Michael Dormer And The Legend Of Hot Curl (Hardcover) (comics)

Michael Dormer is synonymous with the California surf counterculture in the 1960s and 1970s. This is the first-ever retrospective of the artist, culled from his own archives. It collects all of his character Hot Curl's comic strips for the magazine SurfToons, his designs for his TV show, a vast selection of his fine art, and other surprises. Black & white illustrations with some color.

The influence of Beatnik poetry, jazz, and art interpretation around the California Coast created a revolution in the Orange County surf world, and no one defined the visual style of this movement more than Michael Dormer. His career as an artist took off in the 1960s, when he created Hot Curl, the mop-haired, knobby-kneed, pot bellied surfer who quickly became a nationwide sensation, appearing regularly in SurfToons magazine (and still appearing regularly in Surfer magazine). He also created the cult classic 1960s TV show Shrimpenstein!, an off-beat children’s show featuring a miniature Frankenstein monster, which was a favorite of Frank Sinatra’s.

Michael Dormer and the Legend of Hot Curl is the first-ever retrospective of this unique artist’s work, culled from the late artist’s own archives and collecting all of his Hot Curl comic strips for SurfToons, his designs for Shrimpenstein, a vast selection of his fine art, and other surprises, such as the artwork he created for the opening credits of 1964’s Muscle Beach Party film starring Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello.