Underground comix icon Gilbert Shelton

Today, on Gilbert Shelton´s 75th birthday I´m taking the opportunity to see whatIcan find in the underground comix folder I started all those months ago. The first comic I read of him was naturally in U - COMIX.

There were a lot of different comics in U - COMIX and one of the mainstays were Gilbert Shelton´s FABULOUS FURRY FREAK BROTHERS and although I didn´t partake in narcotic substances it was fun to read the adventures of Fat Freddy Freekowtski, Freewheelin´ Franklin Freek and Phineas Phreak. And I also had two brothers. Yeah, I found out later that the Freak Brothers were not really brothers, that they were not even siblings but by that time I was already a fan and did it really matter ?

It was the 80s, smoking weed was the thing to do and underground comics like Gerhard Seyfried´s FREAKADELLEN & BULLETTEN were hip. Time to fight the establishment, sticking it to the man was the program. 

And while I didn´t really do any of those things I read Gilbert Shelton´s comics : the Freak Brothers, the spin - off Fat Freddy´s Cat and the superhero persiflage about Philbert Desanex a.k.a. Wonder Wart - Hog.

With The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers I liked the longer story arcs more where they would travel around the globe and Gilbert wove epic stories.

Here are some pages from Wonder Wart - Hog. This was printed in black and white which helped readers to notice Shelton´s intricate line work.

Here a few more Gilbert Shelton choice art pieces selected by yours truly.

So if you are a longtime comic reader like me it´s time to dust off those old issues of U - COMIX or ZAP COMIX and if you have never heard of Gilbert Shelton go on the internet to lean more about him and you can read some Wonder Wart - Hog Drag Cartoons at HAIRY GREEN EYEBALL 3 .

Today we have a whole truckload of birthdays so let´s start with the first one, Eric Christian Olsen who turns 38. He plays Marty Deeks on NCIS : Los Angeles and he´s the only reason why I´m still watching the show.

Don´t get me wrong, Daniela Ruah is nice to look at but Deeks is the only interesting character on the show because he is not perfect. G is the perfect agent ( although he doesn´t even know his own name ), Sam is the perfect marine, Kensi is the perfect markswoman, the two computer geeks are the perfect hackers, the garden gnome is the perfect boss and only the psychologist had no purpose so they got rid of him. But they are all like the Justice League. The best of the best of the best. And Deeks is basically Hawkeye. He´s cocky, he´s brash, he wears his heart on his sleeve and he fails. But he dares the impossible shot and sometimes he pulls it off. He´s the only human person on the show. Plus the episodes when he has to switch back to one of his undercover personas are intense. Because when he´s undercover he´s not a nice guy. That´s one thing that always peed me off about cop shows : they often were the same nice guy when they were undercover. Not Deeks. He´s a mean dude.

Speaking about mean dudes, Colin Farell who celebrates his 39th birthday often plays bad guys but he was the worst Bullseye ever. Just ask anybody. I have often wondered why he is cast so often until I heard his original voice. So basically Colin Farell is what you call a voice actor, right ?

Our next birthday babe is model / actress Brooke Shields and she´s much better at acting. The 50 year old massita was one of the most lusted after sexbombs during my teen years and there were many contemporaries who would have liked nothing more than to re - enact The Blue Lagoon with her which was quite the scandalous movie when it was first released.

Brooke Shields even starred in a comic book movie where the main character had the same initials as her : Brenda Starr. This was a very successful newspaper comic strip ( ask Dad what a comic strip is, then ask him what a newspaper is ) which was reprinted in comic format.

This movie is often overlooked as far as comic adaptions go because the source material is a bit older but fans of Brooke Shields should check it out because she looks really gorgeous in it and Timothy Dalton co stars. Plus there is this scene where Brooke almost has a wardrobe malfunction.

And we are staying with sexbombs from my youth who have starred in not so successful comic book movies with Lea Thompson. She is 54 as of Today and she had the misfortune to star in the comic book movie everybody wants to forget. Poor Howard the Duck, nobody loves him.

Now those who DO remember Howard the Duck most definitely remember Lea Thompson because her body was the only good thing in that movie.

Lea also starred in another movie and this was much bigger in geek culture. Or rather pop culture since it has become part of the cultural mainstream. In Back to the Future she was the hot Mom who made the timetravelling Marty McFly sweat bullets to finish his secret mission.

She almost turned him into a MF before the term MILF was invented !

Lea Thompson also busted out in a big way in Back to the Future II although the special effects department had to help her with that.

I think I already mentioned that I missed Back to the Future Day but what better occasion is there to post another parody video with Angie Griffin ?



Another anniversary comes courtesy of Tom Berenger who has reached the big 66. He was in a few Sniper movies although I´m never sure if those are the movies where his girlfriend is hospitalized and he plays her substitute teacher. In any case I remember that - at least the first - Sniper movie had these special scenes where you would follow the trajectory of a bullet to impact that were all cut out in the german version. Tom Berenger also starred in Someone to Watch Over Me with Mimi Roger, one of the women with the biggest real breasts in Hollywood

The very lucky Bryan Brown got to give her a full body massage in the tv movie of the same name and from everything you hear he enjoyed it. Now what I want to know is how the guys who come up with this bland titles get paid. Okay, I got an idea : we´re making a movie in which Bryan Brown gives Mimi Rogers a full boy massage and we´re calling it - wait for it - Full Body Massage. Anyway, I think Tom Cruise is a very intelligent man but I will never know how he could divorce from a man eating, full bodied sex machine like Mimi Rogers just to marry Nicole Kidman.

Clint Eastwood also celebrates his 85th birthday. He has played everything from outlaws to dirty harrys although I habe to say I didn´t enjoy his last movies. They are good movies but I need more positive things in my life and after watching a Clint Eastwood movie you feel like shooting yourself.

There are also two writers who would have had another anniversary Today but I have to confess that Walt Whitman hasn´t had such a big influence on my life as german author James Krüss who is best known for writing The Legend of Tim Tyler, which launched Thommy Ohrners career.



Looking down on all of us from his high seat in showmaster heaven is Peter Frankenfeld who hosted Musik ist Trumpf which I often watched.



And I should probably also mention Rainer Werner Fassbinder who was a controversial figure and one of the first openly gay persons in Germany.

Somehow this video section is very german centric as this documentary about underground comix is also in german. Sorry about that, guys.



I prefer to include the post with a video that fits the topic so here is a claymation short film of the Freak Brothers although I´m not sure how far the production has progressed since it was first posted on YouTube.



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