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Thoroughly ripped with the fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and Fat Freddy's cat!
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February 2, 2019
EDIT #1 - I wrote this review a few weeks ago and I think I was trying for some sort of a hippiespeak vibe that really didn’t work. Lesson learned. Don’t lose focus with a review.
Way, way back in the day, man, this dude named Gilbert Sheldon took it upon himself to begin a little comic strip called “The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers.” Now this here dude Sheldon lived in Austin, Texas, which is the State Capital and a big college town, harboring the mighty University of Texas. The Freaks proved to be a fun little gig, and as they got more and more popular and were getting published in wider and wider circles….well, man….ol’ Gilbert Sheldon packed up his Freaks and his Texas Tea Leaves and moved away from there….but not to Beverly Hills, that is…..no, man. Sheldon started his OWN comics publishing company in Hippie Central back in 1969, San Francisco. Rip Off Press, as it was called, was made specifically to produce original comics, thus spreading the word of the Freaks far and wide to those in the know.
Now the Freaks appeared in overground publications, too….like “Playboy” and “High Times,” stuff like that. So between that high falutin’ exposure and the direct sales to the underground shops….well, my main man Gilbert Sheldon had him a hit and a money making machine on his hands.
EDIT #2 - Somewhere in the mid ‘80s I was living with my girlfriend and her husband and yes you read that right and no I’m not going to take the time explain it here. Anyhoo, her husband actually KNEW Gilbert Shelton and was on a first name basis with him. He was an avid collector of Freak Brothers and Fat Freddy’s Cat, and I suppose this is where I had my first real encounters with said characters. Shelton had been long gone from Texas by then, but it was interesting to know that I had that one degree of separation…..
See, the Freaks were meant to spoof off of the standard image of the unwashed hippie AND they were a poke in the eye to what was then called….wait for it…..the ESTABLISHMENT. And as an independent comix publication…..well, the Freaks were not bound by any “Comics Code” conventions or any of that kind of shit. Drugs and nudity and harsh language were pretty much the norm for our friends in the comics pages and…..wait…..I guess I need to introduce you to the three main Freaks on this long strange trip.
You have Freewheelin’ Frank, who always wears his trademark cowboy hat and boots and has a long blonde ponytail stretching down his back. Now Frank is the smartest of the Brothers, but that ain’t sayin’ much, as the cumulative IQ of these guys probably only barely breaks three digits. But Frank is maybe a bit older, a bit more seasoned, a bit more “street” than his buddies.
You have Phineas Phreak, a mad scientist who seems to channel Abbie Hoffman in looks and temperament. He has a ton of brains but little in the way of common sense, so his plots usually go awry, causing trouble for the boys.
And finally, you have old Fat Freddy himself, a beer-guzzling snack-hound who just wants to lay back and groove, man. No sweat comin’ off of this old boy, nope. He is content to laze around and hit the pipe and take things easy, except when it’s his turn to get a job and bring home some rent and weed money.
The boys live in various low-rent digs and occasionally take road trips to alleviate the boredom. All of the action is centered around drugs and maybe some sex here and there, and they spend a lot of time running from the only real recurring police presence in the stories, Norbert the Narc. Oh, and Fat Freddy has this run down old feline, called “Fat Freddy’s Cat,” who gets to star in his own adventures from time to time. A bit tamer than Fritz, the cat does manage to have some fun while hashing it out on a continual basis with the cockroach population that always seems to follow the Freaks wherever they go.
So what I’m reviewing here is a collection of strips that appeared in “High Times” magazine, with one piece that appeared in “Playboy.” This entire mishmash of crudely drawn hedonism is titled “Thoroughly Ripped With the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers.” Most of the gags are pretty short, the lone exception being a road trip odyssey entitled “The $29.95 SF to NYC Non-Stop Whiteline Cannonball Express.” But everything here is funny in the way that most underground comics of that era were funny. These are basically tributes to the mighty triumvirate of sex and drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, and it’s all even funner when you are ripped off of your gourd on some sweet leaf. I’ll give a bit of credit where credit is due here, and mention that marijuana and cocaine are the drugs of choice for our wayward Freak Brothers. Sheldon intentionally excluded harder drugs like heroin from the strip, having seen the destructive quality of smack in the streets of San Francisco.
To date there have been fourteen issues of the “Freak Brothers” comic produced, and a plethora of collections and even an omnibus that collects all of the adventures into one mighty fine volume. But I prefer to get my Freak on piecemeal. It’s fun to come across a collection or a stray issue of the comic at a used book store or a garage sale somewhere. You can still find these Freaks at your favorite independent comix shop, too. Along with “Dr. Atomic,” the Freaks set a high standard for chronicling the low behavior of an entire counterculture. Cheap, sleazy, drug-addled good times if you ask me, man. Grab you some Freakiness and jump on down the rabbit hole. Just don’t bogart that joint, ok, man?
EDIT #3 - I’m throwing these little edits in because this is a review that I’m not completely happy with, but I’m honestly not hugely motivated to trash the thing and start over. Some reviews are important enough to do that with and this isn’t one of them. But it’s a cautionary tale. I don’t like putting out stuff that I’m not completely satisfied with, but sometimes good enough is just gonna be good enough. I know that I write these things for fun and ultimately for no one other than me, but I still feel like I have standards. Low standards sometimes, maybe….but still standards. And one day maybe I’ll tell you about that girlfriend and her husband. Good folks who I still know and love to this day, even if we have all gone off in different directions. I’ve had a fun life, kids. Maybe there is a little Freak Brother in all of us.
