Thank you for visiting my CARtoons website. If you’ve found yourself here, it must mean that you are a fan of this great automotive humor magazine!
CARtoons started in 1959 by two guys- Pete Millar and Carl Kohler. The first 4 issues were smaller, only 5. 5x 7. 5 inches, and were put out by Trends books, which then turned into Petersen Publishing. The mag was put out every two months, but some of the years in the 70’s and 80’s had 8 issues. The issues started being numbered beginning with the 5th issue and ending with issue #101. After that, they put out 5 ‘Best of issues’ which were quarterly, and started with Fall 1977, and ended with Winter 1978. In 1979 they went back to bi-monthly.
In 1964, ‘Unk and them Varmints’ were created. They were on every cover, and in every issue until 1975. This is when the magazine changed it’s format to what most of us remember. It had a new logo, new artists, and new features, including those custom iron-ons we all made our mom’s put on our t-shirts. Added later was the ‘How To’ section. These took you step by step through drawing a certain car or truck, and were drawn by George Trosley. The mag went through a few changes, the iron-ons went away In July 1983, only to come back in Aug 1984, and to disappear for good in April 1986. After that, there were color posters in the center. Also, they started putting advertising in as well, to try to keep the cover price down.
Then, in Aug 1991, the last issue was put out. There was no warning of it’s demise, it was just gone. My subscription changed to Car Craft for the remainder of the year.
I made this website because I am an avid fan, and I have been collecting this great mag since 1980. And now have every issue made (nearly 200).
I also collect Petersen’s other comic mags from the 60’s and 70’s. If you’ve never seen them, they were: CYCLEtoons, SURFtoons, and Hot Rod Cartoons. These were all along the same lines as CARtoons, and even had a lot of the same artists drawing for them. These mags all ended by 1974.
I hope you enjoy the site, and I’m sure it will bring back some memories.
Paul Makowski
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