Dave Sheridan (June 7, 1943 â€" March 28, 1982) was an American cartoonist and underground comix artist. He was the creator of Dealer McDope and Tales from the Leather Nun and collaborated with Gilbert Shelton and Paul Mavrides on The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers.
Biography
Born in 1943 and raised in the Cleveland, Ohio area, Sheridan had arrived in San Francisco, California by the early 1970s. There he collaborated with fellow midwesterner Fred Schrier on three issues of Mother's Oats Comix, Meef Comix, the Overland Vegetable Stagecoach (anthologized by And/Or Press in 1975), and a one-shot title called The Balloon Vendor, which were all published by underground comix pioneers Rip Off Press and The Print Mint. Dave Sheridan was the Art Editor for three issues of The Rip Off Review of Western Culture in 1972. This was a combination of a magazine and a comix book, also published by the Rip Off Press. His solo work can be seen in Slow Death and Skull Comix and in cartoons he made for the Berkeley Barb. He also did the art for the first mini-album produced by Cleveland area folk singer/songwriter John Bassette, Weed and Wine. The "Black Death Malt Liquor" shirt regularly worn by Howard Hesseman on WKRP in Cincinnati in his role as Dr. Johnny Fever, was designed and drawn by Sheridan.
Dave Sheridan eventually settled in San Anselmo, California. There, he became a member of the Artista collective, an artists collective with its own jackets and softball team. During the 1972 Major League Baseball strike, he appointed himself the head of the "Scab League", offering to have his team take the strikers' places for $100 per week and all the beer they could drink. He also befriended and worked closely with comedian Don Novello, drawing the album cover for Novello's Father Guido Sarducci comedy album. A characterization of Sarducci appeared in a Dealer McDope adventure.
In 1974, Sheridan began collaborating on Gilbert Shelton's strips. These were syndicated by Rip Off Press to alternative and college weeklies nationwide, and later collected into comix. His first issue of the Freak Brothers was Number 4, with a many-page story arc entitled The Seventh Voyage of the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers: escaping the landlady and her demands for rent, the hirsute trio go to Mexico where they encounter far worse perils, including a Carlos Castaneda parody. Sheridan's detailed graphic style lent itself well to the fantastic imagery needed to lampoon Castaneda's drug-related Central American-cum-New Age sorcery. He then continued to collaborate on the Freak Brothers comix series through issues 5, 6 and 7; the team was joined by Paul Mavrides in 1978 for issue 6.
Death
Sheridan was diagnosed with cancer March 3, 1982, just eight months after his July 4, 1981 marriage to Dava Stone. Sheridan died from a brain hemorrhage Sunday, March 28, 1982. He had been in a coma for four days at Mt. Zion Hospital in San Francisco. He was buried at sea at a memorial service the following Friday.
His wife Dava gave birth to their daughter Dorothy April 4, 1982, one week to the day after Sheridan died.
Obituary/Tribute
- Obituary/Tribute by Fred Schrier â€" Changeling Times #6 (ACE magazine)[1]
Bibliography
Overland Vegetable Stagecoach
- Mother's Oats Comix No. 1 â€" San Francisco Comic Book Company/Rip Off Press 1969
- Mother's Oats Comix No. 2 â€" San Francisco Comic Book Company/Rip Off Press 1970
- Skull Comics No. 1 (with Greg Irons, Jack Jackson and Rory Hayes) â€" San Francisco Comic Book Company/Rip Off Press 1970
- The Balloon Vendor â€" San Francisco Comic Book Company/Rip Off Press 1971
- Meef Comix No. 1 â€" San Francisco Comic Book Company/Rip Off Press 1972
- Meef Comix No. 2 â€" San Francisco Comic Book Company/Rip Off Press 1973
- Tales of the Leather Nun No. 1 â€" Last Gasp Eco Funnies, 1973
- Mindwarp: An Anthology by Sheridan & Schrier â€" And/Or Press, 1975
- Mother's Oats Comix No. 3 â€" San Francisco Comic Book Company/Rip Off Press 1976
Other
- Slow Death Funnies #1 (with Fred Schrier, J. Osborne and Gilbert Shelton) â€" Last Gasp 1970
- Slow Death Funnies #2 "The Sex Evulsors of Tecnicus" â€" Last Gasp 1970
- The Food Stamp Gourmet by William Brown, Illustrations by Greg Irons, Gilbert Shelton, and Dave Sheridan â€" Bellerophon Books, 1971.
- The Legion of Charlies by Tom Veitch, Greg Irons, and Dave Sheridan (Paperback) Last Gasp, 1971
- Light Comitragies â€" Greg Irons â€" Print Mint 1971
- Skull Comics No.s 2â€"5 â€" San Francisco Comic Book Company/Rip Off Press 1971â€"1972
- Yellow Dog #19 (with Fred Schrier) â€" The Print Mint 1971
- Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers issues 4, 5, 6 (with Paul Mavrides), and 7
- Jayzey Lynch's Nard n' Pat No. 1 "We Could Get Any Artist ta Draw Us!" (1974)
- U-Comix Sammelband Nr. 1 (Introduction to Paperback) UPN-Volksverlag (1974)
- U-Comix Sammelband Nr. 2 (Introduction to Paperback) UPN-Volksverlag (1975)
- The Seattle Simpleton (vol. 1 No. 3) "The Mellow Cab Man" (Freewheelin' Frank) and "The Story of Phineas and the Organic Mechanic", both by Shelton & Sheridan. Spring 1976.
- Adventures of Fat Freddy's Cat Books 1â€"3 â€" with Gilbert Shelton â€" Rip Off Press, 1977
- Thoroughly Ripped with the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and Fat Freddy's Cat! by Shelton and Sheridan â€" Rip Off Press, 1978
- Rip-Off Comix No.s 3â€"9 Rip-Off Press 1978â€"1981
- The Best of High Times Comix, vol. 4 (1983) including Dr. McDope in Peru by Siegel & Sheridan, The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers by Shelton & Sheridan, The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and the Mysterious Visitor by Shelton & Sheridan, and "Notorious Norbert" by Fleagle & Fosdick (AKA Shelton & Sheridan)
- Dealer McDope â€" Rip Off Press, 1985 (part of Underground Classics No. 2-3)
- Time Twisted Tales Rip Off Press, 1986
- The Collected Fat Freddy's Cat. Vol. 1 by Gilbert Shelton & Dave Sheridan â€" Rip Off Press, 1989.
- The Freak Brothers Bus Line and Other Tales by Gilbert Shelton, Paul Mavrides and Dave Sheridan â€" Rip Off Press, 1990
- The Collected Fat Freddy's Cat by Gilbert Shelton & Dave Sheridan â€" Rip Off Press (April 1990) ISBN 0-89620-096-5, ISBN 978-0-89620-096-8
- The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers Library by Gilbert Shelton, Dave Sheridan, and Paul Mavrides Rip Off Press, Incorporated (March 1995) ISBN 0-89620-094-9, ISBN 978-0-89620-094-4
Game
- Dealer McDope Dealing Game (Print Mint, 1971)
Notes
References
- Michigan State University Library list of author's books
External links
- Sheridan's biography on Lambiek.net
- Dave Sheridan at the Comic Book DB
- Rip Off Press