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Sep 28, 2012 · Creator of 1960s surf art and “Hot Curl” cartoon series. Mike Dormer's surf art came from an era that essentially saw the establishment of the genre. Along with contemporaries like Rick Griffin, Dormer helped to depict the emerging counter culture scene in California during the 1960s.
Hot Curl started life as the second character in a comic strip in Michael Dormer’s 1959 self-published ‘zine The Scavenger, a beatnik anthology of poetry, short essays, drawings and cartoons.
Sep 18, 2012 · In 1964, Dormer’s artwork was featured in the opening credits of Muscle Beach Party, which featured the first film appearance of Hot Curl[2] and “Little” Stevie Wonder. He also doubled as a talent scout for that film and subsequent surf films, recruiting actual surfers and surfer girls off the beaches of La Jolla to serve as extras.[3]
He made drawings for copious surf advertisements and did regular illustrations for Surf Guide, Surftoons, Surfing Illustrated, and other publications. He also created the local kids TV show Shrimpenstein on KHJ-Channel 9 in Los Angeles—a favorite of Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack.
Hot Curl [1] is a cartoon character created in 1963 by Michael Dormer [2] and Lee Teacher. [3] In 1963, Dormer [4] and his friend, Lee Teacher, sculpted Hot Curl [5] a 400-pound concrete statue, and installed it on the rocks near the surf shack at La Jolla's famed Windansea Beach in San Diego, California. [6]
Jun 11, 2024 · Mike Dormer was a Windansea surfer and the artist who first drew a cartoon strip that would one day morph into a statue called Hot Curl. The following is an excerpt from Chris Ahrens’ upcoming...
He spent most of his life in Ocean Beach, where his artwork remains ubiquitous in the area’s coffee houses, watering holes, and surf shacks. Highly influential in the Californian surf culture, he is best known for his comic Hot Curl and for creating the TV show Shrimpenstein.
