The Official Jay Lynch Thread

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Here's a thread for GPK Artist Jay Lynch. I'll always be grateful to Jay and other artists for taking the time to sign autographs as well as giving us extra goodies.

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Zack,

Hi Jay, my only question is did you check out our Fan Art Forum here on GPKC/GPKUG?
There are a lot of pretty good ideas there. Maybe you can tell us what you think of them.
Thanks
Zack Plaque

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Jay

I am just a freelancer...so I can't speak officially for Topps. But many of the gags in your fan art section are great ones. Some of them need to be tightened up art-wise...so that there isn't so much blank space...and so that they are in the exact proportions of the cards....and so that the GPK logo and the box at the bottom that has the kids name are part of the design. But many of the ideas are classics ...and I will definately send the editors of the GPK series to your gallery.
Wacky Packs series 2 will have many gags and paintings by guys who were originally Wacky Pack fans....who have really put a lot of effort into it, and are painting these things as good as the originals were painted 30 years ago.
Maybe the same thing could happen with GPK. Baked Jake has a bunch of winner gags...and Pet Sounds is a mighty good artist....I will send the editors to check it out.

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Jay

I guess for Topps to accept Jason and Michael Myers gags at this point in time would depend on if there are any sequels to these movies about to be released. I'd have a hard time convincing Topps to mock these characters, 'cause Topps would think that the movies are too old to appeal to the kids.
I know they are in reruns on tv all the time....But Topps wants to stick to mocking stuff that they think is really current.
I tellya...I did about 200 roughs. Most of the time, they say that the kids wont get the gags, 'cause the kids don't know what
certain basic vocabulary words mean....or because the kids don't know what the New Yorker magazine is...or because they don't know who Shakespeare was... So for them to allow a parody of something, they have to think that every kid in the world knows what it is. They proably wouldn't have done Donald Dump if there wasn't that current tv show. Sheesh! I'm thinking of giving it all up and taking up macromae...Hmmm.....the kids don't know what macromae is...I guess you can't win.

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Petsounds

I would have to agree with Topps to a certain point.
While I think it is good to keep things relevent to the times we live in I also think that this time around Garbage Pail Kids aren't quite the phenomenon they were back in the 80's. I'm pretty certain that a lot of the people buying these cards today were the same ones saving thier quarters to buy them in the 80's.
What I'm trying to say is, I think Topps should be a little more loose when it comes to suggestions because most of us are going to buy these cards no matter how they turn out. We love them that much! Don't get me wrong, I've heard that Topps HAS been listening and that's a good thing. This time around, though, Topps has to cater to two camps: the kids who are just being introduced to the New series and us nit-picky old-timers.
As for the whole lack-of-violence thing, that's just a reflection of the politicaly correct times we live in now. Kinda Blows.

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Alien Angela

Very well said, PetSounds! I wish that Topps did consider us "old timers!" I'd be interested to know who is buying more of the new GPK - us or the kids. I would be willing to bet that it would be us, the ones who were so fanatical about it in the 80's.

Jay - thanks for being our voice! I hope Topps does listen!!

Angela

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Jay

The new GPKs are successful. And it is mainly the kids who are buying them from what I hear. Although the older collectors who remember them from their youth are buying them too...it is mainly the kids buying them for a buck a pack at the Walmarts and Targets that account for the success of the re-launch.
So the new cards ARE primarily aimed at kids.
But I personally don't think kids are all that dumb. So I will continue trying to get more sophisticated humor past the editors.
I think we have a duty to educate the kids. They are the ones who will have to do our coronary bypass surgery when they grow up...so we shouldn't be TOO condescending toward 'em. We don't want them to grow up to be stupid, after all. The kids of the 2000s are just as smart as the kids of the 80s when it comes to basic intelligence, I think. I am also trying to push the more surreal images on the new cards. Maybe in series 4 there will be more. The lava-lamp kid and a few others got through this time.

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Cory,

Hey Jay I have a question for you. Did you do the final art for any of the GPK fronts or did you just do the backs?

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Jay,

I did roughs for most of the fronts on series 3. Aaron will post the roughs eventually on his GPK pages...so you can compare them to the final paintings that Pound, Bunk, Strephon and others did.
On a.k.series 3, I did roughs for all the backs...then I penciled and did the headline lettering on16 of them and Topps got a woman who inks the Simpsons comic books to ink those...and Topps got someone to color them on computer.
Then on the remaining 8, Matt Anderson helped me pencil and ink them, and I colored them on computer.
Mostly I just do concept drawings and other people do the final art. But this time there was a rush to get them done, so I did what I could in the time I had...but I was also working on Wacky Packages and other projects for Topps. So there are many hands involved in the finished art for the comics this time. Still, they are very close to the original roughs I did for the comics, which Aaron will eventually post on his GPK pages.
I haven't painted much final art for Topps. I did the painting of the ebaby on the back of all new series 1 Wacky Packages. and I did a finished painting for one Wacky Package for all new series 2, which isn't out yet...But mostly I just devise the gags and do roughs.
All this gumcard stuff is a collaberative effort. That's the only way it can ever get done on time. There are 15 or so people who do the editorial and art on these cards. Even my wife works on them. She lettered most of the dialog baloons in the new series comics when I burned out and hadda take a nap.
I haven't seen the new printed comics yet. I saw the copies on the internet, though. They seem to look ok.

