Now here is a classic of an era.  Although the FFFB started as an underground comic in 1968, the real height of their popularity was in the 1970's.  I have to admit that while I was never into drugs or the drug culture, I always found these comics funny and enjoyable to read.

It seems that a small Indy company is trying to make a movie based on the 3 hippies, and their eternal search for drugs.  It is being done in a Claymation style of animation, and from what I have seen it looks promising so far. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YINWUjFQRDU

Here is the official website of the production:

http://www.grassrootsthemovie.com/movie.htm

If this ever comes out, I am sure that I will buy it on DVD.  And it will sit proudly in my collection, next to my Ralph Bakshi movies.  8)

There was an unsubstantiated rumor going around that Gilbert Shelton had died.  Not the case.  I'm a huge Freak Brothers fan.  Some of the funniest sh*t I've ever read!  I always liked how Shelton had the main story, then at the bottom he ran the adventures of Fat Freddy's Cat!

Funny thing is, the Freak Brothers would seem to be totally dated, but it isn't.  Go to the Bay Area, Boulder, or Seattle.  You'll find their likeness!  Shelton exaggerated the vagaries of hippie burn-out...but not by much!
;D

I liked the YouTube clip, but I didn't hear any dialogue.  Freak Brothers won't work without the kind of dialogue Shelton used to write.

"Just give me a giant box of your cheapest rubbers, my good man!"

I remember one of my teachers scolding me about having Freak Brothers in school. 
"You know, there's really nothing so funny about pot-heads!"
"Well," I said, "you obviously never read the Freak Brothers!"
(see you in detention.)

I failed to see the bad influence there.  Shelton didn't glorify the lifestyle.  The main theme throughout--the stoned Freak Brothers f**k up their lives!
;D ;D ;D

I wish I'd kept my original early 70's comics because I had a few and really got a kick out of these Cheech & Chong style characters. I'd rather see them in a Beavis & Butthead type cartoon, but any format will do.

I wish I'd kept my original early 70's comics because I had a few and really got a kick out of these Cheech & Chong style characters. I'd rather see them in a Beavis & Butthead type cartoon, but any format will do.

Shelton was much more sophisticated than Cheech & Chong.  Different kind of humor.  Shelton comes from the R. Crumb school of cartoonists!  The drug humor is a constant, but with C&C, there wasn't much of a subtext.  Quite the contrary with FB.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/65/Keedspills.jpg

"Dope will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no dope!"
--Fat Freddy

Shelton was much more sophisticated than Cheech & Chong.  Different kind of humor.  Shelton comes from the R. Crumb school of cartoonists!  The drug humor is a constant, but with C&C, there wasn't much of a subtext.  Quite the contrary with FB.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/65/Keedspills.jpg

"Dope will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no dope!"
--Fat Freddy
sophisticated drug use or humor  ;D  I haven't read them since I bought them way back then but i do remember being totally fascinated by that lifestyle & entertained at their incessant pursuit of gettin high, it was right at the time I entered the drug culture.

http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0Je5mf2FDdFhz0A1bejzbkF;_ylu=X3oDMTA4NDgyNWN0BHNlYwNwcm9m/SIG=12e2fc7v7/EXP=1161324150/**http%3a//www.cannabinoid.com/boards/medical/media/9/9336.jpg

Funny thing is, the Freak Brothers would seem to be totally dated, but it isn't.  Go to the Bay Area, Boulder, or Seattle.  You'll find their likeness!  Shelton exaggerated the vagaries of hippie burn-out...but not by much!

I liked the YouTube clip, but I didn't hear any dialogue.  Freak Brothers won't work without the kind of dialogue Shelton used to write.

I failed to see the bad influence there.  Shelton didn't glorify the lifestyle.  The main theme throughout--the stoned Freak Brothers f**k up their lives!


SO true, so true!  Remember that I lived in the Bay area in the early 1990's.  Even then, you could see hippies onthe Berkley campus and surrounding area, selling tie-dye t-shirts and incense.  And The Hait was a clash of Hippie and Punk/Grunge.  Stores selling both Gratefull Dead and Nirvana posters.

Well, the clip is just an animation test, to see if the style captures the feel of the characters.  I really loved all of the animated cockroaches all over the place.  Really gives you a feel like they are living on the bottom-rung of society, because they like it there.  I am sure that if they get more funding, they will eventually cast some voices.  Cheech Marin would be unavailable for a project like this, but Tommy Chong might be perfect, maybe as Freddie's Cat.

I had a copy in my barracks of a FB "graphic novel".  One time my Staff Sergeant saw it, and about went ballistic on me, for having what amounted to "Drug Pariphanalia" in my room.  I handed it to him and told him to quickly read through one of the strips.  After doing so, I asked him if in any way it made drugs seem glamerous.  He had to admit that it made drugs and stoners look like pathetic stupid loosers.

I guess the FB could only be role models, if your idea in life is to be constantly high, live with 2 other smelly men, pay for sex, and live in a roach infested slum apartment.  I find them funny the way I find Cheech & Chong funny.  I am the "square" looking in, seeing how self-destructive some people are (and how funny they can be).

I guess the FB could only be role models, if your idea in life is to be constantly high, live with 2 other smelly men, pay for sex, and live in a roach infested slum apartment.  I find them funny the way I find Cheech & Chong funny.  I am the "square" looking in, seeing how self-destructive some people are (and how funny they can be).


And I am the "Circle" looking out and laughing at you. ;)


Anyway, this is a cool idea, a Freak Brothers movie!

Freak Brothers versus Cheech & Chong is not really a fair comparison.  Freak Brothers was just a comic book series.  I just thought Shelton's satire was wittier.  Cheech & Chong did some hilarious stuff when they were confined to making records on a tight budget.  "Up In Smoke" was also a good movie--better if you're baked!
::)

The subsequent C&C movies were completely lame.  Pee Wee Herman helped some, but there wasn't much you could do once they started handing C&C fat rolls of studio cash and turning the loose.  Several of the bits in the "Next Movie" were so bad I can't believe the studios ever let them make another one!

As Mush says, the Freak Brothers demonstrate the reasons I found the hippies to be a total drag.  My parents knew tons of them.  My big sister was one.  She married one.  I saw the "second generation" hippies if you will as they toked their way through school and odd jobs in the '90s.  Don't get me wrong, I used to smoke the stuff too in the '80s, liked to listen to Brian Eno and stare at Max Ernst paintings, and I also leaned politically left, but the similarities stopped there.  The hippie kids I found lived in squalid dwellings and everything they tried to do turned into a disaster!