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Remembering Pete Millar, Final Installment
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Pete Millar’s Half-Century Of Art, Satire, Humor -- And Flies!
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By Dave Wallace Photos by DAVE WALLACE & COURTESY OF MILLAR ARCHIVES |
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At the request of Competition Plus, Dave Wallace has updated a story that appeared in Hot Rod Nostalgia’s print “magalog” just prior to Pete Millar’s death on February 28, 2003. To order this magalog (Volume Five) online, visit www.hotrodnostalgia.com. To view a controversial (and fully animated) Pete Millar cartoon addressing NHRA’s attempts to slow down Top Fuel cars back in 1997, go to Hot Rod Nostalgia. The series concludes with Part 3. - Editor
Complicating the Petersen editorial process was the infamous Fuel Ban, enthusiastically enforced by NHRA and Parks from 1957 (inspired by Cook & Bedwell’s record-smashing 167-mph pass) until 1963 (when nitro and alcohol were allowed back for the Winternationals only). Thus were some of the biggest drag races and racers of the day virtually ignored by Hot Rod, Car Craft, Rod & Custom, CAR’toons and National Dragster, all overseen by Wally himself. What news and articles did make it to print had been skillfully edited ‹ sterilized, some said ‹ to present and preserve an NHRA-approved image of a sport exploding in popularity. For example, their editors failed to cover the annual U.S. Fuel & Gas Championships, the world’s premiere dragster show ‹ staged a mere two hours’ drive from Petersen’s and NHRA’s respective Los Angeles headquarters. Article continues after advertisement
Such ironies were not lost on Pete Millar, a serious southern California racer. Building, maintaining and driving a series of supercharged cars (the Intruder dragster; Fiat-bodied Chicken Coupe; nitro-burning Gangreen Willys; a Ranchero that ran at Bonneville) gave the artist unique insight into his subject matter. Moreover, Pete’s formal experience as an aerospace engineer and technical illustrator included drawing “sequential events,” such as step-by-step equipment explosions. “That’s why when someone had an engine explosion in the drag comics, you saw exactly how this stuff blows up,” Millar explained. “Guys would study the drawings, and learn from them.” More explosive to drag racing’s establishment were the themes explored by Millar in the 48 issues of Drag Cartoons that he published from 1963 to 1968. Nothing was sacred, and no one: Sanctioning-body officials were skewered right along with major sponsors and hero racers. The personalities were instantly identifiable and deadly accurate, right down to individual speech mannerisms and sponsor shirts. These real-life cartoon characters simultaneously cringed and basked in the attention. Because Millar’s opinions were both honest and well-researched, this cartoonist-satirist became one of the most respected ‹ and most-powerful ‹ media figures in an era overflowing with journalistic talent. Then he vanished into thin air, seemingly.
“I packed up my family and moved to Europe,” he explained of his sudden departure. “Towards the end, I was doing all of [Drag Cartoons] myself. I just got tired, and my bills were catching up on me. I owed so much money to the printer on the Roth and the Wart-Hog books, I was paying him all my proceeds out of Drag Cartoons. Finally, I made a deal with the printer to give him the title if he’d just absolve my printing debts. They sold it to Three years later, Pete, Orah Mae and their three young daughters reappeared in California, “dead broke.” Millar went right back into the publishing business, producing annual editions of a newspaper-sized, full-color Drag Comics on newsprint in 1971, ‘72 and ‘73. By pricing the issues at just 10 cents (!), Millar assured decent distribution for his few advertisers. After hand-distributing the third issue, he dropped out of sight, again; Ironically, it was a one-shot illustration job for an attorney representing Kenny Logan (the Top Fuel driver who lost both legs to Orange County International Raceway’s guardrail, then shocked the drag-racing world by filing a lawsuit) that would evolve into a lucrative new career creating “demonstrative evidence” for trial cases. This would be Pete’s last racing-related endeavor until 1993, when he suddenly reappeared at the second NHRA California Hot Rod Reunion.
Millar subsequently became a regular visitor to drag strips, dry lakes, memorabilia shows, and NHRA Motorsports Museum events. Only four months before he died in bed, the youthful legend was operating a busy booth at the 2002 Bakersfield Reunion, signing autographs and peddling his cartoon collections in print and on CDs (still offered by his family on www.laffyerasphalt.com). “I think it was the nostalgia thing,” he explained of his final comeback. “I’d heard about the first Reunion, so I went up there [to Famoso Drag Strip], and I was so impressed. It’s fun to run across old buddies after all these years, because I don’t know if they’re alive, and they don’t know if I’m alive. A lot of people have favorite stories. They tell me they’ve been reading my cartoons all these years. That makes me feel good, because for all those years, I have sat in the studio, in a corner, and done the drawing. It makes me feel good that I’ve been able to touch somebody with some of the humor.” Right through the end, Millar continued to create contemporary cartoons. Among them was a much-anticipated, two-page contribution to the annually outstanding California Hot Rod Reunion program (an NHRA-owned publication that lists Wally Parks in its corporate masthead). Though Mr. and Mrs. Parks are no longer credited with editorial titles, it’s easy to imagine the two of them peering through magnifying glasses before each year’s program went to press, determined to find and erase every belly button, butt crack and fly.
Oh yeah...the answer to the quiz...
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