Here is something I found over the weekend here in Detroit. I think it is something special. Original art from hot rod artist Dave Bell (1939-2012). Large and in charge. It looks like the rendering for the page 190 October 1989 Street Rodder Magazine spread. He was on the Street Rodder Magazine staff for over forty years. Done with three white paper panels with a mixed media of pencil, fine line pen and black painted ink or paint. The last photo shows the combination of the three (I tried to show a representation using the glare of the light). Notations are on the side edges for photo/printing and publishing purposes. Everything is then lightly taped to cardboard. As we all know Dave was a master artist. Regarded as one of the premier low-brow artist to emerge from the 1960's psychedelic counter culture revolution. Mostly used black & white and his use of pinstripe type lines and the illusion of "Glare" on chrome was second to none. This is in fantastic condition. Size is about 22 x 30 inches. Are there collectors of his art on the HAMB. What sizes have you seen on display? Anybody here on the HAMB represented in this picture? Even Boyd Coddington makes an appearance. Thanks for takin' a peek- Hollywood Jon
It was always impressive to see how much he could fit onto a single page! You could study it for hours and still miss some little detail.
That’s a damn fine score. He was one of the best. I used to study his art work in SR every month. Just when I thought I saw all of it, something else would show up. How I miss print.☹️
That is a great find. Dave immortalized my Coupe and my friends twice in Henry Hirise artwork., Street Rodder 1985, '86. When I was at Sacramento Racetrack the next year buying a T-shirt, he gave me a couple of 18 X 24 prints. He also told me a typical Dave Bell story: After the first artwork, with Rodney Woolnough, he thought that the "Schithead Bros" was hilarious poking fun at the inflated egos at the time. In the next drawing (Bottom) after the '86 Drags, he had me sitting on the Coupe singing the Dr Pepper jingle with different lyrics, ie. Schithead instead of "Pepper" like seven times! Well, that was too much for the editors at the time and they refused to print it! He wouldn't budge, so to meet the deadline they had someone white-out the 'H's' and make them all N's to say "SCNITHEAD" instead. There is a seagull pooping on my helmet, a bag of manure and bleach (45LBS no less), the plate says, "PHLEW", and his trademark tire lettering says "CUT THE -CHEESE". He even drew Sage's Painting box. The man was unique, it was great to know him. Bob They are from 6/23/85 and 5/20/86 Nostalgia Drags.
What great stuff. I bought Easy Rider magazine for a lot of years and my favorite part was his monthly drawing in the magazine. Plus the Work for Street Rodder. Dang, just looking at all the little details on those is fun.
That must have came from the Al Maynard estate. For those not familiar with Al: https://obits.mlive.com/us/obituaries/flint/name/albert-maynard-obituary?id=21751160
Henry Hirise was the first thing I looked at every month when Street Rodder was out. me and my buddies used to go to the same liquor store every Thursday when the new magazines were delivered. from 1972 on bicycles until the late 80's when the owners retired.
Congrats on the awesome find…score of a lifetime. If you can’t find a place to display it at your place, let me know, I have got a perfect spot at mine.
Yes, that name was thrown around when I purchased this portion of the estate. I have other posters that were included in the sale. I live in St. Clair Shores, not far from him before he p***ed.
That is so cool Dave was truly amazing. I only met Dave Bell a few times back in my Street Rodder Magazine days. He was older than Mike and myself and already an accomplished illustrator, but he was always helpful and encouraging to us young guys. That story is interesting. Others at the magazine had said he could be a little "difficult", but I never saw any of that.
Jack-You are quite an accomplished artist as well. Seen your work all over the place. Honored to be talking to you all.
