Feds 'N' Heads Comics #[nn]

History

In the spring of 1968, Gilbert Shelton — already known in college-humor and underground-newspaper circles for Wonder Wart-Hog — self-published an initial run of 5,000 copies of Feds 'N' Heads Comics out of his Austin, Texas, garage, hand-collating, folding, and stapling each copy himself. Most of the content had previously appeared as strips in the Austin underground paper The Rag, making this their first collected comic-book presentation. The Wonder Wart-Hog lead story was co-written with Lieuen Adkins, whose alter-ego Philbert Desanex travels to San Francisco to cover the 1967 Human Be-In and encounters a real-life cameo by Janis Joplin — a friend of Shelton's from his Austin art-school days. After the first printing sold out, Bay Area publisher The Print Mint took over distribution and reprinting, with the 2nd and 3rd printings (1968–1969) expanding the page count from 24 to 28 and the title becoming associated with Print Mint's imprint for all subsequent editions.

Trivia · 8 facts

• First comic-book appearance of The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers (Fat Freddy Freekowtski, Freewheelin' Franklin Freek, and Phineas T. Freakers), who had previously appeared only in underground newspaper strips.
• First comic-book appearance of Wonder Wart-Hog (the 'Hog of Steel') and his mild-mannered reporter alter ego Philbert Desanex in an underground comix context; the character had existed since 1962 but was new to this format.
• First comic-book appearance of Oat Willie, a Shelton character who originated in Austin underground newspaper strips.
• Notorious Norbert the Nark appears in the Freak Brothers story in which a teenybopper moves in with the brothers — one of the earliest appearances of this antagonist character.
• Created and written/drawn by Gilbert Shelton; the Wonder Wart-Hog lead story ('Wonder Wart-Hog Meets the Elusive, Chimerical Chameleon!') was co-written by Lieuen Adkins and includes a cameo appearance by Janis Joplin.
• The 1st printing (self-published, 1968) had a 24-page count; Print Mint's 2nd and 3rd printings (1968–1969) expanded to 28 pages. At least 14 printings total were produced between 1968 and 1978.
• Material was largely sourced from strips previously published in the Austin, Texas underground newspaper The Rag, making this their first collected comic-book presentation.
• A board game based on the comic was published as a free pull-out insert in the September 1971 issue of Playboy magazine; selected interior stories were reprinted in Bijou Funnies #2 (1969), Underground Classics #1 (Rip Off Press, 1985), and a German-language edition via Raymond Martin Verlag in the 1970s.

Cast · 7 characters

Full credits

Variants (2)