Don Donahue

Apex Novelties
Status defunct, early 1990s
Founded 1968
Founder Don Donahue
Country of origin United States of America
Headquarters location San Francisco, California
Publication types Comics, Pamphlets, Posters
Fiction genres Underground comix

Don Donahue (1942 – October 27, 2010)[1] was a comic book publisher, operating under the name Apex Novelties, one of the instigators of the underground comix movement in the 1960s.[2]

Donahue published numerous influential comics from that movement, including the first run of Zap Comix and a number of other highly regarded comics by Robert Crumb, such as Your Hytone Comics (1971) and Black and White Comics (1973). Other creators associated with Apex Novelties include S. Clay Wilson, Jay Lynch, Victor Moscoso, Art Spiegelman, Rory Hayes, Spain Rodriguez, Rick Griffin, Michael McMillan, Kim Deitch, Shary Flenniken, Justin Green, and Gilbert Shelton. In 1974, Donahue edited and published The Apex Treasury of Underground Comics, one of the first book collections to highlight the underground comix era.

History

In San Francisco in 1968, Donahue traded his hi-fi tape player to poet Charles Plymell to publish the first issue of Robert Crumb's Zap Comix on Plymell's printing press.[3] Donahue later purchased the equipment and founded Apex Novelties.

The publisher's first headquarters was in the third-floor ballroom of the former Mowry's Opera House, located at 633 Laguna Street in Hayes Valley. (Fellow underground publisher Rip Off Press also shared that space.) After a fire almost destroyed the building in late 1969, Apex Novelties moved to a storefront at 1417 Valencia Street in the Mission District.[4]

In 1970, Donahue helped Gary Arlington recruit artists for and helped edit the first issue of Arlington's anthology title San Francisco Comic Book.[5]

Apex Novelties published the bulk of its comix from 1968–1974. Other than Zap, Snatch Comics, and Mr. Natural (co-published with the San Francisco Comic Book Company), all the titles Apex published were one-shots. The exception was the ambitious The Apex Treasury of Underground Comics, which Donahue edited (with Susan Goodrick) and published in 1974. The 192-page anthology collected previously-published stories and strips from Robert Crumb, Kim Deitch, Shary Flenniken, Justin Green, Bill Griffith, Bobby London, Jay Lynch, Willy Murphy, Spain Rodriguez, Gilbert Shelton, and Art Spiegelman.[6][7]

In the mid-1970s, the company was known for publishing material by radicals, including the Symbionese Liberation Army (best known for kidnapping Patty Hearst).[8] Donahue's final published comix title was in early 1979 with the R. Crumb comic Best Buy Comics. (By this time, Apex Novelties was located at 353 Frederick St. in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury.)[9]

In the early 1980s, Donahue moved operations to Berkeley's Dakin Warehouse, where he lived and worked with other like-minded people. From that location, he became one of the country's top dealers of underground comix and other ephemera. (Donahue remained at the Dakin Warehouse until 2002.)[8]

According to underground historian Patrick Rosenkanz, Donahue's "last publishing venture was a series of silk-screened posters he made in the early 1990s."[4]

The partner of cartoonist Dori Seda, Donahue inherited the rights to her work following her death in 1988 at the age of 37, and edited Dori Stories, a compilation of her comics, which was published by Last Gasp in 1999.[10]

Donahue died of cancer on October 27, 2010.[1]

Comix titles published

References

Notes

  1. 1 2 Levin, Bob. "Don Donahue 1942-2010: As Far as Hello," The Comics Journal website (Nov. 2, 2010).
  2. ↑ Estren, Mark James. A History of Underground Comics (Ronin Publishing, 1993).
  3. ↑ Crumb, R. "Minds Are Made to be Blown," The Complete Crumb Comics - Volume 4 (Fantagraphics, 1988). Archived on Crumb on Crumb (official R. Crumb website).
  4. 1 2 Rosenkranz, Patrick. "Don Donahue @ Mowry’s," The Comics Journal website (November 9th, 2010 ).
  5. ↑ Fox. M. Steven. "San Francisco Comic Book #1," ComixJoint. Accessed Oct. 8, 2016.
  6. ↑ "The Apex Treasury of Underground Comics," Grand Comics Database. Accessed Dec. 2, 2016.
  7. ↑ "The Apex Treasury of Underground Comics (1974)," The Comic Book Database. Accessed Dec. 2, 2016.
  8. 1 2 Levin, Bob. "Don Donahue, Comic Book Publisher (1943–2010)," Berkeley Historical Plaque Project (2011).
  9. ↑ Indicia, Best Buy Comics (Apex Novelties, 1979).
  10. ↑ Thalheimer, Anne N.'"THIS GIRL WOULD ROCK TILL SHE BROKE THE CLOCK," a review of Dori Stories: The Complete Dori Seda PopMatters. Archived on DoriSeda.com.

Sources

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 12/3/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.