125 - Shelton

Shelton GILBERT SHELTON THE FABULOUS FURRY FREAK BROTHERS A Year Passes Like Nothing with the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers (Vol. 3), Rip off Press 1980 Original cover. Signed. India ink and colored inks on paper 25.3 × 32 cm (9.96 × 12.6 in.) We all know Crumb, the “pope” of the Underground, whose genius has shone since the 1960s—all the more so since he has lived in the South of France for several decades. But the other major figure of the 1960s Underground movement is no less prominent: Texas-born cartoonist Gilbert Shelton is now 86 years old, lives in Paris, and his latest book is titled *Quite Not Dead* (not dead yet). Along with Skip Williamson, Jay Lynch, Spain Rodriguez, Victor Moscoso, Rick Griffin, S. Clay Wilson, Art Spiegelman, Trina Robbins, and others, he is one of the leading pioneers of the underground comic scene in the U.S. His *Freak Brothers* in particular—a hash-smoking version of the *Pieds Nickelés*—have left their mark on the history of comics in the United States. A pillar of Free Press, his work has been widely published around the world and in Europe, influencing a myriad of artists from all over the globe—from France’s *Actuel* to Japan and Turkey, from the Netherlands to the Czech Republic and Germany, and from Spain and Italy all the way to Brazil. Joost Swarte, Willem, Pierre Ouin, and Tramber & Jano in *Métal Hurlant*, and more recently Jean-Christophe Menu, all owe him a debt of gratitude. Here we see him parodying Manet’s *Luncheon on the Grass*, though he has dressed the young woman a bit more modestly, while his heroes pass around a hash joint. Didier Pasamonik