The man behind the monsters

Your art style is rooted in Kustom Kulture akin to Rat Fink. Was that the type of art you grew up loving? Or did you organically gravitate towards that style as you matured as an artist?

I've always been drawn to pop culture, even from a very early age. Cars and car model kits, comics, and cartoons—I’ve been drawing since I can remember.

One of the styles I do can be considered by some as “Weirdo Art.” Monsters with oversized heads and facial features, usually driving wild cartoon vehicles, but it goes outside of that, of course. Ed Roth and his beloved character Rat Fink were among the originators of this style, but there were more. Ed’s work was the breakthrough. We can’t forget Basil Wolverton (Mad magazine artist), Bill Campbell (Weird-Ohs), Monte (the artist who was hired by Roth and created the first Rat Fink drawing), Stanley Mouse, Robert Williams, and Ed “Newt” Newton, to name a few.

But to answer your question, I grew up on everything pop culture that surrounded me: Saturday morning cartoons, comic books, trading cards, blacklight posters, arcades, records, garage and flea market artifacts discarded by the big kids, building muscle bikes, and then skateboarding and punk rock.

Did you experiment with other styles before specializing in kustom graphics? And what were some of the influences that helped shape your style?

Early on, I did my own comic strip art, then punk flyers and tape cassette covers for local bands. I was always drawn to record cover art, from Iron Maiden to the Misfits, the Cramps, and so on. If it had a cool drawing on it, chances are I was attracted to it. Skateboard art in the ’80s was something else I was very attracted to. Jim Phillips from Santa Cruz and VCJ from Powell were influences for sure—not to forget John Lucero!