In the 2nd part of this series I will cover from 1960 - 1965.
The year is 1960 and the car comic titles are Hot Rod and Racing Cars along with CARtoons. Strange that they also are the 2 largest series of car conics in the U.S. with 120 issues and 181 respectaviely.
Hot Rod and Racing Cars continued to follow the same action format stories as in the past. You know the saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!'
The CARtoons title started by Pete Millar with Trend Publishing was the first car comic that was dune with humor in mind & not adventure. These were digest sized for the Trend publications, like all the other car books they published. It was sold to Peterson Publishing after just 4 issues. At this time the size was changed to that of magazines which was the same as the other car titles they published. it wasn't very long when there was a disagreement between Pete Millar and the new publisher.
If you look at the cover above you will see that Ed "Big Daddy" Roth joins Cartoons. He was with them for a short period of time and you will see that this was not the only time his name comes up in car comics history. Those who know the name also know that he was well know for his custom motorcycles and cars in the 60's and 70's and had a large following. So adding his name to anything at that time was sure to help sales.
Now back to CARtoons and Pete Millar.
This resulted in a new title that was not only drawn, written, and edited by Pete Millar but published by him also. It was called Drag Cartoons. This happened in 1964. This title is very hard to follow due to it's changing of publishers. However during this period of time it had just 1 until 1968. Since Pete was a drag racer on the weekends he just made fun of every aspect of the life of a drag racer. The 1st story is told by a character named Dragula that stays with the theme. Another great artist found in this title is Gilbert Sheldon with his character Philup Desaneaux a.k.a. Wonder Wart Hog. I will stop here since this is my favorite title for many reasons and I can do a ful story on it, maybe in the future.
The first title to join the 2 from 1960 was Teenage Hotrodders in April of 1963. This was an adventure type Published by Charlton who also were doing Hot Rods and Racing Cars. There were 24 Issues before the title was changed to Top Eliminator.
Two months later Charlton intoduced another title called Drag-Strip Hotrodders. This title also had its title changed, after 16 issues it became World of Wheels.
After seeing that there were lots of car fans buying comics and Charlton had taken the chance and it was paying off Petersen Publishing decided to add a new title themselves. This new title was called Hot Rod Cartoons. This was the thrid car title that was based on humor.
Charlton was doing well selling their other titles and decided to add another which they titled Hot Rod Racers. After 15 issues they did the same thing as they had done to the others, and changed this one to Grand Prix.
Petersen tried to capture a market that had shown interest in cars, but also had a culture of their own catching waves. Not a bad thought since the record companies were making a good profit by selling albums of the music they liked. This comic was titled.. you guessed it Surftoons! It lasted 15 issues and today are hard to find and in mint shape can sell for over $100 dollars.
I threw this scan in seeking info. I don;t know publisher, year, or even where I got the scan! I would guess late 60's or early 70's. States drawn by Rick Griffin who is one of the better known suffer cartoonist. P did a web search & spent 7 hours om the web with no luck.Any info would be great so it can be added to our data base.
The comic buyers in Australia also got the dragstrip Hotrodders title but only 2 issues.