Freaks on Film

A film version of Gilbert Shelton's Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers? I always treat news releases like this with cautious optimism. The Freak Brothers along with Shelton's Wonder Warthog were my favorite characters from the underground comic book movement of the seventies. Yeah, Robert Crumb is the guy everyone talks about, but give me Shelton's stuff any day.

Thanks to a report on Boing Boing, word is spreading about a stop motion animated film featuring Fat Freddy, Phineas, Freewheeling Franklin, and of course Fat Freddy's Cat. Production appears to be in the very early stages, as the Grass Roots Films website provides info for potential investors. There's a teaser trailer there too. It doesn't show much, but it's enough to get you thinking about the possibilities. Can the adventures of three drug-addled lowlifes find a mainstream audience in this day and age?

Meanwhile, over at the official Freak Brothers website, Shelton has posted his first Freak Brothers strip in 10 years.