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rip-off press

RIP OFF PRESS

Rip Off Press (1969-present)
Rip Off Press Inc. is a comic book mail order retailer and distributor, better known as the former publisher of adult-themed series like The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and Rip Off Comix, as well as many other seminal publications from the underground comix era. Founded in 1969 in San Francisco by four friends from Austin, Texas — cartoonists Gilbert Shelton and Jack Jackson, and Fred Todd and Dave Moriaty — Rip Off Press is now run in Auburn, California, by Todd. Rip Off Press is notable for being the first company to publish the fourth edition of the Principia Discordia, a Discordian religious text written by Gregory Hill and Kerry Thornley. It was also an early publisher of a booklet on drug manufacturing, Psychedelic Chemistry.

In January 17, 1969, the company was founded in San Francisco by four Texans: 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 — in some ways the company was formed as a sort of cartoonists’ cooperative, as an alternative publishing venue to other Bay Area publishers like Apex Novelties, Print Mint, and Company & Sons. Rip Off Press Inc. is a comic book mail order retailer and distributor, better known as the former publisher of adult-themed series like The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and Rip Off Comix, as well as many other seminal publications from the underground comix era. Founded in 1969 in San Francisco by four friends from Austin, Texas — cartoonists Gilbert Shelton and Jack Jackson, and Fred Todd and Dave Moriaty — Rip Off Press is now run in Auburn, California, by Todd.

Rip Off Press is notable for being the first company to publish the fourth edition of the Principia Discordia, a Discordian religious text written by Gregory Hill and Kerry Thornley. It was also an early publisher of a booklet on drug manufacturing, Psychedelic Chemistry.

In January 17, 1969, the company was founded in San Francisco by four Texans: 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 — in some ways the company was formed as a sort of cartoonists’ cooperative, as an alternative publishing venue to other Bay Area publishers like Apex Novelties, Print Mint, and Company & Sons. The four men purchased a used Davidson 233 offset printing press and set up shop in the same space as Apex Novelties, located on the third-floor ballroom of the former Mowry’s Opera House, at 633 Laguna Street in Hayes Valley.

After a fire almost destroyed the opera house in late 1969, Rip Off moved to the decaying former headquarters of the Family Dog psychedelic rock music promotion collective[4] (which Jaxon had been a member of starting in 1966). Rip Off Press was located at 1250 17th Street in San Francisco from 1970 until 1985.

By 1972, the poster printing business had faded away and the company had become a publishing house. Other works the company published during this period included comix by Frank Stack, Sheridan (all co-published with Gary Arlington’s San Francisco Comic Book Company), The Rip Off Review of Western Culture omnibus, and Shelton’s The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. The four men purchased a used Davidson 233 offset printing press and set up shop in the same space as Apex Novelties, located on the third-floor ballroom of the former Mowry’s Opera House, at 633 Laguna Street in Hayes Valley.

The first comix Rip Off Press published, in 1969, were R. Crumb’s Big Ass Comics (June ’69), a reprint of Jaxon’s God Nose (originally published in 1964), Jaxon’s Happy Endings Comics (August ’69), and the first issue of Fred Schrier and Dave Sheridan’s Mother’s Oats Comix (October ’69). After a fire almost destroyed the opera house in late 1969, Rip Off moved to the decaying former headquarters of the Family Dog psychedelic rock music promotion collective (which Jaxon had been a member of starting in 1966). Rip Off Press was located at 1250 17th Street in San Francisco from 1970 until 1985. By 1972, the poster printing business had faded away and the company had become a publishing house. Other works the company published during this period included comix by Frank Stack, Sheridan (all co-published with Gary Arlington’s San Francisco Comic Book Company), The Rip Off Review of Western Culture omnibus, and Shelton’s The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers.