Okay, I’m gonna come right out and say it. I totally blew it during last year’s countdown to Halloween. I blew it worse than that time when Van Helsing failed to fling Dracula into Limbo. I totally intended to post animation cels every day and somewhere in the middle of the month life got the better of me and I put the countdown aside. This year I’m a bit more prepared and I fully intend to make it to the end. So what’s in store for my favorite month of the year in 2013? Well, for starters, I want to stick to a set of themed posts, so every day this month I’m going to share some of my favorite monster-centric Garbage Pail Kids sticker cards from the 80s era vintage sets. I culled 31 of the most ghoulish, gross, and, well, monstery stickers from my collection. In addition, I’m going to try and pepper the month with other Halloween articles, some reviews, and other fun ephemera from the archives of Branded in the 80s.

Once again, I’m also helping to organize the annual Countdown to Halloween alongside the tireless and super cool monster kid John Rozum.  So if you like what I’m doing over here, you might want to head on over to the Countdown site and check out the huge list of other sites participating in this year’s spooky festivities.  There’s also a like-minded sister collective called Blog-O-Ween being put together by my pal Cody, the Crooked Ninja Turtle Sensi.  Be sure to check them out as well.

Alright, so for Day one of the GPK Monster Madness I present sticker cards 334a&b, Ashley to Ashes and Dustin to Dust!

1 - Dustin to Dust

This pair of sibling headstones hail from series 8 and were printed back in 1987.  Painted by James Warhola, my second favorite GPK artist next to John Pound, the dreary and yet morbidly cheerful stones seem like a good way to kick off this Halloween countdown.  Though I have no intention of ever being buried, if I had chosen to go into the ground, you can be sure that this would be my first choice for a headstone design!

2013 Franken Berry 200