Drag cartoons - Pete Millar

Pete Millar (1929-2003), was a great drag racer and a brilliant cartoonist. He entertained drag racing fans for decades! His wacky, irreverent view of the fun, foibles, and frustrations of professional drag racers is even funnier because it hits so close to truth! Millar and Carl Kohler created CARtoons for Trends in 1959, based on Millar's idea for a complete cartoon book focused on cars. Trends would later become Peterson Publishing, a name that grew to be synonymous with automotive cartooning due in great part to the success of the formula shaped by Millar and subsequent editors. CARtoons was one of the most unlikely success stories in 20th Century magazine publishing, and by itself would have guaranteed initial editor Millar a place in comics history. CARtoons sold extremely well for years, offered a MAD-style outlet for talented West Coast cartoonists when nearly all comics publishing was based in New York. The first issue of Drag cartoons debuted in June 1963 after Millar secured a deal with a distributor to cover advance editorial costs and shipping. When the federal authorities took out his printer, Millar rescued 100,000 copies and their mailing labels and sent them to various parts of the country himself. Irregular distribution would be a troubling theme in Millar's career as a publisher. Millar was not only an important mover for one magazine, but an entire sub-culture of comics expression.