series....I know there is stuff that I had that's missing from this book. But - anyway, if you grew up in the 60's and early 70's and you remember purchasing these things for 10 cents or so, this is a wonderful book that looks back on adolescence and hits the funny bone hard. It's short on words and descriptions, but that's fine. The laugh-out-loud images are enough. This book brought a huge smile to my face that didn't go away for a long time. It brought back a wave of great memories and for that, it's worth twice the price!!! I love it!