| Gilbert Shelton | |
|---|---|
 Shelton at Comicfestival München 2013 | |
| Born | (1940-05-31)May 31, 1940 (age 84) Houston, Texas, U.S. |
| Area(s) | Cartoonist |
| Pseudonym(s) | Ghoulbert Chesterton |
Notable works | The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers Fat Freddy's Cat Wonder Wart-Hog Not Quite Dead |
| Collaborators | Dave Sheridan,Paul Mavrides,Pic |
| Awards | Inkpot Award, 1978[1] Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame, 2012 |
| Spouse(s) | Lora Fountain |
Gilbert Shelton (born May 31, 1940)[2] is an Americancartoonist and a key member of theunderground comix movement. He is the creator of the iconic underground charactersThe Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers,Fat Freddy's Cat, andWonder Wart-Hog.
Shelton was born in Dallas, Texas, on May 31, 1940. His father, George Shelton, worked forFirestone, which moved the family around the southeast during the 1940s. They settled in Houston, Texas, where he graduated fromLamar High School. He attendedWashington and Lee University,Texas A&M University, and theUniversity of Texas at Austin, where he received his bachelor's degree in the social sciences in 1961. His early cartoons were published in the University of Texas humor magazineThe Texas Ranger.[3]
Directly after graduation, Shelton moved to New York City and got a job editing automotive magazines, where he would sneak his drawings into print. Early work of his was published inWarren Publishing'sHelp![1] The idea for the character ofWonder Wart-Hog, a porcine parody ofSuperman, came to him in 1961. The following year, Shelton moved back toTexas to enroll in graduate school and get a student deferment from thedraft. The first twoWonder Wart-Hog stories appeared inBacchanal, a short-lived college humor magazine, in the spring of 1962. That same year, he published (inzine form)Frank Stack'sThe Adventures of Jesus, one of the first underground comix; Stack wrote and drew the comic strip under the name Foolbert Sturgeon.
Shelton then became editor ofThe Texas Ranger[1] and published moreWonder Wart-Hog stories.
After switching from graduate school to art school (where he befriended singerJanis Joplin)[4] for two years, he was finallydrafted, but Army doctors declared him medically unfit after he admitted to takingpsychedelic drugs.[5] After this, in 1964 and 1965, he spent some time inCleveland, where his girlfriend Pat Brown (another UT alum)[6] was studying at theCleveland Institute of Art. He applied for a job at the Cleveland-basedAmerican Greeting Card Company (where a fellowunderground comic artistRobert Crumb had worked) but was turned down.[citation needed]
The period of 1965–1968 was an itinerant one for Shelton: he moved to New York to work for theunderground paperEast Village Other, and to Los Angeles to work for theLos Angeles Free Press.[7] Then Shelton became art director for theVulcan Gas Company, a rockmusic venue inAustin, Texas, where he worked withJim Franklin. He created a number of posters in the style of contemporary California poster artists such asVictor Moscoso andRick Griffin. After a year of this, he moved toSan Francisco in 1968, hopeful that being closer to the action would enable him to do more poster work.
That same year,Millar Publishing Company, who had been publishing regular Wonder Wart-Hog stories since 1966, published two issues ofWonder Wart-Hog. 140,000 copies of each were printed, but distributors did not pick up the magazine, and only 40,000 of each were sold.[citation needed]
Also in 1968 Sheltonself-publishedFeds 'n' Heads, a collection of strips first published in the Austin underground paperThe Rag. The comic featured Wonder Wart-Hog and what became his most famous strip,The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. The first edition ofFeds 'N' Heads was hand-collated, folded, and stapled by Shelton in his garage, with an initial print run of 5,000 copies;[8] it proved so popular that it was later re-issued multiple times by the San Francisco-based publisher thePrint Mint,[9] selling over 200,000 total copies by 1980.[8]
In 1969, Shelton co-foundedRip Off Press with three fellow "expatriate" Texans:Fred Todd,Dave Moriaty, andcartoonistJack Jackson.[9] Rip Off Comix published 13 issues ofThe Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers comic from 1971 to 1997, with many issues undergoing multiple printings. Shelton created a spin-off strip,Fat Freddy's Cat, in 1969.
