Gilbert Shelton
by Kristin Buckless
Fall 2004

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Shelton was born in Houston, Texas and currently lives in Paris. In the 1960's Underground press Syndicate started distributing his work. He worked on New York's Help magazine where he created his most famous comic strips. As an underground U.S. artist he is most famous for his work on The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Fat Freddy's Cat and Wondering Warthog. The Freak Brothers are characters that usually undergo hallucinations or outragious emotional experiences due to the use of narcotics. In the book The Fabulous furry Freak Brothers in "The Idiots Abroad", the three humorous characters end up undergoing many extreme adventures due to their stupidity. Their genius ideas come about in drunken stupors. Their man goal in this story is to find alcohol and drugs yet in their attempt they end up on remote islands, amidst battles in foreign countries or anywhere far from safety or sanity. These adventures give Gilbert the opportunity to sharply criticize society yet in an extremely humorous ways having the brothers' act as comic relief. Yet, these idiotic characters seem to find their way through such dangerous lands, foreign political gatherings or outrageous circumstances while being clueless to their surroundings.

Fat Freddy's Cat, one of his other comic strips, addressed a cat's conniving ways to fool and harm the obnoxious dog species. The Wonder Wart Hog a super hero, another of his creations, fought characters such as gangsters, the Mob, generals, little old ladies and other groups deserving of attack. He beat his enemies by indiscriminately throwing pies. .Shelton has a unique style of slapstick, action and lanky yet limber characters. His drawing style fits great with his witty humor. His characters have a very strong presence with their bulging noses and scraggly appearance. His drawings seem extremely interested in detail depicting very realistic scenes. In his compositions, The Furry Freak Brothers, in many cases, seem to be the only odd looking characters juxtaposed next to the rest of the drawing. He is one of the most well known underground comics with an extraordinary drawing style. In some work he is sharply critical of society yet usually presents it in a humorous way.

The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers: click for complete page

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