Fat Freddy's Cat

Few supporting players in underground comix have stolen the spotlight quite like Fat Freddy's Cat — the sardonic, unnamed feline who first prowled the pages of The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers #1 in 1971, courtesy of the brilliantly subversive Gilbert Shelton. A true Bronze Age creature of the counterculture, this cat has shared ink with Fat Freddy Freekowtski, Freewheelin' Franklin Freek, and the rest of Shelton's beloved stoner ensemble across Rip Off Press titles for an astonishing five-plus decades. What's remarkable is how a cat — technically a background player in someone else's household — carved out enough personality to anchor appearances across Rip Off Comix, The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, and The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers Follies well into the 2020s. If you love underground comix and haven't spent time with this magnificently unimpressed animal, you're missing one of the genre's most enduring and quietly scene-stealing characters.