fff 04 Spare 75¢
fff 04 Spare 75¢
Rip Off Press 1975
Shorts :: Write Your Congresscritter • News Item • Gov Rodney Richpigge • Rodney Richpigge takes a ride • Street Economics • Taking the Lumps • Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers finally get the message
A Mexican Odyssey :: Tales from the Tube • Undercoat of Many Colors • LA Breakdown • El Mordido • Mas Cerveza • Mexican Bus • Chee-o-Wawa Cha Cha! • Pacific Tropical Paradise • Sanctuary • Don Long-Juan!! • Andromorphs • Naked Crazy Pig • Montegringo • Tracy Ahnyos! • El Mayor • Otra Cerveza! • Fat Freddie Rescue • Abscam • Great Escape • Catacombs • Prison Cave-in • Poppies • Physical Plane • Back Across That Border Again
Fat Freddie Scat and his friends :: Cat Hijinks • Chariot of the Globs • One Pizza with Mushrooms to Go • Mouse Pharma • Fur Face • Kitty Feast • Dance of Death • Yellowstone • Anti-Flouridation • One Fine Day at the Beach • Polly Schmuckface • Aphrodisiac
After Freak Brothers #3 was published in 1973, Gilbert Shelton had recycled most of his existing Freak Brothers strips into comic books, leaving very little stuff for a fourth issue. It was 1974, and the golden era of underground comics was over, scuttled by the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on obscenity and further strained by the great newsprint shortage of 1973. Shelton and Rip Off Press (which he co-founded in 1969) could have packed up the Freak Brothers franchise and settled for reprinting the first three issues into perpetuity. It was a great run and they’d sold truck loads of The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers.
But they didn’t do that. No, the Freak Brothers were far too popular to let them fade into historical obscurities. Instead, Shelton recruited Dave Sheridan (Mother’s Oats Comix, Tales from the Leather Nun) to help him with the artwork and wrote enough new stories for another 52-page Freak Brothers comic book. The book was finally completed and published in 1975, satisfying legions of Freak Brothers fans across the globe. The first printing was 100,000 copies, a solid number matching some of the better-selling overground comic titles from the same era (yet selling for three times the standard cover price of overground comics).
Freak Brothers #4 is a great comic book featuring a slew of one-pagers and one classic epic, “The 7th Voyage, A Mexican Odyssey.” In this 24-page adventure, the Freak Brothers travel to Mexico to pick up some weed and encounter one mishap after another. The story certainly ranks, along with “Grass Roots” and The Idiots Abroad, as one of the all-time great long-form Freak Brothers stories.
Gilbert Shelton – 1-52 (all stories and art collaboration) • Dave Sheridan – 1-52 (art collaboration)