Cartoonists Co-Op Press
The Cartoonists Co-Op Press logo (probably created by Willy Murphy), showing the company's mascot, I. M. Bigg
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| Status | defunct (1974) |
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| Founded | 1973 |
| Founders | Kim Deitch, Bill Griffith, Jerry Lane, Jay Lynch, Willy Murphy, Diane Noomin, Art Spiegelman |
| Headquarters location | San Francisco |
| Publication types | Comics |
| Nonfiction topics | Social commentary |
| Fiction genres | Underground comix |
Cartoonists Co-Op Press was an underground comix publishing cooperative based in San Francisco that operated in 1973–1974. It was a self-publishing venture by star cartoonists Kim Deitch, Bill Griffith, Jerry Lane, Jay Lynch, Willy Murphy, Diane Noomin, and Art Spiegelman. Cartoonist Justin Green's brother Keith Green acted as salesman/distributor; the operation was run out of Griffith's apartment.
The company published only nine comics in their two years of existence, but by an impressive array of talent: in addition to the founding members, cartoonists published by Cartoonists Co-Op Press included S. Clay Wilson, Robert Crumb, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Trina Robbins, Leslie Cabarga, Justin Green, Ted Richards, Gary Hallgren, Lee Marrs, Jim Osborne, and Spain Rodriguez.
Cartoonists Co-Op Press was founded as an alternative to the existing underground presses, which were perceived as not being honest with their accounting practices. According to Apex Novelties co-publisher Susan Goodrick, the cooperative was "not a publishing company but a framework to help artists publish their own work. . . . The aim of the Co-op [was] the survival of underground comix through independence of the cartoonists from distributors and publishers."
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