Bottom Feeder
Ground Beetle
If you were a teenager in the sixties you may remember being jealous of those kids who's mom let them wear a Rat Fink T-shirt when yours wouldn't. It was an era of reckless excess and flash, the emergence of loser morals and free living attitudes, and counter-culture. Of course, many people still think of The Sixties as of an era full of debauchery and drug abuse.
Ed "Big Daddy" Roth (March 4, 1932 – April 4, 2001) was an artist, cartoonist, illustrator, pinstriper and custom car designer and builder. Roth was active in counterculture art and hot-rodding his entire adult life.
By the early 1960s, Roth was at the height of his popularity. People around the country were buying T-shirts, Rat Fink items and building models of his creations. Rat Fink developed a substantial following. This rodent was created to be the anti-Mickey Mouse, inspired in part by Roth’s hatred for the famed Disney character.
This soon ended and 1974 found him trying to seek new meaning in his life, so he converted to Mormonism. He also started to regret the 1960s, when he was making money by selling Rat Fink T-shirts, endorsing illegal street racing and having confrontations with biker thugs.
Many historians credit him for popularizing the printed T-shirt, though with the number of silk-screened shirts available today, few people appreciate that there was a time when almost all t-shirts were plain.
Roth was working on a project in his workshop near his home on April 4, 2001, when he had a heart attack and died.
Some of his work follows —
By the early 1960s, Roth was at the height of his popularity. People around the country were buying T-shirts, Rat Fink items and building models of his creations. Rat Fink developed a substantial following. This rodent was created to be the anti-Mickey Mouse, inspired in part by Roth’s hatred for the famed Disney character.
This soon ended and 1974 found him trying to seek new meaning in his life, so he converted to Mormonism. He also started to regret the 1960s, when he was making money by selling Rat Fink T-shirts, endorsing illegal street racing and having confrontations with biker thugs.
Many historians credit him for popularizing the printed T-shirt, though with the number of silk-screened shirts available today, few people appreciate that there was a time when almost all t-shirts were plain.
Roth was working on a project in his workshop near his home on April 4, 2001, when he had a heart attack and died.
Some of his work follows —
