BOMONSTER Blog

While being interviewed by Tiny and friends on Tiny's Kustoms "Friction in the Static" podcast (www.frictioninthestatic.com - episode 106), I answered the question, "What was your first car?"

My first car was a car/truck:

My dad bought a 1956 Ford Victoria with no trunk lid and a broken rear window for $200. What I really wanted was a truck to haul around my dirt bike, so he cut V-notches on the sides and after heating up the line across the top with his torch, he bent the top down and cut a split window opening in the back. After he welded it up, we filled the holes with plexiglass. Then I took it to auto shop class and a bunch of us bondoed and painted it.

I used it as a pool cleaning summer job truck and of course hauled around my dirt bikes to the desert and local tracks. I had the only 1956 Ford Ranchero in the world and probably always will.

I was vending all weekend at the four day, nitro-fueled, March Meet drag racing palooza and up walks Tiny, Zombie and friends. He tells me he was in town to interview BOMONSTER for his online radio podcast Friction in the Static. He said since I had nothing better to do in Bakersfield that night, why not come by later and sit in front of a microphone and talk. I couldn't think of a excuse quick enough to get out of it so I agreed. It turns out these guys are a lot of fun and make great interviewing hosts, although Zombie walked out once we got started as his "studio" filled with friends into the night and he had to move them all into the outside lounge area.

Anyway, it turned out pretty good once Tiny cut and edited all my random jibberish into individual words which answered his questions fairly well. Plus he was interested in the art process which made it easy to play along.

Check it out at www.frictioninthestatic.com

Episode 106.

Trying to pick a favorite at this year's Grand National Roadster Show is like picking between the Beatles and the Stones (alright, Beatles). There really are no bad picks and it usually doesn't matter because I never pick the ultimate winner. Neither of these won the big trophy and $10K prize but they were voted as BOMONSTER's Top Two:

First up, I really liked the deep blue full-fendered '33 cabriolet owned by Dennis Varni and built by Steve Moal. Dennis always has the right amount of visual style in his cars. From the wire wheels to the blue top to the dead dog hood ornament, it's the right amount of tradition with an edge. Dennis has a reputation as a race car fanatic and I would have guessed ahead of time that any car of his would borrow from that esthetic, but it just goes to show he knows how to create perfect lines any time.

Next up is Sylvester III...

I talked to owner Paul Shaughnessy about his '32 nailhead channeled hot rod and he's got a great story to tell. While picking up a motor off Craigslist for a friend's Z, he saw some hot rod parts laying around and began to ask about them. He bought it and did some research discovering the grill shell, body and wheels were at one time a late fifties hot rod and later an early sixties show car which won its class at the 1961 Oakland Roadster Show and was on the cover of Car Craft magazine from that same era as the Sylvester II. Both previous owners did the work themselves and finally the car sat for years in a widow's garage until Paul came along and breathed new life into the '32 by creating a new frame, re-chroming the original wheels, zoomie pipes and adding his own touches like a subtle 1/8" recessed polished firewall matching the curves of the radiator shell.

Ultimately the big prize went to another worthy car styled after a 50's era Indy racer, but these got my vote for the BOMONSTER GNRS Top Two.

Some local guys started a car club named the Wreckers and have been after me to create a BOMONSTER original design for their support shirts. After a year I started to believe they were serious because at every car show where I had a pop up store of my art, they stopped by, brought more new members and bought my stuff. It was finally time for me to design a shirt logo for them. Here how I did it:

I start with a drawing of basic outline shapes - and maybe some light direction to not only make sure I know where I'm going but to also get the clients approval. This one was about 12" x 16" and I try to keep the composition simple knowing I can add as much detail as I want later. When the Wreckers saw it they flipped and told me to go nuts.

To transfer the drawing to a clean piece of black scratchboard, I rub a pencil on the back of the drawing and redraw the outlines transferring the design to the scratchboard. I tape the scratchboard onto a drawing board and work on a flat table surface. A desk lamp is positioned close to the work to see the faint pencil lines and I use an Xacto knife with a #16 blade to scratch the black surface to reveal the white layer underneath. I also add tape near the end of the knife to cushion my fingers from the constant pressure of scraping the surface. I usually start at what I consider the trickiest part of my design. That way if I mess up and start over, I don't have so much to redo.

I love the look of hand drawn type but also appreciate good type design so the letter forms have to be accurate under the loose lines. I figured the best way to go was thousands of parallel scratch marks to define the letters. Since it's easy to get lost in all the little scratch marks, I jump ahead and put in a few marks on the letters to establish an overall angle for the scratches. That way, if I veer a little off course I can look ahead to the pre-scratched marks and readjust along the way. Since I tape my scratchboard to a drawing board, I can spin the board to match the comfortable natural rotation of my wrist without contorting myself into strange positions to keep the lines straight.  I can easily do clockwise strokes from about the 8:00 position to the 1:00 position. My counterclockwise strokes are generally 1:00 to 8:00. So I adjust the drawing board to accommodate. I also wear a thin cotton archival glove on my scratching hand and will put down a clean sheet of paper over my work so I don't smear ink shavings over areas I've already scratched.

Once the face of the letters were done, I added some slight detail to the letter edges and a few more scratches to the trucks until I started to think I ruined the whole piece. I then scanned into Photoshop to fix any funny edges and make an eps file. I opened in Illustrator, rasterized and did a live trace adjusting several times until it looked closest to the actual scratch and saved as a clean vector file which can be used for screen printing, reduced to a business card or blown up huge for banner and truck graphics without losing quality.

The Wreckers were happy and I was happy to be part of their history.

