The 13th and final issue of Freak Brothers came out in 1997, but it contained no new Freak Brothers comics. It only reprinted stories in black and white that originally appeared in color in High Times and Playboy magazine (the same stories had also been collected in the full-color 1978 paperback book, Thoroughly Ripped).

Though reprinting old stories from the '70s that had already been reprinted once might seem like a shallow attempt to squeeze every last dollar out of the Freak Brothers franchise, I tend to give Rip Off a pass on this one. Not many Freak Brothers fans had probably saved those issues of High Times and Playboy (if they ever had them at all) and Thoroughly Ripped was only printed one time in '78. These stories hadn't seen the light of day in almost 20 years, so printing them again seemed like a service to the fans.

Of course, Rip Off might've footed the bill to match the original color printing of the comics, too, but that is a matter of preference; there are plenty of fans who prefer all their Freak Brothers comics to be in good ol' black and white.

Rip Off didn't try to pull the wool over anyone's eyes, either. Gilbert Shelton wrote a nice foreword on the inside front cover that explained the previous printing history of the comics. Most of the comics are one- and two-pagers and come from the peak of the mid '70s, so there is plenty here to enjoy.



HISTORICAL FOOTNOTES:
There are three printings of this comic book, all by Rip Off Press. It is currently unknown how many copies were produced during any of the printings. The print editions are easy to tell apart, since each one has a distinct cover price, which are identified below:

1st printing: $3.25 cover price.
2nd printing: $3.95 cover price.
3rd printing: $4.95 cover price.

COMIC CREATORS:
Gilbert Shelton - 1, 2, 3-6 (collaboration), 7-8, 9-11 (collaboration), 12, 13-14 (collaboration), 15-16, 17-23 (collaboration), 24, 25-27 (collaboration), 28 (art), 29-34 (collaboration), 35, 36 (collaboration)
Dave Sheridan - 3-6 (collaboration), 9-11 (collaboration), 13-14 (collaboration), 17-23 (collaboration), 25-27 (collaboration), 29-34 (collaboration), 36 (collaboration)
Tony Bell - 28 (story)