Interview with Gilbert Shelton, creator of The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Wonder Wart Hog and many other cartoons. An excerpt from WORKING, a series on people and their work.
I wise man once said " dope will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no dope " thanks for the trip down memory lane!
When I was in art class as a sophomore in High School a cartoonist visited the class. He rated Mad Magazine as some of the best cartoon work, then he added, "Well there are a couple of fabulous cartoonists out there, but their subject matter is not correct for a high school art class." I was the only 1980s hippiefied kid who blurted out "Zap Comics, and Fat Freddie's Cat, and The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers". And he said, "Talk to this guy, so I won't get in trouble!"......... So this other pro cartoonist was also a huge fan of Gil Shelton's masterworks.
Dear Mr. Shelton: I have some of your comic books and I recently saw your Freak Brothers meet Trump fighting over the KFC chicken! The actor voices is the same voices I heard in my mind years ago.. what the voices would sound like! Very eerie, good choice for the Freak Brothers voices! That's how I feel who would do the voices! You nailed it! Happy birthday Mr. Shelton! Love you and your cartoons!!!
You go, Gilbert! My life would have been so infinitely boring and domesticated without your work. Grass Roots is still our coffee table standard. Immortal stuff!! Thank you!!
Freak Bros. comics saved my sanity when I was in my early-20s and my friends and I were down and out. I'm hitting 54 this year and a copy of FFB Omnibus is a permanent fixture in my reading room (i.e., bathroom). Wonderful, intelligent, insightful, and above all funny stuff. Thank you!
Gilbert Shelton! One of the all-time greats of the cartooning field, and possibly the greatest master of narrative in the "underground" comics movement.
Good to see and hear you Gilbert. I was the tall blonde kid who always hung out at R. Dunne's place on the canal in Venice. The Kouth Klub. I treasure that time in life. Everybody came and went through those portals. I can remember you in one conversation exclaiming you were on a search for The Truth". I really enjoyed those days. T.Bell was one of the better humans I ever met in this life. R.I.P.
GreatArloMan you posted this comment on 6/9/2020 - exactly ten years after this video was put on RU-vid! Happy Birthday to you. Gilbert Shelton recently celebrated his 80th birthday in France, where he lives.
The FFF are a long time favorite. Fat Freddy Scat is funny as any thing out there. Wish there were more Freak Brothers comics. Please Gilbert have more...
I have 10 of the comics -love them and the cat and the roaches--always remember dope will get U thru times of no money better than money will get U thru times of no dope!!!
The Shelton comics got special treatment, as I recall when first seeing them - they were sealed in plastic bags to prevent people from reading them; and they were relegated to the “specialty items” shelf at the local record store - and they *really felt like seeing and entering a fantasy world*, one completely different from the mainstream comics and even the humor magazines. It was a very vividly detailed universe.
I have a 4th printing copy of Jaxon's God Nose from 1971, seven years after the first edition came out - definitly not worth the first ed price of $10000, but a great and historically interesting comic as was. Glad to have it and to enjoy it, although mr. Shelton's comics are a feast anytime. Makes me still laugh very hard at times!
Huge longtime FFFB and FFC fan going back to my teen years. Love this man’s work. It sounds like he was able to make a good living from it too, which is great. It would have been cool if he mentioned Philbert Desanex’ 10,000th Dream.
I had only seen the freak brothers in passing before the TV show, they were familiar but not recognizable to me. Watching it I got the feeling that it was too well done to be anything near new. I am in my 50s so know about comix but don't own any. I know Crumb and some of the others... Gilbert has me looking at modern collections of his work and thinking about actively seeking some of the more classic collections from him and other artists. With the Tubi version of the Freak Brothers have been able to turn my daughter and another friend her age (early 20s) onto some of the underground comix stuff. Sort of sucks that we still have the same problems with "The Man", race relations, poverty, and the environment that people were bitching about in the 60s and 70s. It's like looking at the same issues of today through a different lens.
1) Cash paycheck 2) Stop at Head Shop for TFFFB comic and other funny papers 3) stop by my dealer McDope... 4) arrive Circa 1987.... Thank You, kind sir!
Always nice to hear Gilbert talking about comics. We're organizing a comic book art show with Gilbert Shelton, and we did an interview of him in May 2018 : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KSfsnjCSegU.html