Truth is, every one was welcome. I went to enjoy the bikes and take in the scene and wasn't disappointed. There was a nice range from show customs to custom baggers and "cartoon" bikes but mostly traditional-style bobbers and choppers. Getting there early means you get to take some nice pictures without a lot of elbows, feet and shadows in the way. I had such free access to so many cool bikes it was as if the whole show was set up just for me. After taking these pictures I walked around, saw some old and new friends and about an hour later the bands started and I looked up to see a wall of people walking in to enjoy the show. And just like that it was a party...

I've never actually met artist David Mann but have enjoyed his work for years. I always thought his style had a stiff draftsman-like quality to it - very accurate and most likely drawn from photos. Not a knock on his ability – he was a very accomplished artist. What I liked most about his work was that you knew he lived those experiences. The soul of his art comes not from the drawing style but from the stories told. He could capture a moment leaning into a sunset as beautifully as he could getting handed a beer while riding next to an army truck full of soldiers. Seeing his work again last weekend up close made me appreciate his stuff all over again.

He really captured the open road chopper life adventure like no other. But what got my attention at the show was this little known work by David Mann. A vintage dirt dike rider in the mud and a Kawasaki street bike t-shirt designs. They were unsigned but I vaguely remember them back in the day probably advertised in a bike magazine. The other piece was a sailboat at Christmas time. It was beautifully executed and not a chopper in sight. It looked like one of those Maui art gallery specials that you totally fall in love with while on vacation and bring it home hoping to keep the vacation going just by looking at it.

If nothing else it reminded me that artists usually have more than one interest.  Once we like an artist for one thing it's almost a shock to see them be good at something else. I'm glad I discovered that about him.

Before this year I had never been asked for my autograph. But after signing a few shirts, a bunch of prints, some car parts, a purse and a hat I felt like I was getting the hang of it. Then along comes a guy at the Mooneyes Show carrying a toilet seat and asks for my signature! I thought it strange that this art groupie would spend the day carrying a toilet seat around a car show but sure enough he had most of the famous artist's signatures already on it. While I was questioning the wisdom of permanently attaching my squeaky clean brand name to a questionable artifact, I noticed the signatures of Von Franco, Jack Rudy, Max Grundy, Tom Kelly, the Pizz, Weesner, Big Toe, Kent Reppert II, Doug DoRr, Diablo, Von Hot Rod, 3 Sheets, and on and on - even Robert Williams!

So I figured what the heck, if signing a toilet seat is good enough for those guys, who am I to question the integrity of it all?

Apparently he asked me last because there was one empty spot left on the corner next to a yellow splatter stain. I grabbed a Sharpie, took a deep breath, signed my name and then washed my hands.

I usually try to keep my tweets and blog posts positive but in the interest of protecting the unsuspecting buying public from getting ripped off, it is my duty to inform you that Germany's Johan Werner (known as Joe) is selling counterfeit hot rod branded goods and has infected his products with a bad stink that is contagious and once you come into contact with these fakes it doesn't go away.

Joe Werner also sells his counterfeit ripoffs from his website www.factory68.com. He calls himself Factory 68 Speed Shop which means he's stolen from at least 68 artists and is in business to make a speedy euro.

Johan (Joe) Werner is at the Essen Motor Show in Germany this week with a showcase full of BOMONSTER stickers which he stole off this very website and made into low resolution, crummy quality stickers for sale without permission. Do not buy from this Joe Werner Factory 68 display case:

Germany's Johan Werner is a ripoff

Creeps like Johan Werner don't get a lot of respect in the artist community and William B summed up Johan Werner best on facebook: "f#@*!+! no brain/no talent/ good for nuthin f#@*!+! loser." Hard to argue that one.

On the other hand if you have some Euros burning a hole in your pocket and you're looking to purchase some quality BOMONSTER products in Europe check out www.bomonster.de and www.signzz.com. The owner Christoph is a good guy who cares about quality and represents the BOMONSTER brand well.

www.signzz.com

Be careful out there and stay away from Johan Werner and www.factory68.com. His stink doesn't easily wash off.

Before the two stroke invasion, big sleds like this ruled the desert. And Ted's in West L.A. knew how to strip down a stock bike and prepare it for battle. In 1967 my dad wrote a motorcycle results paper called Rap Up. He wrote the articles, took the pictures and created the ads. He must have been on a deadline because he hand printed all the cool features like "spokes securely wired," "Short kick starter for quick starting," "Straight through exhaust rerouted," "fork travel extended 1 1/2 inches - H.D. dampers," "wheel hub tack welded to wheel flange," "oil spout relocated to outside."

As it turned out this was the beginning of an end of an era. That year new two strokes from Greeves, Husqvarna and Bultaco began showing up on the results list and it didn't take long before they were at the top of the points race. Guys like J.N. Roberts, Gary Conrad, George Walker and many others started a two stroke winning trend that lasted forty years.

These days you can probably count on one hand the number of two strokes finishing in the top twenty. What goes around comes around.

I sure wish I owned this '67 Triumph now.

I've been a spectator at these Bakersfield shows for a long time but this was our first time vending. It wasn't so much a reunion as an introduction to Nate Greco, Zombie, Tiny, Cory Lee, Diablo, their friends and many friendly Europeans and a few cool Australians. Got to know Max Grundy, Vintage Klass, Jack's Graphic Station, ACME Speed Shop and many HAMB Friday art Show fans a little better. Jack Rudy, Alex Gambino, Kiwi Kev, brothers Coby and Marc Gewertz, Keith Weesner, Cody Roth, the artist Scribbles and Gene Winfield all stopped by to say Hi. I used to think being stuck selling in a booth for three days would mean I'd miss all the action. I do miss most of the show but it turns out there is a really nice reunion that goes on behind the scenes that I'm now happy to be a part of. I did manage to take a few pictures...