I didn't know the name of the artist as a kid, but Ed "Bid Daddy" Roth was one of the biggest influences on me not because he was an artist really, but because of his most famous creation, Rat Fink. In the early sixties, the idea of a grotesque rat driving bizarre cars and rocket like dragsters made me delirious with joy. I tried to copy the art with no success, but that didn't keep me from loving the big rat. Later on I learned that Roth started as a pin stripper (as far as I can tell) and graduated to drawing art on cars he and others restored. I don't think Roth ever had any art shows in galleries and I'm sure he was ignored by the mainstream art world, and it's doubtful he's high on the list of artists taught in art schools. Considering he often painted his main character on things like toilet seats it's doubtful he'll be showing up at the Louvre any time soon. I think Roth was pretty much the guy who started much of the more bizarre art now created by many American artists, even more so than any European cubist or abstractionist.  Even if I'm wrong about that, it doesn't matter, all that matters is that I think he was cool.