by Art Chantry ( art@artchantry.com)
this was for the ‘weird-oh’s” trading cards. these were hot rod monsters ala ‘rat fink’ and ‘mr. gasser’. these are based more on the work of stanley ‘mouse’ miller’s hot rod monster style rather than of the ‘mouse imitation’ work of ed “big daddy” roth. everybody tried to ape the ‘mouse style’ back in those days. however, everybody envied roth’s business savvy and the hug amounts of money he was making with his derivative designs.
as mouse and big daddy began selling model kits, the ‘hawk’ company hired illustrator jim campbell to do some images to be made into model kits to compete with the success of the competitors. these campbell ‘weird-oh’s” kits became so popular that they sort of wiped out the roth and mouse model kits off the market. it was a great asset to have chosen jim campbell, a really great period illustrator to do the box images. his work was absolutely great.
it spawned a series of other products – tshirts, even animated cartoons. this wrapper is for the bubble gum trading card line they marketed for the brand. i wish i still had them. campbell’s work was really imaginative and launched the basic territory for the later onslaught of garbage pail kids and other sticker monster trading cards.