Furry Freak Brothers until 1984): a full color, three-volume story arc entitled "The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers in The Idiots Abroad". In 1984, Shelton, who had spent parts of 1980 and 1981 in Europe, moved back to Europe for good and the Freak Brothers collaboration became a trans-Atlantic affair. The last full issue of new Freak Brothers material came out in 1992. Legal battles In 1991, Mavrides protested against a resolution by the State of California to levy a sales tax on comic strips and comic books. He challenged the law in court, with assistance from the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, arguing that the comic strip is a communications medium that should be classed with books, magazines, and newspapers (which are not subject to sales taxes due to First Amendment provisions). In 1997, a ruling in Mavrides' favor was handed down by the California State Board of Equalization. Depictions in other media Science fiction author and mathematician Rudy Rucker created the character Corey Rhizome based on Mavrides. Rhizome features in the novel Freeware as a creator of semi-sentient toys, many of which have deviant or anti-social personality traits based on Rhizome's personality. Rhizome, whom Rucker described as "Mavrides as evil toymaker", is a profligate user of moon grown hybrid marijuana that he smokes via complex vaping hardware. References External links [http://www.artie.com/cm/art/artists/paulmavrides "Slack or Bust: An Interview With Paul Mavrides," by Wesley Joost and Jon Randall "The Things He Did on Grass," by Michael Sragow, Salon, June 15, 2000; interview about Mavrides' art direction of a marijuana documentary 1952 births American comics artists American Splendor artists American SubGenii Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area Underground cartoonists Living people