Rip Off Press,
Inc. is
a seminal publishing company that specializes in adult-themed
literature and
graphic novels, mostly
in a specific comic book format known as
underground comix.
Overview
The
company was founded January 17, 1969, in San Francisco
by Fred Todd, Dave Moriaty, and cartoonists Gilbert
Shelton and Jack Jackson. The
initial plan was to print rock-band promotional posters on an old
press and do comix on the side, but by
1972 the
printing business had faded away and the company had become a
publishing house. It resided at 1250 17th
Street in San Francisco from 1970 until 1975. By this time Moriaty
and Jackson had long since gone back to Texas. The company moved to
a smaller space on San Jose Avenue near the city's southern border
in mid-1975, with warehouse space across town at the Bayview
Industrial Park. This 3-story, block-square building, which housed
over a hundred other businesses, burned to the ground on April 6,
1986 following an explosion in an illegal fireworks factory in the
basement.
Thus freed of a 17-year accumulation of comix and other
paraphernalia, Fred Todd (who at this point was the only original
partner still working in the business) decided to relocate Rip Off
Press to Auburn, California where he and his wife Kathe could
continue to run the company while raising their two small children
in more pleasant surroundings. The move was made in June of 1987,
and during the next few years Rip Off Press continued to publish
Shelton's Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers plus the Rip Off Comix
anthology magazine, Larry Gonick's Cartoon History of the Universe,
Matt Howarth's Those Annoying Post Bros. and many other
titles.
After the collapse of the Direct Market in the early 1990s (fueled
by Marvel Comics' withdrawal of its 40% market share from the
distribution system), Rip Off Press began taking steps to cut costs
and gradually retreated from publishing to sell backlist comics to
its store and mail order customers, plus the many fans finding them
online. The Todds moved the business to much smaller quarters
adjoining their home in 1999, where they continue to sell comix,
mostly through the company web site.
Rip Off Press is also notable for being the original company to
publish the fourth edition of the
Principia Discordia, a Discordian
religious text written by
Gregory
Hill. It was also an early publisher of the infamous booklet on
drug manufacturing, Psychedelic Chemistry.
Featured artists and comix
External links
Wikis
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