During this period, Shelton was also a regular contributor toZap Comix and other underground titles, includingBijou Funnies,Yellow Dog,Arcade,The Rip Off Review of Western Culture, andAnarchy Comics. Along withR. Crumb,S. Clay Wilson,Robert Williams,"Spain" Rodriguez, and two artists with reputations aspsychedelicposter designers,Victor Moscoso andRick Griffin, Shelton became part of the "Zap collective," which remained mostly constant throughout the nearly 50-year history ofZap.
In the 1970s, Shelton managed theRip Off Press Syndicate, which sold weekly content, including Shelton's own strips, toalternative newspapers andstudent publications.[10] Much of the material produced for the syndicate was eventually published in the company's long-runninganthologyRip Off Comix, which had debuted in 1977.[10]
Shelton designed the cover art for the 1973 albumDoug Sahm and Band, as well asThe Grateful Dead's 1978 album,Shakedown Street.[1]
He also illustrated the cover of the early classiccomputer magazine compilationThe Best ofCreative Computing Volume 2 in 1977.
In 1979,Universal Studios paid Shelton and Rip Off Press $250,000 for the rights to make a live-actionFabulous Furry Freak Brothers film.[10] Shelton used his share (which was the bulk of the money) to finance repeated trips to Europe, and to eventually settle down in France. Meanwhile, the Universal-producedFreak Brothers film never made it to production.[10]
Shelton'sNot Quite Dead, done in collaboration with French cartoonistPic, appeared inRip Off Comix #25 (Winter 1989) and in sixNot Quite Dead comic books (1993–1996).
A new Wonder Wart-Hog story appeared inZap Comix #15 (Last Gasp, 2005), as well asThe Complete Zap boxed set (Fantagraphics, 2014) which containedZap #16; and a newFabulous Furry Freak Brothers story appeared inZap #16 as well.
Fifty Freakin' Years with the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers was published in 2017 byKnockabout Comics. It contains new strips by Shelton, as well as his written introduction.
In 1966 Shelton formed the Gilbert Shelton Ensemble and released a45 record on ESP Records, "If I Was A Hells Angel," b/w "Southern Stock Car Man," backed by members of theAustinpsychedelic rock band The Conqueroo, consisting of Tom Bright, Bob Brown and Ed Guinn.
Since moving to France, Shelton has become part of arhythm and blues group, the Blum Brothers, featuring Shelton on vocals and piano. The band features fellow cartoonist musicianBruno Blum on vocals and guitar. A Blum-produced album was recorded but not released. The Blum Brothers played at the Jockomo, a New Orleans-style bar in the11th arrondissement of Paris.[3]
Shelton and his wife,literary agent Lora Fountain, left San Francisco in 1979.[11] They were residents ofBarcelona, (Catalonia, Spain) in 1980–1981,[7] and moved to France in 1984.[7][10]
There have been several attempts to film Shelton's Freak Brothers characters and over the years severalfilm rights options have been taken on his work. None went to production.[12] In 1978, the unauthorizedpornographic filmUp in Flames was released, which "ripped off the Freak Brothers [andR. Crumb's]Mr. Natural all in one go."[13]
It was reported that Universal's acquisition of the Freak Brothers film rights in 1979 was in order to prevent competition against theCheech & Chong franchise. Although a script was written, the film was never made.[14][13]
At one point, the Freak Brothers' antics were reportedly being turned into aBroadway musical[citation needed] after astop motion animated film, titledGrass Roots and produced byCelluloid Dreams,[15][12][16] fell through.[citation needed].
Finally, in 2021, an animated series calledFreak Brothers featuring the voices ofPete Davidson,John Goodman andWoody Harrelson, premiered on thestreaming serviceTubi. It was renewed for a second season, which began in June 2023.[17]
Shelton's strip "Set My Chickens Free," published in issue #1 of theBijou Funnies comic (1968) has been used in multiple music projects:
Shelton's "Set My Chickens Free" cartoon was also published on page 128 ofAbbie Hoffman'sSteal This Book (1971), illustrating its third section,"Liberate!"
