2/20/2023 0 Comments Rat fink hot rodsDonruss cashed in on selling stickers using Roth’s monster/hot rod concept (without credit or royalties) but with a different, little known artist who was fresh out of art school (B.K. Throughout the 1960s, Roth also sold a lot of his art in different forms, but not trading cards. It was purchased and returned to the USA and fully restored by Beau Boeckmann of the “Pimp My Ride” TV show. It was built in 1964, lost, then eventually found in 2007 parked outside a Mexican adult bookstore (dilapidated and not working). His most dramatic rediscovered artifact was the Orbitron, probably the first car that had its own in-dash installed color television, as well as the overall appearance of an alien UFO (complete with a plexiglass bubble top that hydraulically opened over the cockpit, and three different colored Martian-like headlamps). Some of Roth’s custom creations were lost to the ages. A fellow painter who worked for Roth in 1965 was Robert Williams, who still paints stunning pieces with hot rod/monster themes, which sell for many thousand$ each. Fans of his music style and monster motifs include The Cramps and Rob Zombie. His most famous record was the 1963 album, Hot Rod Hootenanny. That’s 3,200,000 models sold in a nation of less than 200 million (or nearly 1 model for every 50 people). The very first year, he earned over $32,000.00. When the Beatnik Bandit and Road Agent (along with his Rat Fink character) were marketed as models by Revell in 1962, Roth was given a single penny royalty for each kit sold. His creations included the Mysterion and the Ed Roth Outlaw. Roth’s customized hot rods were part of a growing coast to coast craze to build your own hot rod with spare junkyard parts and fiberglass. It was the counter-culture answer to Disney’s Mickey Mouse, and a true anti-hero. His most famous character was “Rat Fink”, a hairy rat with jagged teeth and bulging eyes. He would personally airbrush t-shirts with monsters driving hot rods, and the crowds lined up to exchange their money for them. Soon he became known as a hot-rod “gear head” who financed his weird machine creations with mad-monster style decals and T-shirts that he sold at drag races, car shows, and the aforementioned Car Craft magazine. He joined “The Baron” in 1958 to build custom cars with a new process called fiberglass. By 1955, he was honorably discharged but was married with five children (all boys). He loved to draw and learned how to build things from his father. Born in Beverly Hills in 1932, Roth grew up in a German speaking household, the son of cabinet maker. In later years, Roth’s characters appeared in their own comic books. He also recorded several surf rock records under the name Mr. His Beatnik Bandit was one of the first 16 die-cast cars introduced by Hot Wheels in 1968. Roth’s wild car creations also appeared in movies like Beach Blanket Bingo, as well as some of the more eye-grabbing model kits from Revell. It broke all sorts of writing and punctuation conventions, and made Wolf and Roth famous, as well as the “new journalism” writing style. He was a subject of Tom Wolf’s first collected book of essays ( The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby). Roth’s colorful career spanned decades and many different media forms. His “Weirdo” t-shirts were a fad as early as 1959, traveling across the nation via mail order from the pages of Car Craft magazine (which also featured Roth’s custom cars). The maniac mind behind the monster hot rod cartoon craze was Ed “Big Daddy” Roth. (The backs were usually blank.) Some had titles, others didn’t, but really, it was the artwork that sold the series. Whoever dreamed up mixing monsters with hot rods? It was a combo so clever, it defied explanation – and got none. It drove the parents and teachers crazy, much to the glee of the prepubescent perps who stuck them on everything from home furniture to school lockers. The colorful stickers were ubiquitous during my 1960s childhood, almost like gang graffiti, marking clear pathways wherever kids frequented. Donruss certainly produced enough of them to prove how much kids loved them. They’re bizarre… unique… and total genius. For me, the classic Odd Rod stickers qualify well in both categories. (License plates, anyone?) But other times, it’s because the concept is so inspired, that it seems like pure, unadulterated genius. Sometimes, you look at a card series and have to ask yourself, “Where the heck did they come up with this idea?” Often it’s because the idea is so bizarre, it defies common sense. Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, the Architect of Odd Rods (by Kurt Kuersteiner)
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |