Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Gilbert Shelton - Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers - Signing Tour


Knockabout Books, in association with Gosh! Comics, are pleased to celebrate the release of the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers Omnibus with three UK signings by Freaks creator and counter-culture legend Gilbert Shelton. Mr Shelton will be making the following appearances:

12/09/08, Leeds – OK Comics, 19 Thorntons Arcade, Briggate, LS1 6LQ – 3pm-5pm

13/09/08, London – Gosh! Comics, 39 Great Russell St, London WC1B 3NZ – 2pm-4pm

14/09/08, Brighton – Dave’s Comics, 5 Sydney St, BN1 4EN – Time TBC


The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers Omnibus represents the definitive collection of the definitive underground comic: 624 pages (including 224 in full colour) for only £20. The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers are legend; published in 15 languages, with world-wide sales of over 40 million comics and countless items of merchandise, it’s the seamless mix of slapstick and satire at the heart of these strips that have kept them so vital for the past 40 years.

Signings by the Paris-based Shelton are few and far between, so don’t miss this opportunity to meet a true comic (in every sense of the word) genius.


Born in 1940, Gilbert Shelton’s first venture into the world of comic art was doing strips for Boy Scout publications when he was in the Explorer Scouts at school. A strange road, then to 1968, when after numerous rock poster designs and various contributions to underground comix with his earliest character, Wonder Warthog, he created The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers.

In 1969 Shelton and some friends from Texas moved to San Francisco to set up Rip Off Press, from where Freak Brothers strips were soon syndicated or “borrowed” by a host of American underground newspapers and magazines. The first collection was published in 1971 and has since been joined by thirteen further Freak Brothers adventures, all now collected together along with all-new material in the complete Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers Omnibus.

“Gilbert Shelton is as near as comics have come to producing a natural comedic genius of the same stature as a Chaplin or a Tati. With the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers he has created a hilarious and unlikely sibling trio as timeless in their appeal as the Marx Brothers. He is truly one of the greatest and most sublimely funny talents that the comic medium has to offer.”Alan Moore

“The amazing thing about Shelton’s definitive underground comic strips is that you can still turn on, tune in, drop out and laugh, which is fabulous and furry indeed.”Martin Rowson, The Independent

“The fully realised vision of a master story-teller and social critic.”The Comics Journal

For more details on the signings, please contact:

OK Comics, 19 Thorntons Arcade, Briggate, LS1 6LQ
ph: 0113 246 9366, email ikisscomics@hotmail.com

Gosh! Comics, 39 Great Russell St, London WC1B 3NZ
ph: 2027 636 1011, email info@goshlondon.com

Dave’s Comics, 5 Sydney St, BN1 4EN
ph: 0127 369 1012, email davescomicsuk@googlemail.com


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