George Trosley: Krass and Bernie Visit the Garage

August 4, 2008 by Bubba Harmon

If you have ever been to a large auto swap meet with commercial vendors or flipped through a car catalog that offers automobile collectibles for sale, then you’ve probably seen the art of George Trosley (Troz). Troz started his career the traditional way by attending Hussian School of Commercial Art in Philadelphia, PA. After schooling, he landed several well paying commercial jobs working for various studios. But Troz felt that something was missing in his life. Illustrating commercial products was boring and tedious. Taking a big chance in 1973, he threw it all away to chase his dream of becoming a freelance cartoonist. He soon began drawing for CARtoons magazine where he would later create a couple of the best loved characters of the magazine known as Krass and Bernie. Originally Troz wanted to name them “Crash and Burn” which were the nicknames for his brother and himself growing up. They received the nicknames from all their crazy mini-bike and go-cart stunts.

Being the hard worker that he is, Troz refers to himself as an “art prostitute”; he is not scared to draw anything for anybody. His work has appeared in a variety of magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post, Saturday Review, National Enquirer, and New Woman. But he is best known for his car related cartoons in magazines like Car Craft and Street Trucks plus his regular cartoon appearances in Hustler magazine. Because, as Troz says, “Girls and Cars. What else is there?” Troz has branched out from magazines now and you can find his art on everything from t-shirts to signs. You can even get old Krass and Bernie cartoons and How to Draw CARtoon Cars on CD. One of the things I really love about Troz is he will also create a cartoon of your ride any way you want it and for a reasonable price. He has drawn several for me already and each one is better than the last! Be sure to visit his website (http://www.georgetrosley.com) for information on all his great stuff.

But Troz doesn’t just draw cars, he drives them. His current ride is a ’39 Ford Sedan. It is powered by a 400 Chevy Small block pushing an automatic transmission and a 9” Ford rear. Up front is a Mustang II front suspension setup. Topping it off with a killer Alpine sound system makes this car a real cruiser.

Want to hear George Trosley tell many of his humorous stories about starting out? Check out the 7/13/2008 podcast from “The Mighty Sabo … and Son!” on Talk Shoe.

Written by Bubba Harmon (bubbastoybox).