Images From The Millar Family Collection And The Source Interlink Archives
Millar created the character...
Millar created the character Arin Cee (pronounced just like R&C) for Rod & Custom. This is Arin Cee's first appearance in the "little pages" in November 1955. Early cartoons had Arin solving some mechanical problems--in this case removing a busted rear axle stub with a coat hanger. Later, his antics would become more funny and less informative.
A year ago, Tales from the Strip: The Hot Rod Comics and Drag Racing Cartoons of Pete Millar opened at the Pasadena Museum of California Art. It was exciting to see the work of our favorite comic book artist hanging in a fancy gallery. Although he's best known for his drag racing comics, Pete Millar was also the creator of Arin Cee, Rod & Custom's cartoon mascot in the Fifties and Sixties.
Pete was born in Oakland, California in 1929. According to his wife, Orah Mae Millar, he was drawing from the time he was little and drag racing from the time he was in high school. He joined the service at 16 (his father signed papers allowing him to go). In the early Fifties he was hired as an engineer at Convair, where he met Orah Mae; they were married in 1954.
Pete was making a good living drawing technical illustrations for the aerospace industry, but really wanted to make it as a cartoonist. He pitched his idea for car-themed cartoons to Hot Rod Magazine. "Don't quit your day job," they told him. At R&C, editor Spence Murray told him, "You're hired." Millar's cartoons were used to dress up our tech articles. Arin Cee made his first appearance in 1955.
In 1959, Pete did what Hot Rod told him not to--he quit his day job and went into cartooning full time. He and partner Carl Kohler were contracted by Petersen Publishing to create a comic book about cars. Carl lasted one issue, but Pete produced CARtoons from his home for four years. In 1963, Petersen announced that they were taking over production of CARtoons; Pete could submit art to the new editor for consideration. Instead, he started another magazine, Drag Cartoons.
In addition to laughs, Drag Cartoons provided an inside look at drag racing. Pete--who raced throughout the Sixties--knew the sport and the racers, and filled his cartoons with real cars and real people. He took some satirical jabs, but never a cheap shot--and he was always funny. His jokes were helped by his skillful caricatures. With a few pen strokes, he could draw a face as recognizable as a photo. His daughter Robin told us that racers started avoiding Pete when he had a camera, so she became his undercover photographer. "His work was a documentary of drag racing in the Sixties," Orah Mae commented. "Many racers have told me that they bought the magazine to look for themselves. They felt that if they saw themselves in a Pete Millar cartoon, they knew they'd made it."
In 1968, Pete stopped drawing Drag Cartoons and moved to Europe with Orah Mae and their daughters, Robin, Debra, and April. They lived in Sweden and later in Spain, and camped their way through Finland, the Soviet Union, and several Eastern Bloc and Mediterranean countries. Pete paid the way by drawing cartoons for American magazines, picking up checks (if they showed up) at embassies wherever they went. During these years, he developed his fine art skills, making additional money selling oil paintings. For examples of Pete's more recent fine art sculptures, visit www.rodandcustommagazine.com.
 He really got to show off...  He really got to show off his skills with this detailed cutaway illustration of the R&C Dream Truck, published in the May 1958 issue |  In the same issue as the Dream...  In the same issue as the Dream Truck drawing (below), he continued the cutaway theme and parodied himself by having Arin Cee perform his own "cutaway" on Pete's coupe. |  In addition to his skill as...  In addition to his skill as a cartoonist and a technical illustrator, Pete Millar was a talented painter. An artist he met while living in Sweden encouraged him to get involved in oil painting. This self portrait was done in 1969, during that time. |
 A young Don "The Snake" Prudhomme...  A young Don "The Snake" Prudhomme and car owner Lou Baney were the recipient of the Millar treatment in this strip, from Drag Cartoons in 1968. |  In August 1961, R&C got a...  In August 1961, R&C got a new look and a larger size. Pete must have been getting some encouragement to update ol' Arin Cee, judging by the conversation going on between the character and his creator. |  Many of Pete's cartoons involved...  Many of Pete's cartoons involved competition between old time hot rods and modern musclecars. In this 1967 strip from Drag Cartoons, a roadster is blown apart in probably the most literal "exploded" view ever created. |