Ed "Big Daddy" Roth collection online

That simple Rat Fink decal with all the F-ed up colors (yellow skin, blue overalls, red lips and toenails) is by far my favorite. The lettering's even great. Much sicker than the more common green skinned version!

 

Man, the amount of art here takes my breath away! I'm betting this is the most complete collection of Ed "Newt" Newton's work in existence!!! Newt's a god to me. Thanks, Coop!

...And it must be said here and now that your work is simply astounding and unparalleled!

Thank you for sharing it with us.

Bill Stinson

 

Thanks man! There's an assload of those that I had never seen!

 

Coop,

Thank you so much for posting these. having them in one place is a real service.

This has always been one of my favorites. It's a simple idea, but I find it to be so funny:





PS: I have color versions of the "Made in Japan" decal (soldier running w/ sword). I can scan it if you want to add it to the collection.

 

Any more of the military ones out there?

 

There's quite a few that are not Newton's.

 

It's interesting to see the different artist's styles among this great collection. Thanks for posting them.

There's some of my own "ink" (actually pencil) in one of those decals. It's a bike pic I drew to which a wild rider was added. Came out cool with the mods. If it wasn't for this post I wouldn't know this "collaboration" occured.

 

took time this morning to check this out. im stoked.... thanks.

-scott noteboom

 

Hey, can you point me to which one? I'm alway interested in finding out more about all the artists in Roth's studio.

 

I've got a couple of the little ones, but not a color one. Bring it on!

 

yeah, there were several different guys doing the art before Newton, then Newt and Williams were doing stuff simultaneously for a while. I think the later ones, with exaggerated cars and no monsters, were also done by another artist as well as Newt. I got to talk with him a bit at the Von Dutch auction, and he identified a lot of the originals, both his own and others.

My understanding was that when Roth decided to move from selling airbrushed shirts to silkscreened shirts, he got a couple of different people to do inked versions of the most popular shirts. After that he hooked up with Newton, who was a competitor selling airbrushed shirts, and Newt took over most of the art duties, aided and abetted later by Williams.

 

BTW, where's Franco? He knows more about this than anybody here, including me!

 

That's pretty much the way Newt explained it to me.

 

I hung around Roth at the Kansas City car show when I was 15 and he helped me get started painting shirts. Later that year, I was on my last vacation trip with my parents, we were in LA so I had my dad drive me over to Maywood.

This was before Newton and screenprinting, like '61. Ed said, "Hey, you wanna stay here this summer and paint shirts?" My Dad hadn't said no yet and then Ed took us inside and said, " I even have a place where you can stay!" Then he showed us the filthiest toilet I have ever seen and that would be my room.

Needless to say, my Dad (already pretty suspicious of the whole deal anyway) got me out of there fast. I saw Ed many times subsequently but I never knew if he was messin' with my head or not because he loved to say outrageous stuff offhandedly and keep you guessing.

 

It's the California Choppers decal. I will send you a PM with the details.

 

Coop,
Very cool collection......I sent you a PM about someone who has TONS of Roth decals.

Chris Nelson
Kansas

 

My Dad took me to Roth's shop in 1961 for my birthday. On a rainy saturday, Roth asked me which design I wanted on my sweatshirt. I had already picked out this one. He sat me down as he airbrushed it and asked me if I wanted my name on the front...WITH SPIDERS hanging off my name.
Still have it some 47 years later...

 

He painted me one free too...I lost it.

 

Diggin this very cool thread........thanks Coop. Love to see more.

 

I think most of the decals are by Robert Williams, the style is all his. Some might be RK Sloane, but that might have been later stuff.

 

PS, thanks for posting those Coop.

 

The 'MIni K' was an Aussie version of the UK mini. It was fitted with the 1100cc engine out of the larger Morris sedan, which gave it considerably more grunt than the stock 850cc mill, and even the 998cc motor fitted to the later models. Of course it didn't come close to the Cooper or Cooper S models, which ran to a huge 1275cc from memory, but it was clever marketing anyway.

And yes, a modified Cooper S could keep up with the 351 Fords!

Cheers, Glen.

 

Thanks for posting coolest thread in a while!!!!

 

I met Ed at one of the Oakland Roadster shows. At the show, I had some of my drawings on display. Ed liked one of the drawings and bought it from me. I never worked at his studio in LA.

See below attached pic, the drawing he bought was the chopper drawn with white pencil on black paper . He used it eventually for the cover of his magazine.

In the decal you posted, it looks like someone did a reverse photostat of the white bike and added the cool beatnik rider. I like how he pulled the jockey shift out too for a more dramatic effect. I think it is cool, a synergy effect from two artists combining their work. It all makes sense though, it's hard to imagine any of those decals working without someone driving those crazy vehicles.






The headlight mounted way up high on the handlebars is an idea I just copied from my own actual bike. I liked it because it made a wierd cyclops effect at nite on an extended front end.


thanks again for posting the collection!

Mike

 

Damn Mike, that's a cool fucking bike, great story too.

 

is their any more cool shit out their yet

 

More!





I dig all the other contributions. Keep it up!!

 

Awesome post Coop! You got quite a collection going there. Ed Roth is why I pinstripe today.

I've got two of his waterslide decals and they are very precious to me. I love the military designs and Biker designs he had too. Do you remember the design with the M48 Army tank with the header - "52 Tons of Rolling Death". Man, that was sweet.

Thanks for the amazing post...

Joel

 

What is the value of the "Born Mean" decal???