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Jay,

Anyone who wants a card autographed...just send me the card or cards along with a stamped, self-addressed envelope for me to send it back to you with. I will sign it and send it back to you. Email me at [e-mail], and I will give you the address

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Spree,

how many more All New Series do you project there to be?

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Jay,

These all new series GPKs will keep coming out as long as people keep buying them. So far so good. As long as the sales remain high, Topps will keep on doing more new series.

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DEAD GPK,

I HAVE A QUESTION! how good are the new series doing i know that the ans1 did really well. how about series two how good has it done as far as sells? and ans3 how has it done compare to 1 and 2. i am just wondering. ;D

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Jay,

I don't know how the sales of 1, 2, and 3 compare to each other.
All I know is that 3 did well by Topps' standards...and now we are working on series 4.

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BakedJake,

It's really interesting to see the original ideas before they were turned into the GPKs we know! How big are the original sketches? I guess they have to have the same proportions as the cards. Also you have the GPK banner on the sketches, do you have to draw it in every time, or do you print it over the completed sketch?

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Jay,

The roughs are on regular 8 1/2 X 11 paper. I xerox a bunch of sheets with just the card outline and banner. Then I do the roughs on these sheets. Where the kid overlaps the banner, I paint out the banner in white paint, and draw over the white paint. These are just a way to convey the card idea to Topps and the artists. Then Topps makes changes....and the artists add to it...and it evolves into a card.
Like the snot bubble kid on the original rough was a girl....but it wound up as a boy on the final card and packaging.

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wwe,

Hey Jay, will there ever be a gpk commercial?? i saw a WP and not gpk ;D

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Jay,

I think GPK sells well enough, at this point, that they don't need a commercial.
But the Wacky commercial is running again. It is a little different. It shows some different stickers now.

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Sniglet,

hi jay my name is Gabriel aka Sniglet and i was just wondering how does one go about applying for an artist position with topps for GPKS? is it kind of a they find you thing? do you have to already have to have a name for yourself? what exactly are the qualifications?

P.S. if you got time check out my rough sketches thread in the fan art section

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DEAD GPK,

thats a good question i was wondering the same thing. maybe you could see my drawings too. if you have the time. thanks for all the cool posts and the great sketches we really apreciate what you do. ;D

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Jay,

Topps needs painters more than writers. I haven't seen anything posted yet that is perfect enough as a finished painting, though.
But I am only a freelancer....and I can't hire artists or writers for Topps.
This Baked Jake guy has some incredible ideas, though...and he seems like he could write the gags for these things...and I think he should probably make color prints of them and send them to Jeff Zapata at Topps (along with a stamped, self-addressed envelope for him to return them in). Jeff is the guy who is the editor of this GPK stuff. See what he thinks. I think the majority of Baked Jake's stuff works well as gags...although some might be too violent for the current mode of thought at Topps.
My only criticism of most of the fan art is that you gotta think of the thing as a design...that fits into a die cut...so the whole gist of the gag has to fit within the die cut. So when you do a rough...it's not just the gag, but also the idea that it has to fit into the die cut area and be instantly clear as a visual gag and be balanced design wise.
I sent Jeff to these pages a couple of times.

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JOHN John,

Hey Jay,

I have a question about the sketch cards for All-New Series 4. Do you know if it is just going to be John Pound, Tom Bunk, and yourself doing the sketches? John Pound said that they just contacted him this week about doing the sketch cards. Have you already completed yours, if so, how many did you have to make?

Thanks!

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Jay,

The sketch cards are printed on a separate sheet from the other cards....So we will be drawing the sketch cards while the other cards are being printed. I don't know how many I will get done...but I will try to do as many as I can in the time allowed.

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Spree,

do you know how many sketch cards there are all together?

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barnacleez,

Jay, I managed to pull one of your sketches today. Your sketches look extremely clean and detailed. How long did you spend on the average one?

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Jay,

I don't know how many sketches there are all together.
Justin Green did gags for some GPKs in the various All New series. He also did stuff for Topps back in the '60s with me and Art Spiegelman.
So when the sketch card thing came up, Justin and I figured that for what we were getting paid for this...we could only afford to spend one minute on each card. When it was all over, though...I wound up spending 3 minutes on each card. And I am pretty sure that Justin also spent more time than he originally planned. So I didn't have time to erase the penciling...and I did one card upside down (not intentionally, It was a real error)...and if I spilled ink on the shirt of a kid in the drawing, I made the shirt black. One drawing I smeared the ink around a kid's mouth by mistake...so I put in a dialog ballon that says "This is not an error. I had spaghetti for lunch...and this is spaghetti sauce all over my mouth".
Topps had a quality control guy look over all the sketches we did . I don't know if these cards mentioned above are in the final group of sketch cards or not. The whole sketch card project was a race against the clock for me.

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JOHN John,

GREAT JOB on the sketch cards, Jay!

I'm hoping I can get a few of the ones that you did. The sports fan, Rootin' Rueben, is my favorite.

Did you only sketch 4 different characters/concepts? I have only seen 4 different so far...

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Jay,

I did 6 different characters where I did a few hundred of each. Then I did a few one-of-a-kind ones...but I don't know what finally wound up going into the hobby boxes. The one-of-a-kind ones might have been too insane for Topps. I don't know.

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LiveMike,

Hey Jay,

Your Sketch cards are all great!

I found one of your sketch cards of "snot/tongue baby" that has the top of a shirt drawn below the head. Can you tell me if this is a rare version?

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Jay,

That's probably the only one where the top of the shirt is shown. Probably because I spilled a drop of ink...and had to draw something there to hide it.