Print Mint
| Status | defunct 1978 as publisher; continued as a poster shop |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1965 |
| Founder | Don Schenker & Alice Schenker |
| Headquarters location | Berkeley, California, and San Francisco, California |
| Distribution | self-distribution |
| Key people | Bob Rita & Peggy Rita |
| Publication types | comic books, posters |
| Nonfiction topics | social commentary, politics, environmentalism |
| Fiction genres | underground comix |
The Print Mint, Inc. was a major publisher of underground comics based in the San Francisco Bay Area during the genre's heyday. Starting as retailer of psychedelic posters, it soon evolved into a publisher, printer, and distributor. It was "ground zero" for the psychedelic poster. The Print Mint was originally owned by poet Don Schenker and his wife Alice, later partnered in the business with Bob and Peggy Rita.
Don and Alice Schenker started The Print Mint as a picture-framing shop and retailer of posters and fine art reproductions on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, California, in December 1965, originally sharing a store with Moe's Books, but later on moving into a separate location down the block. (The Schenkers and Moe's Books owner Moe Moskowitz had been friends back in New York City during the 1950s Beat era, so this association was a continuation of that connection.) Schencker's first comics job was a reprint of Joel Beck's Lenny of Laredo, published by the Print Mint in April 1966.
The Print Mint soon opened a wholesale division, publishing and distributing posters. The dance venues at The Avalon Ballroom and The Fillmore were advertised by posters designed by artists Stanley Mouse, Rick Griffin, Alton Kelley, Victor Moscoso, and others. These posters were soon in much demand, and The Print Mint distributed many of them along with work by Peter Keymack, Hambly silkscreens, Solo Period posters, M. C. Escher prints, Neon Rose, Bob Frieds Food line, and many others.
In December 1966, the Print Mint opened a second store on Haight Street, in the Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco, in a building that Moe's Books owner Moskowitz had purchased to install a book store. (Unfortunately, the city had refused to give Moskowitz a permit to sell used books, so his plan was never realized.) 1967 was an eventful time, and the store became a center of neighborhood activities, a main source of countercultural information and creative energy to the huge influx of young people coming into San Francisco that summer. The store grew from being a simple retailer into a complex cross-country distribution and then publishing operation. In December 1967, however, Moskowitz forfeited the building and his plans for a second location for Moe's Books, bringing a demise to Print Mint in San Francisco.
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