Joe Simko
Joe Simko is a New York City based illustrator who has contributed to Topps’ Garbage Pail Kids and Wacky Packages trading cards. Producer/Co-Director of the Garbage Pail Kids documentary film, 30 Years of Garbage. He is the illustrator/author of the book series, "The Sweet Rot", and he designs artwork for bands, creating album covers, tour posters and concert shirts. His project "Cereal Killers Trading Cards", 1st Series was released May 2, 2011. The Cereal Killers cards spoof breakfast cereals with popular horror films. Joe wrote and painted all 55 cards for the first and second  set and launched the series through his new company, Wax Eye. "Cereal Killers", 2nd Series was released through Wax Eye in June 2012. Wax Eye's first mobile app game for the IOS platform, "Cereal Boom", is based on characters from Simko's Cereal Killers card series. Early life. Joe Simko was born in Meadowbrooke, PA, and raised in Southampton, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York City in 1999 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Cartooning. He was the recipient of the Joe Orlando scholarship award from his graduating department that year. Among  Simko’s instructors at the School of Visual Arts were Joe Orlando (VP of DC Comics and associate editor of "Mad"), Klaus Jansen, Sal Almendola, and Carmine Infantino. Career. After graduating from the School of Visual Arts, Simko held a full-time position as an artist for men’s neckwear, creating design pieces for ties. In 2000 Simko was hired as a full-time, in-house storyboard artist for television commercials at GEM Studios in New York City. At this time he also did freelance jobs designing show posters for local bands. This freelance work gained some notice, and he  began working for higher profile groups. In 2006, he designed all of the artwork for the large traveling rock tour, The Vans Warped Tour. In 2007, the Japanese rock festival MAGMA commissioned him to design all the artwork for their tour and oversee all the art direction as the managing artist. Two tall inflatable monsters based on Simko's character designs were also created for the Japan Rock concerts. Simko freelances full-time from his studio in New York City and continues production as author and illustrator of his book series "The Sweet Rot". An original story showcasing a group  of wildly eccentric little kids also known as "little rotters" in the make-believe town of Pollilop Drop, "The Sweet Rot" is published by Schiffer Books. Simko has created artwork for clients and organizations including Topps, Ride Snowboards, Sims Snowboards, Outlook Skateboards, The Gotham Girls Roller Derby League, Fangoria Magazine, New York Hardcore Tattoos, Spooky Empire's Ultimate Horror Weekend, Monster Mania, JLO Hangtag for Andy Hilfiger, and the NYC clothing boutique Live Fast. Simko was penciller and co-creator, with actor Stephen Baldwin, of the graphic novel series "Spirit Warriors", and designer of bottle artwork for Manglaze, a nail  polish line. His list of musical clients includes The Misfits, GWAR, Less Than Jake, Trivium, Murphy's Law, Dwarves, Insane Clown Posse, Sonic Youth, Good Riddance, The Undead, Peelander Z, and others. In 2006, a Simko designed shirt was used in the film "Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist". The shirt was designed for the store Live Fast in New York City. 2011 was the launch of Wax Eye, a pop culture art based company formed by Simko and his wife June Gonzales. The company has released three trading card series to date: "Cereal Killers" series 1, "Cereal Killers" series  2, and "Stupid Heroes"; as well as a mobile app game "Cereal Boom"; and a T-shirt line based on the "Cereal Killers" brand. In 2014, Simko formed the independent film production company Peel Here Productions, along with partners June Gonzales and Jeff Zapata. Under this film company, they have released the documentary film based on the Garbage Pail Kids phenomenon titled 30 Years of Garbage: The Garbage Pail Kids Story.