Way, way back in the day, man, this dude named Gilbert Sheldon took it upon himself to begin a little comic strip called “The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers.” Now this here dude Sheldon lived in Austin, Texas, which is the State Capital and a big college town, harboring the mighty University of Texas. The Freaks proved to be a fun little gig, and as they got more and more popular and were getting published in wider and wider circles….well, man….ol’ Gilbert Sheldon packed up his Freaks and his Texas Tea Leaves and moved away from there….but not to Beverly Hills, that is…..no, man. Sheldon started his OWN comics publishing company in Hippie Central back in 1969, San Francisco. Rip Off Press, as it was called, was made specifically to produce original comics, thus spreading the word of the Freaks far and wide to those in the know.
Now the Freaks appeared in overground publications, too….like “Playboy” and “High Times,” stuff like that. So between that high falutin’ exposure and the direct sales to the underground shops….well, my main man Gilbert Sheldon had him a hit and a money making machine on his hands.
EDIT #2 - Somewhere in the mid ‘80s I was living with my girlfriend and her husband and yes you read that right and no I’m not going to take the time explain it here. Anyhoo, her husband actually KNEW Gilbert Shelton and was on a first name basis with him. He was an avid collector of Freak Brothers and Fat Freddy’s Cat, and I suppose this is where I had my first real encounters with said characters. Shelton had been long gone from Texas by then, but it was interesting to know that I had that one degree of separation…..
See, the Freaks were meant to spoof off of the standard image of the unwashed hippie AND they were a poke in the eye to what was then called….wait for it…..the ESTABLISHMENT. And as an independent comix publication…..well, the Freaks were not bound by any “Comics Code” conventions or any of that kind of shit. Drugs and nudity and harsh language were pretty much the norm for our friends in the comics pages and…..wait…..I guess I need to introduce you to the three main Freaks on this long strange trip.
You have Freewheelin’ Frank, who always wears his trademark cowboy hat and boots and has a long blonde ponytail stretching down his back. Now Frank is the smartest of the Brothers, but that ain’t sayin’ much, as the cumulative IQ of these guys probably only barely breaks three digits. But Frank is maybe a bit older, a bit more seasoned, a bit more “street” than his buddies.
You have Phineas Phreak, a mad scientist who seems to channel Abbie Hoffman in looks and temperament. He has a ton of brains but little in the way of common sense, so his plots usually go awry, causing trouble for the boys.
And finally, you have old Fat Freddy himself, a beer-guzzling snack-hound who just wants to lay back and groove, man. No sweat comin’ off of this old boy, nope. He is content to laze around and hit the pipe and take things easy, except when it’s his turn to get a job and bring home some rent and weed money.
The boys live in various low-rent digs and occasionally take road trips to alleviate the boredom. All of the action is centered around drugs and maybe some sex here and there, and they spend a lot of time running from the only real recurring police presence in the stories, Norbert the Narc. Oh, and Fat Freddy has this run down old feline, called “Fat Freddy’s Cat,” who gets to star in his own adventures from time to time. A bit tamer than Fritz, the cat does manage to have some fun while hashing it out on a continual basis with the cockroach population that always seems to follow the Freaks wherever they go.
So what I’m reviewing here is a collection of strips that appeared in “High Times” magazine, with one piece that appeared in “Playboy.” This entire mishmash of crudely drawn hedonism is titled “Thoroughly Ripped With the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers.” Most of the gags are pretty short, the lone exception being a road trip odyssey entitled “The $29.95 SF to NYC Non-Stop Whiteline Cannonball Express.” But everything here is funny in the way that most underground comics of that era were funny. These are basically tributes to the mighty triumvirate of sex and drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, and it’s all even funner when you are ripped off of your gourd on some sweet leaf. I’ll give a bit of credit where credit is due here, and mention that marijuana and cocaine are the drugs of choice for our wayward Freak Brothers. Sheldon intentionally excluded harder drugs like heroin from the strip, having seen the destructive quality of smack in the streets of San Francisco.
To date there have been fourteen issues of the “Freak Brothers” comic produced, and a plethora of collections and even an omnibus that collects all of the adventures into one mighty fine volume. But I prefer to get my Freak on piecemeal. It’s fun to come across a collection or a stray issue of the comic at a used book store or a garage sale somewhere. You can still find these Freaks at your favorite independent comix shop, too. Along with “Dr. Atomic,” the Freaks set a high standard for chronicling the low behavior of an entire counterculture. Cheap, sleazy, drug-addled good times if you ask me, man. Grab you some Freakiness and jump on down the rabbit hole. Just don’t bogart that joint, ok, man?
EDIT #3 - I’m throwing these little edits in because this is a review that I’m not completely happy with, but I’m honestly not hugely motivated to trash the thing and start over. Some reviews are important enough to do that with and this isn’t one of them. But it’s a cautionary tale. I don’t like putting out stuff that I’m not completely satisfied with, but sometimes good enough is just gonna be good enough. I know that I write these things for fun and ultimately for no one other than me, but I still feel like I have standards. Low standards sometimes, maybe….but still standards. And one day maybe I’ll tell you about that girlfriend and her husband. Good folks who I still know and love to this day, even if we have all gone off in different directions. I’ve had a fun life, kids. Maybe there is a little Freak Brother in all of us.
May 23, 2022
Revised Edition = 1981
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews