Dave Sheridan (cartoonist) - Biography

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.

Sheridan was married to Dava Stone on July 4, 1981. On March 3, 1982, he was diagnosed with cancer. After being in a coma for 4 days at Mt. Zion Hospital in San Francisco, Sheridan died from a brain hemorrhage on March 28, 1982. At a memorial service the following Friday he was buried at sea. His wife Dava gave birth to their daughter Dorothy on April 4, 1982.