Monday, May 7, 2012

Dave Bell

The custom bike and street rod world lost a great illustrator, pinstriper, cartoonist, and artist this past weekend, Dave Bell. Most people's first contact with Dave's talents on a large scale came from his illustrations and full page comic strips for TRM Publications, starting in 1969 with his character Jock E. Shift, in Street Chopper magazine, later followed by similar full page strips featuring Henry Hirise in Street Rodder, and later on Nat Moodle for Custom Rodder.
Dave Bell in the early '60's, well on his way.
Tom Rad paint, Dave Bell pinstriping.
Chopper related ads illustrated by Dave Bell, that ran in all the major custom bike publications through the decade of the '70's- one for White's Pit Stop, the other for 2Wheelers. White's is gone, but Arlen Fatland is still running 2Wheelers in Denver, in the same location for 42 years!
1939 - 2012

1 comment:

WhitelinePsycho said...

Clearly one hell of a contributor, the tank is gorgeous, thanks for posting, history tinged with sadness.