Apex Novelties
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| Parent company | The Apex Novelties logo |
|---|---|
| Status | defunct, early 1990s |
| Founded | 1968 |
| Founder | Don Donahue |
| Country of origin | United States of America |
| Headquarters location | San Francisco, California |
| Key people | Susan Goodrick |
| Publication types | Comics, Pamphlets, Posters |
| Nonfiction topics | Politics, social commentary |
| Fiction genres | Underground comix |
Donald Richard "Don" Donahue (May 18, 1942 – October 27, 2010) was a comic book publisher, operating under the name Apex Novelties, one of the instigators of the underground comix movement in the 1960s.
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 and his publishing partner Susan Goodrick edited The Apex Treasury of Underground Comics, one of the first book collections to highlight the underground comix era.
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. 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.
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