# Crazed hot rod driver cartoon **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 13, 2025, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazed-hot-rod-driver-cartoon/1018327 "2025-05-13T13:01:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2025, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazed-hot-rod-driver-cartoon/1018327/1 "2025-05-13T13:01:18Z")
[![](https://www.royaura.com/image/catalog/product/2024-04-02/04-1-1712047721499.jpeg) ](https://www.royaura.com/image/catalog/product/2024-04-02/04-1-1712047721499.jpeg) See the fiendish, crazed driver of the hot rod depicted on the shirt? I can recall as a child in the early 70s seeing stickers or perhaps some other ephemera where this kind of image was depicted. What I’m NOT able to recall, however, is any kind of cultural context associated with this. I mean was this part of a cartoon or comic book series? An album cover? A ‘meme’ like the ubiquitous ‘smiley face’ seen in the 70s? Perhaps a beloved counterculture character not unlike R. Crumb’s Mr. Natural? Help me recall some context…where and why did images like this appear? ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2025, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazed-hot-rod-driver-cartoon/1018327/2 "2025-05-13T13:08:14Z")
The name you’re looking for is [Ed Roth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Roth). ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2025, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazed-hot-rod-driver-cartoon/1018327/3 "2025-05-13T13:11:05Z")
Yes, it seems you hit the nail on the head. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2025, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazed-hot-rod-driver-cartoon/1018327/4 "2025-05-13T13:23:33Z")
For completeness, Ed Roth is the artist behind the character. Rat Fink is the character. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2025, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazed-hot-rod-driver-cartoon/1018327/5 "2025-05-13T13:34:33Z")
That will go nice with your tie and Cardigan, @Cardigan 😉 ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2025, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazed-hot-rod-driver-cartoon/1018327/6 "2025-05-13T13:57:05Z")
Famously of Odd Rods, Odder Odd Rods, Oddest Odd Rods, etc — card distributed with wide flat bubble gum. Many of us bought them exclusively for the cards, discarding the bubble gum immediately or handing it to our friends who liked bubble gum. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2025, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazed-hot-rod-driver-cartoon/1018327/7 "2025-05-13T14:21:17Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > or handing it to our friends who liked bubble gum. Oh, we all liked bubble gum. The stuff that came with Topps, or Wacky Stickers, or the weird-o cards, wasn’t gum. It was pink fiberboard. I remember we used to keep stacks of it, because what else could you do with it? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2025, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazed-hot-rod-driver-cartoon/1018327/8 "2025-05-13T14:51:01Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > The stuff that came with Topps, or Wacky Stickers, or the weird-o cards, wasn’t gum. It was pink fiberboard. I remember we used to keep stacks of it, because what else could you do with it? - Shingle Barbie’s house? ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2025, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazed-hot-rod-driver-cartoon/1018327/9 "2025-05-13T14:53:33Z")
That would work! Sell it to our sisters. Missed opportunities. I guess that’s why I’m not rich. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2025, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazed-hot-rod-driver-cartoon/1018327/10 "2025-05-14T13:04:37Z")
Not only were there the cartoons, decals, stickers, bubble gum cards, and the like. Ed Roth licensed model kits of hos Weird-O characters. They sold these from the late 1960s on, and it looks as if they’ve been revived > **[Models](https://rothmetalflake.com/collections/models)** > > Lil' Daddy Roth is now stocking models! We've started with a small stock of models from Atlantis, don't be surprised if they sell out fast! We'll be reordering a larger stock immediately after they sell though, so don't fret! The models are here... ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2025, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazed-hot-rod-driver-cartoon/1018327/11 "2025-05-15T11:53:03Z")
In the 70s there was a very big car, hot rod, trucker thing that consumed pop culture, which included such movies as _Smokey and the Bandit_, and _Convoy_, and TV shows like _Movin’ On_, _BJ and the Bear_, and _Dukes of Hazzard_. Odd Rods and other [CAR-Toons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CARtoons_Magazine) were all a part of that. [![](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/WFkAAOSwhqpnoWta/s-l400.jpg) ](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/WFkAAOSwhqpnoWta/s-l400.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2025, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazed-hot-rod-driver-cartoon/1018327/12 "2025-05-15T13:14:25Z")
Yeah, but California Car Culture was an established thing long before that Ed “Big Daddy” Roth and similar guys were customizing their hot rods and making offbeat and innovative fiberglas and metal flake bodies in the 1950s and 1960s, and **CAR-Toons** was an established thing in the 1960s. I wasn’t into it, but I knew people who were. And I saw the mags in the newsstands. You couldn’t miss the pervasive image of Roth’s **Rat Fink** even if you tried. ---
**Author:** ![a6ka97](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c2a13f/32.png) [@a6ka97](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a6ka97)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2025, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazed-hot-rod-driver-cartoon/1018327/13 "2025-05-15T19:55:17Z")
As a young teen into cars I read CAR-toons with drawings from George Trosley. Imagine my surprise as an older teen coming across a Hustler magazine and seeing his art work in that publication also, not necessarily drawing cars! ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2025, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazed-hot-rod-driver-cartoon/1018327/14 "2025-05-15T23:18:59Z")
> **[Rat Fink](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Fink)** > > Rat Fink is one of several hot rod characters created by American artist Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, one of the originators of Kustom Kulture of automobile enthusiasts. Roth conceived Rat Fink as an anti-hero to Mickey Mouse. Rat Fink is usually portrayed as either green or gray, comically grotesque and depraved-looking with bulging, bloodshot eyes, an oversized mouth with sharp, narrow teeth, and wearing red overalls with the initials "R.F." on them. He is often seen driving cars or motorcycles.\[ Roth ...