Hey Jon - excellent score. Love that era of hot rod art; thanks for sharing your good fortune. I earned an ***ociate degree in graphics and envied/admired the guys with that top tier talent and was a SR sub at that exact same time. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Unrelated, but I love your sig pick of Bill Hickman of Bullitt infamy. Having owned a 68 R/T Charger with a 440 and a few Muh Muh, M-cars, definitely a larger than normal Bullitt and Bill Hickman (stunt driver/movie stunt coordinator extraordinaire) fan. BTW, my Dad at one point had a huge similarity to Bill but not many of us are out there to appreciate it. Right down to the blue eyes even. Thanks again. Judge for yourselves...
That piece is a real treasure. Dave Bell was somewhat local to me, crossed paths a few times but never knew him personally. Mainly 'cuz why would an unwashed country car hick such as myself consider himself worthy to walk up and introduce himself to an artist of Dave Bell's caliber? My loss. There are quite a few folks in MN and fellow Minnesota Street Rod ***ociation members who did know him personally and have nothing but good things to say about him. There's also a fair amount of his earlier work still around here- mainly show cards, and I still see the MSRA membership decal design from the 70s that he did. And for those of you who may not know it, that guy in the upper left corner - ol' Wings Kalahan - is still doing his thing: www.hotrodradio.com You can download his weekly program, it's a great listen.
At one time there was someone who was talking about publishing a book of Dave Bell Art. Wonder what happened to that?
Hickman was the reason that chase scene rewrote movie history. While he and McQueen worked on the choreography it was Hickman who drove the Charger in all the scenes. McQueen was only allowed to drive the car about 10% of the time due to the dangerous stunts and Hollywood insurance requirements for the stars. His long time stand in and stunt driver did the bulk of the work. Bud Elkins who doubled him in the Great Escape stunts and Loren Janes who was the stunt driver he always used.
For me, it was the movie "The Seven Ups" 1973. 16 minute car chase on the New York expressway. Bill was in top form.
Dave was a talented guy, We were friends and he would talk for hours on the phone about Hot rods and Customs and the good old days. At first I didn't know how he did it, Later I found out he wore a telephone headset and was working the whole time we were talking... He had a pretty good gig working for the magazines, He got paid to do the art for them and then he would sell the orig to one of the people from that months cartoon. I was the subject on 3 occasions but only got to buy one of the originals from him. the others are copies that he gave me. He always drew them larger than the magazine so when they got shrunk to fit they got sharper..
Aww shucks Jon. Thanks so much for the compliment. Seriously though, I've always just considered myself as a hack that happened to be pretty good with a Sharpie. Although I produced a ton of stuff over the years, I never really perused a career in art...it was just another fun tool in my "bag of tricks" LOL. Thanks again.
Dave was a good friend and great guy who we lost too soon. He used my 40 Merc in a couple panels. Mick
Every year up at Back to the Fifties I try to spot a silver and black 40 Tudor with a lot of his striping on it. Cool old car with a crazed lacquer paint job that I pray never gets repainted. This year I also spotted a black Tri Five that had his work on it too. Not sure if he did the outside paint, but the striping was unmistakably his.
i was in jr. high in the 70s and loved reading street rodder with bell's work being a huge inspiration to me as a budding artist. seeing these posts just made my day. also, i dearly hope there is a book of his work published someday.
What a great artist he was. I loved searching for details in each one...kinda like where's Waldo or Richard Scary drawings. So much to find. Wish there was a Dave Bell database that you could search and to see all what cars and people he drew and the issues they were in.
Those panels were very influential to me as well. It's fascinating to hear of the connections and the cars used as models. Now knowing some of the back stories makes the panels even more intriguing. Jack Murphy your style is beautiful, very aesthetically pleasing. I'm sure more than a few guys here would pay a good fee for a caricature of themselves by their hotrod. The flathead, flattop, flat tire, flat broke piece is awesome. Bill Hickman was an American treasure. He raced motorcycles and cars and truly defined the state of the art movie car chase. He was working with James Dean on his driving skills and was the first on the scene when JD was killed at Cholame CA. BTW, not only did my Dad resemble Bill, they were both born in 1921 and my Dad shared Bill's love for bikes and cars.
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