The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers

Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers

The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers #1, Feb. 1971. Artwork by Gilbert Shelton
Publication information
Publisher Rip Off Press
Format Ongoing series
Publication date February 1971 - 1997
Number of issues 14
Creative team
Creator(s) Gilbert Shelton

The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers are a trio of underground comic strip characters created by the United States artist Gilbert Shelton. The Freak Brothers first appeared in The Rag, an underground newspaper published in Austin, Texas, beginning in May 1968; and were regularly reprinted in underground papers around the United States and in other parts of the world. Later their adventures were published in a series of comic books.

The lives of the Freak Brothers revolve around the procurement and enjoyment of recreational drugs, particularly marijuana. None of them has the slightest concern about gainful employment and the only use for money is to procure food and drugs without getting "burned" by unscrupulous dealers or busted by the police. Other storylines involve Fat Freddy's Cat and occasionally a military empire of cockroaches in the kitchen. The comics present a critique of the establishment, while satirizing counterculture.[1]

Comic strips

The Freak Brothers first appeared in The Rag, an underground newspaper published in Austin, Texas, beginning in May 1968, and were regularly reprinted in underground papers around the United States and in other parts of the world.

Their first comic book appearance was in Feds 'n' Heads, published by Berkeley's Print Mint in 1968. In 1969 Shelton and three friends from Texas founded Rip Off Press in San Francisco, which took over publication of all subsequent Freak Brothers comics. The first compilation of their adventures, The Collected Adventures of the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, had its first printing in 1971 and has been continually in print ever since. In addition to underground and college weekly newspapers, new adventures appeared in magazines such as Playboy, High Times, and Rip Off Comix; these too were collected in comic book form. Shelton continued to write the series until 1992, in collaboration with Dave Sheridan (1974–1982) and Paul Mavrides (since 1978). The works enjoy a sizable cult following and the magazines are widely available in comic stores.

The majority of the comic books consist of one or more multi-page stories together with a number of one-page strips. Many of the latter have a one-row skit featuring Fat Freddy's Cat at the bottom of the page. Some of the titles also contain a small number of strips featuring completely unrelated characters.

Characters

The Freak Brothers are not siblings. They are a threesome of freaks (similar to but distinct from hippies) from San Francisco.

The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, from left to right, Phineas, Fat Freddy and Freewheelin' Franklin

Other recurring characters include:

Storylines and themes

Fat Freddy, with his cat

Drug use is the predominant theme that runs throughout all volumes of this title. The protagonists "live in a state of blissful torpor relieved only by bursts of paranoia or stimulant-induced frenzy."[2] Marijuana is the most frequently mentioned, but numerous other stimulants and hallucinogens are mentioned as well. Heroin is usually missing from the list. In one adventure, Franklin is shown to turn down an offer of "smack" when hitching a ride.

Food is a recurring subject. These stories most often involve Fat Freddy and his marijuana-induced "munchies" (increased appetite). The squalor engendered by the Brothers' indolence is often highlighted; several strips feature the household's cockroach population, ruled over by a fascist monarchy. Several stories satirise governments, particularly the U.S. government. These stories invariably show politicians and their agents as corrupt, incompetent, or both. The theme of foreign travel is sometimes explored, most notably in the three-part Idiots Abroad series.

It is common for the storylines to begin with an air of realism, but rapidly descend into comic pantomime.

Freak Brothers stories include:

Catchphrases

The Freak Brothers comics include several catchphrases:

"Dope will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no dope."—Freewheelin' Franklin. The Los Angeles Public Library featured Anne Herbert's modification of the original quote written by Gilbert Shelton: "Books will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no books"; this was used on a in-library poster featuring the likeness of the Freewheelin' Franklin character.
"Don't get burned!" (usually aimed at Fat Freddy as he sets out to purchase drugs)
"Smoking grass and drinking beer is like pissing into the wind."
"While you're out there smashing the state, don't forget to keep a smile on your lips and a song in your heart!"

Other appearances

In film

In 1973, without permission from Gilbert Shelton, The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers appeared in the full-length pornographic film Up in Flames, although two of them were given different names. The story involved the brothers' attempts to raise cash to make their rent deadline (the trio being in danger of being evicted from their apartment). Fat Freddy gains employment at a local food store run by graphic artist Robert Crumb's character Mr. Natural (also used without permission).

Director Paul Thomas Anderson said the look of Joaquin Phoenix's lead character, Larry "Doc" Sportello, in Anderson's 2014 adaptation of the Thomas Pynchon novel Inherent Vice, was based in part on characters in the comics. "[T]here's this documentary on Daniel Ellsberg, called The Most Dangerous Man in America. There's a great picture of a buddy of his who has this great set of glasses, a floppy hat and these mutton chops. I took a still frame from that and I sent it to [Phoenix], along with the omnibus collection of The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers comic, by Gilbert Shelton — and that's probably the most we really talked about [Phoenix's portrayal of the character]."[3]

In animation

Grass Roots.
Main article: Grass Roots (film)

In 2006, the company Grass Roots Films began production on a feature-length clay-animation film based on the series, called Grass Roots, co-produced by German distribution company X Filme.[4] In 2013 work on the film had stopped and conversion of the script to a musical had started.

In The Simpsons episode "The Lastest Gun in the West", ca. 10 min. 56 sec into the episode, all three Freak Brothers can be seen in a clip from the 1970s detective show "McTrigger", where they are shot at, and Franklin killed, by the eponymous hero, McTrigger.

Places

Fat Freddy's Restaurant, in Galway, Ireland, described as "Galway’s favourite restaurant",[5] is extensively decked out with arcana and other memorabilia relating to the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and Fat Freddy's Cat.

List of Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers titles

Titles in the series are often referred to by their number, but almost all of them additionally have a title in words.

Also, there have been two full color books:

And a Fat Freddy spinoff:

Compilations

Several compilation titles have been published that merge several of the original titles into one book. There have been two large collections, the first reprinting comic book covers in color, the second entirely in color.

An omnibus edition (ISBN 978-0-86166-159-6) of the entire series was published in late 2008.

Compilations of Fat Freddy's Cat stories have also been published.

References

  1. ↑ Randy Duncan; Matthew J. Smith (29 January 2013). Icons of the American Comic Book: From Captain America to Wonder Woman: From Captain America to Wonder Woman. ABC-CLIO. p. 245. ISBN 978-0-313-39924-4.
  2. ↑ Nicholas Lezard (8 December 2001). "Reefer madness". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
  3. ↑ Fear, David (January 15, 2015). "Paul Thomas Anderson Reveals Secrets of Stoner Odyssey 'Inherent Vice'". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on January 16, 2015. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
  4. ↑ A three-minute piece of test animation can be seen here.
  5. ↑ "Fat Freddy's Restaurant". Retrieved 2014-02-12.

External links

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