25. Bling Dings

• Published Date:  March 2005
• Parody Subject:  Drake's Ring Dings cakes
• Concept Writer/Artist:  David Gross
• Date of Rough Concept Drawing:  April 2004
• Painter:  David Gross
• Date of Final Painting:  May 2004
• Notes:  "Bling Dings" was one of 16 titles that were shown as previews for All-New Series 2 at the San Diego Comic-Con from July 22-25, 2004.
  
  In early promotional material, such as the first sell sheet, "Bling Dings" was depicted as one of three titles (also including "Fool Iced Tea" and "Ghoul Whip") that were to represent ANS2 on the series' display boxes and wrappers. It was replaced by "Buzzooka".

Art Stages

Antecedent: "Yokels" Several years before he was commissioned by Topps to produce art for their new series, David Gross created a number of "homemade" images inspired by Wacky Packages. Gross submitted one of them, a parody of Drake's Yodels called "Yokels," as a candidate for ANS2. It was not accepted because the Topps editorial review board did not understand the multi-layered gag, featuring the play on egg yolks and the yokel character. Since Gross liked Drake's graphics, he moved on to a spoof of their Ring Dings cakes. (More of Gross's homemades can still be found on the archive of John Mann's web site at wackypackages.org: David Gross Originals)

Rough Concept Drawing Gross's "Bling Dings" rough is a near-exact blueprint for the final painting, aside from the placement of several of the jewelry pieces and the inversion of the phrase "Street Value $50."

Final Painting The Topps Vault sold the finished art for "Bling Dings" for $1,590.00 in an eBay auction which ran from November 24 - December 1, 2005.

Printed Stickers

Card Front & Back "FedUp," a spoof of the FedEx web site, is found on the back of "Bling Dings."

Chase Card Version Tattoo # 4 of 10