For those of us Monster Kids that were lucky enough to spend the 60's in Southern California, we were witness to some of the freakiest fads to come out of that era. One of the wackiest -- but coolest -- was Custom Car Culture, brought to the mainstream of pop culture by Ed "Big Daddy" Roth and his most famous creation, Rat Fink. It was not unusual on any given day to see hot rods, roadsters, surf vans and other modes of transportation laden with the associated interior decor of foam dice, shrunken heads, bobble-hipped hula girls and exteriors painted in pinstriping, flames and other outlandish and eye-catching designs.
Custom Car Culture remains strong even today, and the art form has stretched from the hot asphalt of Orange County to practically every where else on the globe.
One of the coolest things to come out of this phenomenon is the combination of car culture and monsters. Big Daddy Roth laid claim to inventing some of the most recognized critters back in the day, but many other artists both then and now have had their hand -- and their trusty airbrush -- in what I call Kustom Kreature Kulture.
The October/November issue of PINSTRIPING & CUSTOM GRAPHICS MAGAZINE (#64) shows just how popular this industry still is. One of the features describes Florida-based artist Gary Worthington's step-by-step process of creating an original t shirt design starring the Gill Man himself.
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