Created by Gilbert Shelton, The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers was a popular underground comix that presented the wacky, drug-fueled (or at times, drug-seeking) adventures of three unrelated hippies living together in San Francisco. Freewheelin’ Franklin Freek is the most laid-back of the trio. He wears a cowboy hat and boots, has long brown hair and a mustache, and has a pronounced nose and chin. Phineas T. Phreak is the most politically active. He has black hair and beard and a prominent nose that looks like a joint. Fat Freddy Freekowtski is the most hedonistic and the dumbest. He has curly blonde hair and a mustache. Fat Freddy’s Cat was spun-off into in his own strips.
Buy In the 21st Century and Other Follies (Vol. 5)Fantagraphics is collecting Shelton’s work in a new seven-book series, Freak Brothers Follies. Each deluxe hardcover features a special die-cut cover. The material from In the 21st Century (Volume 5, although the second to be released) was first published between 1980 through to 1991 and includes art contributions from Paul Mavrides and Dave Sheridan.
The Table of Contents is a bit confusing, although it may be intentional to mess with readers, especially those in a similar frame of mind as the characters. The headings are comprised of the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers stories and shorts, Fat Freddy’s Cat stories and shorts, and following that pattern, it should be Fat Freddy stories, but it turns out they are just shorts. Also how things are identified are a bit puzzling. For example, the Fat Freddy short, “How Hashish Got Its Name,” includes the other two brothers so why was it a Fat Freddy strip rather than Brothers strip? No harm done as the whole book is worth reading.
The major work in the volume is a reproduction of Fat Freddy’s Comics & Stories #1 (1983), which parodied popular genres of the comics industry with help from eight different artists. Freddy stars in the various stories, initially spoofing EC Comics as a narrator known as the Old Back-Hoe Operator, before moving onto becoming the main character in a crime story, a romance story, and even a Howard the Duck takeoff. Fat Freddy’s Cat also gets a story where he dies and encounters many famous cartoon felines, like Felix, Fritz, and Krazy Kat.
Another fun highlight in the book is the Brothers story “Come Down,” where Phineas has “a great idea” that they skip getting high that morning to get “a new perspective on life…[and] clean out [their] systems.” They all agree and the strip transforms from drawings to photography. Towards the end of book, Mavrides takes readers “Behind the Scenes of ‘Come Down,’” which he thinks was his idea.
The rest of the book are various silly antics and adventures of the Brothers and Freddy’s Cat. The shorts run a single page and the stories don’t run much longer. The titular “In the 21st Century,” 2003 to be specific, finds the Brothers still looking to score dope, but it turns out it was all a Phineas dream, which is also how “Phineas Gets an Abortion” is resolved. There’s funny gags and interesting commentary along the way that make up for the too-easy resolutions.
Aside from the guest-artist contributions, the artwork by the main trio through the decade finds the characters looking consistent and the panels very well-detailed, which will hook the reader’s eye and cause them to linger to take it all in.
