fff 13 End War Now

Rip Off Press 1997
Winter of ’59 • Drug Recycler • Fat Freddie Finally Scores • Little Pyr • Notorious Norbert the Narc in Fleagle & Fosdick • Mysterious Visitor • Sweet Leaf • TV Wars • Norbert the Narc in Blood Brother • Ridin’ that Train • To Kill a Cockroach • Landlady • VW Mechanic • Doppelgangers • Plant • Excess Energy Kills • It’s a Raid full color poster

The 13th and (at the time) final issue of Freak Brothers came out in 1997, but it contained no new Freak Brothers comics. It only reprinted stories in black and white that originally appeared in color in High Times and Playboy magazine (the same stories had also been collected in the full-color 1978 paperback book, Thoroughly Ripped).

Though reprinting old stories from the ’70s that had already been reprinted once might seem like a shallow attempt to squeeze every last dollar out of the Freak Brothers franchise, I tend to give Rip Off a pass on this one. Not many Freak Brothers fans had probably saved those issues of High Times and Playboy (if they ever had them at all) and Thoroughly Ripped was only printed one time in ’78. These stories hadn’t seen the light of day in almost 20 years, so printing them again seemed like a service to the fans.

Of course, Rip Off might’ve footed the bill to match the original color printing of the comics, too, but that is a matter of preference; there are plenty of fans who prefer all their Freak Brothers comics to be in good ol’ black and white.

Rip Off didn’t try to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes, either. Gilbert Shelton wrote a nice foreword on the inside front cover that explained the previous printing history of the comics. Most of the comics are one- and two-pagers and come from the peak of the mid ’70s, so there is plenty here to enjoy.

Gilbert Shelton – 1, 2, 3-6 (collaboration), 7-8, 9-11 (collaboration), 12, 13-14 (collaboration), 15-16, 17-23 (collaboration), 24, 25-27 (collaboration), 28 (art), 29-34 (collaboration), 35, 36 (collaboration) • Dave Sheridan – 3-6 (collaboration), 9-11 (collaboration), 13-14 (collaboration), 17-23 (collaboration), 25-27 (collaboration), 29-34 (collaboration), 36 (collaboration) • Tony Bell – 28 (story)