The Best of Wonder Wart-Hog

by Gilbert Shelton

Gilbert Shelton is the creator of the multi-million selling Freak Brothers and Fat Freddy’s Cat comics. Wonder Wart-Hog was his earliest creation, dating from 1962 and still appearing in Zap Comix to this day. Possibly his favourite character, Wonder Wart-Hog has appeared over the years in publications varying from Bacchanal, Help and Drag Cartoons, to underground comics such as H-Bomb Funnies, Feds ’n’ Heads and Rip Off Comix as well as in several long comic stories of his own, including The Nurds of November and Battle of the Titans. Over the years there have been T-shirts, patches, badges, postcards and there is even a Wonder Wart-Hog motocross team!! Wonder Wart-Hog, is an 8 foot tall 800 pound humanoid warthog. In his everyday life he is mild-mannered and slightly built reporter Philbert Desanex whom the Hog of Steel becomes by squeezing himself into a 5 foot 7 inch Philbert suit, or at least that seems to be the case most of the time. At others they are two separate entities with Wonder Wart-Hog from time to time commenting on Desanex’s life from his stomach. Whatever the case may be, when the need is called for Wonder Wart-Hog either bursts out of Philbert blowing him to bits (he puts the bits back together later) or crawls out of Philbert’s mouth, “Wow I feel great, It’s like I’ve lost 800 pounds!”  The Hog of Steel then applies his universal solution to all of life’s problems… extreme violence. About Gilbert Shelton Born in Dallas in 1940, Gilbert Shelton’s unlikely first venture into the world of comic art was doing strips for Boy Scout publications when he was in the Explorer Scouts at school. At university in Austin, Texas he became editor of the official student magazine, The Texas Ranger, for $100 an issue. This was to prove Shelton’s last ‘real job’. For in 1968, after contributing to various underground comix with his earliest character, Wonder Warthog, and designing posters for rock concerts, Shelton 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, borrowed (or stolen!) by a host of American underground newspapers and magazines. The first collection was published in 1971 ands has since been joined by thirteen further Freak Brothers adventures. Fat Freddy’s Cat, the feline world’s number one cat, started out as a footnote strip to the Freak Brothers but has led an independent – and very successful – life since 1975. In 1993 Shelton introduced new characters, Not Quite Dead, the world’s least successful rock band who have since appeared in a series of comics of their own. Now over 40 years later and unlike many cults from the sixties which have since faded away, The Freak Brothers are still going from strength to strength and acquiring new fans all the time. They are published in 14 languages and worldwide sales are now over 30 million copies plus millions of items of merchandise, T-shirts, postcards, badges, posters and more. Shelton currently lives in Paris with his wife and three cats.

Genres: Comics, Humor, Comix, Satire, Graphic Novels

464 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 14, 2013

Reviews

[Dominick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Given the current generally high standard for comics reprints set by companies such as Fantagraphics and IDW, this is a disappointing set. There are a lot of comics in it (though by no means all the Wonder Wart-Hog strips), so it is good value from that perspective, but there is literally no apparatus. Not even a table of contents. Given Shelton's importance, I would have expected at least some sort of brief introduction. Furthermore, there is no discernible rhyme or reason to the sequencing. Since most WW tales are more or less stand-alones, this doesn't make a huge difference, perhaps, but, first, Shelton's style developed a lot over time, so it is somewhat disorienting to have works originally published years apart juxtaposed here, and second, in one case a story that had an explicit sequel is not followed immediately by that sequel (as, I believe was the case when the stories were originally published) but instead separated by many unrelated ones. As for the material itself, there is a wealth of amusing stuff here. Wonder Wart-Hog is by underground standards generally fairly mild, insofar as sex and violence go; though WW-H is prone to dismembering criminals, many of the stories have nothing more than cartoon violence, if any violence at all, and only two feature anything like the nudity so often expected in undergrounds. One of these is a tonally very odd piece, evidently intended as a glance at Crumb (who appears in the story) and the sexual violence in his work. Here's where some sort of contextualizing material wold have been very helpful. Anyway, in this one story, WW-H engages in a violent rape and murder of Lois Lamebrain, which is deeply inconsistent with what we see of him everywhere else. WW-H is of course a very inconsistent character--even the nature of his secret identity is fluid, as Philbert Desanex seems to be both merely a suit WW-H wears and a completely separate entity--but this one really clangs. Anyway, the highlight pieces are some of the dream stories, the incisively satirical "Wonder Wart-Hog and the Nurds of November" (more relevant than ever today), the loosely-constructed football story, and the few Believe It or Not parody pages (also more relevant than ever today). Even the slight stuff is dynamic and fun. So, if you are a comix fan, you might want to have a look; just don't expect any frills.

[Joe Middleton]

Excellent crazy stuff

If you like the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers then you'll also like this absurd crazy pastiche of super hero comics. Brilliant!

[Charles Collyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Takes me back. This is a great collection of WW cartoon stories from the heyday of underground comics. Very funny.

[Gary Drake]

Gilbert Shelton, what can you say. Either you read back in the day or you missed out. Doesn't hold up very well, too much of the sixties vibe. A lot of misses but the hits do hold up.

Can say the same for the Freak Brothers and Fat Freddy's cat. A little goes a long way...But I still get a good belly laugh when Gilbert connects.

Discovered Shelton in the early 80's same time I "discovered" underground comics. Good times.

[Mhorg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written and drawn by Gilbert Shelton, one of my favorite underground artists, Wonder Wart Hog is a take off on nearly every superhero cliche out there. Very funny and at times hysterically so, WWH is still fun to read.