FACES TO WATCH MARK NEWGARDEN & DREW FRIEDMAN

Individually and collectively, Drew Friedman and Mark Newgarden write and draw cartoons that aspire to ''be a little subversive'' (Friedman) and to ''go further than all the bland junk that's out there'' (Newgarden). Individually, they've contributed to National Lampoon and Spy; Newgarden, 32 (in glasses), invented the notorious Garbage Pail Kids, while Friedman, 33, recently published a hilariously meanspirited cartoon collection called Warts and All (Penguin). Now they've teamed up to produce what seems likely to be 1992's wittiest gross-out, Toxic High, a sticker series from Topps. The idea, says Newgarden, was to depict ''a high school that has nothing to do with reality, yet expresses all the craziest fantasies and nightmares you have about real high school.'' Thus Friedman's artwork depicts, on one card, a museum class trip in which students spray-paint ''Teachers Stink'' over a Picasso; on another, a prim music teacher presides over an orchestra rehearsal in which all the players are drooling punk-rockers. Playing off kids' insecurities about their bodies, grotesquely goofy nerds and volcanic acne eruptions are recurring images. ''I hope the PTA groups are horrified, and kids love them,'' says Friedman. Just what are the taste boundaries, if any, on a project like this? ''Well, mucus and vomit were allowed, but no devil worship,'' says Friedman, ''and decapitation was okay, but no blood spurting out.'' ''Gunplay was a major thing to leave out,'' adds Newgarden. Well, all right, then-as long as you boys know the rules.