Wacky Packages
by The Topps Company
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Book Reviews of Wacky Packages
Book Review: Makes buying the vintage cards unnecessary
Summary: 4 Stars
I was getting nostalgic for the things of my youth and remembered Wacky Packages. Coincidentally this book was published just about the time I was considering going on EBay and purchasing some of the cards of my youth. I have to give this book high marks overall.
The pros:
The layout is superb, with one card on each page. The cover of the book is clever, looking like one of the card packages. This book makes buying any of the vintage cards unnecessary.
The cons:
For those of you who have read my Amazon "So you'd like to know more about..." guide to comedy of the 1970s, you know what my tastes are. The big letdown of this book was that I have largely outgrown this sort of humor. I was into MAD magazine as a kid, but I really can't sit down with an issue now. Same thing with these cards. About 1 of every 10 is funny to me. That said, the execution is incredible: world class artists doing world class parody illustration.
The other con I have, and you'll probably notice this if you read through the book in one sitting, is how many of the products feature dead, poisoned, or ill-treated dogs. Can't say any of those were at all funny to me.
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!Book Review: Wormy
Summary: 5 Stars
This is (at least one of) the logical extensions of Warhol, to the extent that the representation and/or the "idea" of the product is theoretically no different than the product itself. Actually, it's more interesting than Warhol; it's satire that is automatic, mass produced, and not the least bit funny.
Yes, the reproductions are unreasonably beautiful, and I'm not just saying that because I had a Wacky Packages fetish when I was a kid. "Hawaiian Punks" has always been my favorite. There is something about the red and green mushed-up glob of a former human being, as he seems to ooze off the sticker, that is just as transfixing to my adult eye as it was to my far less discriminating 10-year-old self.
This is cultural detritus raised to an utterly undeserved level. I feel like tearing all of the pages out and framing them properly. The apocalypse will be arriving when?
Book Review: Fantastic! Pure Fun!
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is pure fun! I love it so much. It's a bargain price too. It's printed and put together very well. I think this book is one of the best things in the world. It's a treasure. It's a small hardcover book. The dust cover is made of the same waxy wrapping material they use for trading cards. It has some bonus wacky packages stickers inside the back cover. I paid much more for some books that I didn't like nearly as much as this one. I bought some wacky packages stickers when I was about 8 yrs old and I had a wacky packages t-shirt then too. I'm gonna start buying a bunch of wacky packages cards and things now that I have a lot of money to spend, which I didn't have as a kid. Product parodies will always be popular. I've seen lots of t-shirts with product parodies. Wacky packages rules! It's right up there with Ed Roth's rat fink artworks and other great pop culture things.Book Review: A fun, nostalgic look at the classic Wackys
Summary: 5 Stars
This well-executed book has excellent large-size reproductions of the first seven classic Wacky Pack series'. Shot from the original Topps film in most cases, the great artwork by artists Norm Saunders, Jay Lynch et al. is sharp and stunning. If you collected these as a kid, the rush of nostalgia is overwhelming. The intro by Art Speigelman and afterword by Lynch are nice bookends to the cards reproduced within. The only slight disappointment I felt was at the lack of further information on the series' creation and subsequent success. This is only hinted at in the intro and ending essays. I would have found it fascinating to see more rough sketches and at least a few more pages with Topps' insider history and staff anecdotes about these classic cards. That small complaint aside, this is an outstanding pop-culture book.