Dave Sheridan

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Dave Sheridan was the underground cartoonist who is best-known for his characters Dealer McDope and Tales from the Leather Nun and his collaboration on the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers.

Born in 1943 and raised in the Cleveland, Ohio area, he 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 Funnies, 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. His solo work can be seen in Slow Death and Skull Comix. He also did the art for the first mini-album produced by Cleveland area folk singer/songwriter John Bassette, Weed and Wine.

Dave Sheridan eventually settled in San Anselmo, California; he was a member of the Artista artists collective, worked closely with Don Novello, and drew the album cover for his Father Guido Sarducci comedy album. A characterization of Sarducci appeared in a Dealer McDope adventure.

[edit] Freak Brothers

In 1974 Dave 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.

In 1981, a few months after his marriage to Dava Stone, Dave fell ill. Early in 1982 he was diagnosed with cancer, and he died of a brain hemorrhage in March of 1982—just a week before the birth of his daughter Dorothy.