Rip Off Press

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. During 1972 the Rip Off Press published a magazine/comic book called The Rip Off Review of Western Culture under Dave Moriaty's supervision. The Rip Off Press 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 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 and Kerry Thornley. It was also an early publisher of the infamous booklet on drug manufacturing, Psychedelic Chemistry.

Featured artists and comix

 * Rip Off Comix
 * Gilbert Shelton: The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Fat Freddy's Cat, Wonder Wart-Hog, Not Quite Dead
 * Dave Sheridan
 * Carol Lay: Good Girls
 * Chuck Austen: Strips
 * SS Crompton: Demi the Demoness
 * Matt Howarth: Savage Henry, Those Annoying Post Bros