Burger King Kids Club / Topps -- Jay?

[Rick Bradford]

I'm wondering if Jay (or anyone else) might be able to shed a little light on something.

I've got a copy of a Burger King Kids Club giveaway booklet called 'Pranks Funny Pages' from 1993. It's full of comics and I can identify Drew Friedman and Kaz but I'm not sure about the rest.

So I'm curious if there was any connection to Topps and also who the rest of the artists might be. It's pretty cool to see kid-marketed comics that actually look interesting (like Nickelodeon Magazine) rather than the usual crap.

Here are scans of the (folded) front and back:





I'm come up with info on other BK comics but no luck finding any info on this little item...

[jaylynch]

Shortly after Mark Newgarden left Topps, he started a small ad agency and did some stuff for Barks Root Beer and Burger King.  He used most of the artists that Topps did at the time.  John Pound, Tom Bunk, Drew, Kaz, all those guys.  He did a bunch of projects for Burger King.  One was a set of trading cards that Pound painted of wacked-out fairy tales....One was these free poo-poo cushions and other traditional novelty devices for kids that he repackaged.   He did a lot of stuff for Burger King...and the artists were mostly from that NYC crowd associated with Topps and Newgarden.  I don't have most of these BK promos...so I don't know all the artists.  I think JD King probably did some stuff for them...

[jaylynch]

...and that Smokey Stover/Bill Holman page that you posted looks like the work of CraigYoe doing a Bill Holman style riff.  Which makes sense, since Newgarden knew him back then as well.

[Rick Bradford]

Hey, thanks for the info, Jay! I'm sort of fascinated by obscure projects with interesting artists. I mean, "obscure" is relative but I guess anybody who didn't buy a kids' meal at Burger King at the time probably has never seen it.

Oh yeah, I was thinking Kaz for that one strip but hadn't considered Craig Yoe.

The best comics in this thing are the ones that aren't so consciously on-model. That's another thing I like to see -- when the artists can sort of do their own take (to a certain degree anyway).