30 Years of Garbage: The Garbage Pail Kids Story — Trailer

added: Mon, Aug 21st '17

Garbage Pail Kids illustrator Joe Simko and former Topps art director Jeff Zapata have collaborated together to co-direct and co-produce "30 Years of Garbage," a crowdfunded indie documentary exploring the history of the 1980s trading card phenomenon Garbage Pail Kids.

Based on a concept by award-winning cartoonist Art Spiegelman (Raw, Maus), Garbage Pail Kids began as a darkly humorous parody of the popular Cabbage Patch Kids dolls. Produced by the sports cards manufacturing company, Topps, the sticker card series eventually became a huge pop-culture sensation among pre-teen boys. During the height of its success, in 1987, The Garbage Pail Kids cards were turned into both a live-action movie and a cartoon series.

Featuring interviews with Spiegelman and other veteran illustrators that include Mark Newgarden, Tom Bunk, James Warhola, Jay Lynch, and John Pound, "30 Years of Garbage: The Garbage Pail Kids Story" is currently playing in select cities but will be expanding into more theaters in the coming weeks. The documentary will also be available on VOD beginning September 1st.

synopsis:
In the 1980s a bunch of underground cartoonists parodied a popular doll. The resulting commercial product tapped into the international kid zeitgeist. That young generation felt, rather than knew, that this product spoke to the rebellious nature they had for the corporate pop culture that was being fed to them. To quote Art Spiegelman, "We were bringing the counter culture to a new generation of kids, only it was the candy counter."

Bubble gum cards, wax packs, cigarette cards: yard sale trash or treasure? There’s a rich cartoon, parody history hidden in these small time capsules known as trading cards. How and why did Garbage Pail Kids trading cards become a colossal, 1980’s pop-cultural phenomenon? Let’s celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Topps Company Garbage Pail Kids with a documentary that is jam-packed with interviews with the original creators, artists and actors of the movie with the same name. Grown-up kids share nostalgic memories of what it was like to be a part of an international sensation. Superfans give us a peek of a 30-year amassment of Garbage Pail Kids memorabilia. We will mark this simple bubble gum collectible as a true art form of the 20th century.

directed by Joe Simko, Jeff Zapata

release date September 1, 2017 (in theaters and on VOD)