Rat Fink
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Rat Fink is one of the several hot-rod characters created by one of the originators of Kustom Kulture, Ed "Big Daddy" Roth. Roth's hatred for Mickey Mouse led him to draw the original Rat Fink on a napkin, and he then transferred that image to his mother's refrigerator.[citation needed] After placing Rat Fink on an airbrushed monster shirt, the character soon came to symbolize the entire hot-rod/Kustom Kulture scene of the 1950s and 1960s.
The Rat Fink is a green, depraved-looking mouse with bulging, bloodshot eyes, yellowed, narrow teeth, and a T-shirt with "R.F." on it.
Other artists associated with Roth also drew the character, including Rat Fink Comix artist R.K. Sloane and Steve Fiorilla, who illustrated Roth's catalogs. Rat Fink and Roth are featured in Ron Mann's documentary film Tales of the Rat Fink (2006). [1]
A Rat Fink revival in the late 1980s and the 1990s centered around the West Coast grunge/punk rock movements.
The term fink was originally underworld slang for an informer, comparable to "stool pigeon", and ratfink is an intensified version of "fink". By the time Roth used this name for a character, the term had started to pass into more general usage. It is also thought to have been a toned-down form of "ratfucking", a slang term for playing dirty tricks.
[edit] References
- Rat Fink lives! Ed "Big Daddy" Roth's official site
- Tales of the Rat Fink (2006) Ron Mann documentary about Roth
- 2006 Toronto International Film Festival: Tales of the Rat Fink
[edit] External links
[IMG]http://www.sphinxproductions.com/media/ratfink/ratfink.jpg[/IMG]
