CARtoons

December 13, 2004 6:19 PM

CARtoons was MAD Magazine for the hot-rod enthusiast, a bimonthly magazine-format comic book which I used to read regularly until it quietly disappeared from the newsracks in 1991 after a 30-year run. Reminded of the magazine earlier I was thrilled to find the website of George Trosley, the long-term CARtoons artist behind Krass and Bernie and the magazine's excellent how-to-draw articles whose results decorated my binders through high school. Those who remember the mag might enjoy the CARtoons archive he hosts, with scans of features and covers and writeups about the mag and its artists, many of whom passed away too soon. Still need a wild hot-rod fix? Ed "Big Daddy" Roth passed away in 2001, but Rat Fink lives on.
posted by mendel (19 comments total)

I remember my more gearheaded buddies trying to copy Ed Roth's cartoons on their notebooks during study hall. I still pay tribute with a foam rubber RatFink on my desk at work.
posted by jonmc at 6:22 PM on December 13, 2004

Sweet post, mendel. Brought back some memories. I once had a huge collection of Hot Rod magazines from the '60s. Someday, someday I'll bore and stroke a flathead Ford V8.

And maybe put an Isky cam in it.....

...and try to shoe-horn it into my Saab.....

Then again, maybe not.
posted by Floydd at 6:39 PM on December 13, 2004

Good Lord:

While I was a Mad....and Cracked at times...reader....a lot of my pals used to read CARtoons at times.

Completely forgot about it until this post.

Thanks for a blast from my past

ts
posted by timsteil at 6:39 PM on December 13, 2004

I was never happier than the day I got the issue of CARtoons with my drawing featured in the "Side Show" section (before they changed it to "My Wheels"). I think I was 12. Boy, was I the stud of art class for the rest of the year.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:42 PM on December 13, 2004

Great post, mendel. You're my new MeFi hero.

Here's another great Ed Roth site for your ogling pleasure.
posted by MrBaliHai at 6:44 PM on December 13, 2004

heh, I remember sitting on the floor in the magazine section of our local Safeway, reading Cartoons, Mad, Cracked, and comic books while my mom shopped.... good times, good times...

Heck, I remember getting a letter published in Cartoons... Dang, that made my day. I think I even got a check for it, I can't remember for sure though.
posted by keswick at 6:53 PM on December 13, 2004

Co-o-o-o-ol post.
I tip my funny hat to the high quality MetaFilterage of the mendel with an 'm'...
posted by wendell at 6:56 PM on December 13, 2004

Awesome. I had also forgotten all about this magazine and the artists. I remember trying to draw a '66 Chevy whose supercharger went 'Chirp Chirp' from the how to draw section. It was really hard to get these magazines here (in Australia). I worked at a newsagency and got one on import. I can't believe George Trosley is the same guy that does those cartoons for Hustler magazine (obviously NSFW).

Cool blast from the past mendel, thanks.
posted by bdave at 7:10 PM on December 13, 2004

BaliHai! Welcome Back!
posted by jonmc at 7:18 PM on December 13, 2004

CARtoons was a little before my time, but for some reason my brother and I acquired a stack of them in the late 70s (maybe a hand-me-down from an older cousin?) and they made a real impression on me.

Thanks for the astonishingly fast trip down Memory Lane. That FPP has a rompin' mill!
posted by Sidhedevil at 7:22 PM on December 13, 2004

A boss blast down Memory Blvd., mendel.

I still have two original Ed Roth silkscreen prints from 1963. I bought them from his ad in Car Craft magazine when I was 13 and my dad framed them for me.

Big Daddy Roth was an American original and my boyhood hot rod hero. It is great that he will live forever on the WWW.
posted by rdone at 7:28 PM on December 13, 2004

Awesome post!
I remember a particular issue that came with a special pull-out in the middle... an iron on! I didn't do a very good job of transferring it onto my T-shirt, but I wore that puppy proudly...
posted by grimcity at 10:04 PM on December 13, 2004

Cartoons was it in those pre-learners permit days. Sadly, I never developed as a gearhead, but I was pretty good at drawing the cars with the flames coming out of the headers. Great post.
posted by spock at 10:49 PM on December 13, 2004

Wow man, I very nearly did a post today on Screenhead about my favorite artist from CAR-toons Shawn Kerri, but figured it was too niche to be interesting.
posted by dong_resin at 12:48 AM on December 14, 2004

My father was a "Street-Rodder," and he always purchased CARtoons for me - in hopes that I would become a car nut too. At the pre-48 car shows of the 70's and 80's, it was possible to see cars bearing a striking similiarity to the drawings between the covers.
For many of the participants, money was not an object easily come by, and most of the cars were products of imagination and dirty knuckles. Because of that, you saw tiny T-buckets with huge blowers, lowered Hi-Boys with racing flames and side pipes, and other cool rides from the minds of garage gearheads.
Today, the world of street rodding has been turned over to the idle rich.... lots of dream cars, all streamlined and perfect, and WAY beyond the budget of the average man.
Sad, really.
Thanks for this post. It brought back a lot of great memories of cruising through the Southern states with "Rockin Robin" blaring out of the speakers of one of my father's crazy hot rods.
posted by bradth27 at 5:31 AM on December 14, 2004

Thanks, all. Good to see I wasn't the only one that remembered CARtoons.

dong_resin: I started poking around to see exactly what happened to Shawn, and found this odd message-board post which suggests she's still alive. All hearsay, though. Know anything?
posted by mendel at 8:44 AM on December 14, 2004

Hard to say... according to that message Shawn is brain- damaged, covered in scales, an alcoholic, and mounting lawsuits? The truth is often weird, but that's a little much.

Also, this was her boyfriend, so unfortunately I'm sticking to the drug overdose theory. I'd love to be wrong, but not if poor ol' Shawnie is a drunken, flaky vegetable.
posted by dong_resin at 11:41 AM on December 14, 2004

Now am I nuts, or didn't Gilbert Shelton -- who went on to create the "Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers" in the first wave of underground comics -- premiere his most unforgettable character, "Wonder Wart Hog" in CARtoons?
posted by Faze at 12:29 PM on December 14, 2004

OMG, yes! I devoured CARToons and SURFToons and CYCLEToons in my vanished youth; I had nothing to do with cars or surfing or cycles, but I loved the stories and the art and the fantasy (see the inevitable weblog entry (scroll down)). Here's Trosley's page on those other mags. Pity SKItoons didn't last...
posted by davidchess at 7:38 AM on December 16, 2004