38. Stench's

• Published Date:  December 2005
• Parody Subject:  French's Classic Yellow Mustard
• Concept Writer/Artist:  George Wright
• Painter:  George Wright

Art Stages

Pencil Art Wright draws all of his preliminary pencil sketches on letter-size copy paper, starting with the packaging and text. He develops his characters on a separate sheet because the character tends to undergo the most changes. When he is happy with the character, he scans and positions it on his package drawing to ensure a balance between the image and the text. In the finished pencil drawing, the character has been transferred from the initial sketch—repositioned slightly, and missing the extended pinky on the hand holding the bottle. In preparation for his paintings, Wright rubs the back of the preliminary drawing with a pencil, positions the rough onto a piece of hot press illustration board, and then traces over the original so that it leaves a ghost image on the board. The "14 oozes (397 gasps)" joke that is present in the final painting is not on this stage of the drawing.

Final Painting The word "Caustic," seen in the pencil drawing and on this final painting, was removed from the printed version during production.

Printed Card

Card Front & Back Topps frequently alters the black border that the artist paints around the image to accomodate the printeed sticker's die-cut outline. In the case of "Stench's," some of the added black around the upper right of the bottle cuts into the airbrushed gas, resulting in a sharp edge to some of the mist. "Munsta," a parody of Monster.com, is found on the back of "Stench's."

Connections

Package Parodies: "Stench's" A spoof of French's mustard also called "Stench's" appeared in New Hamm Productions' Package Parodies, a fan-produced set of 30 stickers that was distributed in 2000.