fff 11 Whiteline Cannonball Express

Rip Off Press 1990
Riot Going On • Break Up! • Save the Giant Hamsters • Fat Freddie Drug Czar • $29 SF to NYC Non-stop Whiteline Cannonball Express • Fine Art • Televigilante • Grow Up • FFF Movie

Three years after the wild international escapade of The Idiots Abroad, Gilbert Shelton and Paul Mavrides finally return to producing Freak Brothers stories on the domestic front. But gosh, as the old song goes, how ya gonna keep ’em down on the farm after they’ve seen Paree? Well, one way is to have them smoke plenty of dope!

There is no mention or flashback to their crazy adventure from the previous decade in Freak Brothers #11. The boys are simply back in their element, arguing with each other and coming up with nutty ideas that will benefit themselves or other small corners of humanity. This issue does carry over one aspect from The Idiots Abroad, and that’s color printing for the interior pages. Perhaps Rip Off stayed with color printing for issue 11 because the longest story here is “The $29.95 SF to NYC Non-Stop Whiteline Cannonball Express,” which was originally printed in color in Thoroughly Ripped in 1978.

The Cannonball Express story is a good one, but it takes up half the book, leaving only half a book for new Freak Brothers stories. Those include “The Freak Brothers Break Up!” “Save The Giant Hamsters!” and “Fat Freddy, Drug Czar,” which are all solid but not exceptional tales. There are also four one-pagers in the book, and those represent some of the best work in the book.

Of course, I am grading on a curve here, since comparing the quality of any Freak Brothers comic book to most other undergrounds would make every Freak Brothers book a perfect 10. Shelton’s writing is never lazy and his (and Mavrides’) illustration standards take a back seat to nobody, and those standards are evident throughout this issue.

Gilbert Shelton – 1 (collaboration), 2, 3-33 (collaboration), 34, 35 (collaboration) • Paul Mavrides – 1 (collaboration), 3-17 (collaboration), 33 (collaboration), 35 (collaboration), 36 • Dave Sheridan – 18-32 (collaboration)