Copyrights: Trouble in the Garbage Pail

Vile Kyle sports a scraggly beard, guzzles beer and rides a motorcycle. Doug Plug looks so much like a fire hydrant that dogs eye him affectionately. These disgusting creatures, along with other urchins like Ghastly Ashley and Messy Tessie, are the Garbage Pail Kids, who are depicted on a hot-selling collection of bubble-gum cards manufactured by Topps Chewing Gum, the Brooklyn company that has produced baseball trading cards for 35 years. To the older generation, the Garbage Pail Kids are repulsive parodies of the Cabbage Patch Kids, but to the preteen set, ugly is beautiful. Says Auronda Barnes, 8, of Crosswicks, N.J.: "I like them because they're gross."

Xavier Roberts, creator of the Cabbage Patch Kids and chairman of Original Appalachian Artworks of Cleveland, Ga., is not amused. Last week his company sued Topps for copyright infringement. Roberts thinks that the Cabbage Patch Kids' angelic image is being damaged by the devilish tykes from the Garbage Pail.