Kitchen Sink Press: The First 25 Years

by Dave Schreiner

KITCHEN SINK The FIRST 25 YEARS by Dave Schreiner.
Heavily illustrated history of first quarter century of the innovative and pioneering publishing company. The late author Dave Schreiner, a longtime editor at KSP, speaks from an insider s viewpoint. The chronology begins in the late 60s, during the birth of underground comix, when founder Denis Kitchen self-published Mom s Homemade Comics. KSP soon produced such venerable anthology series as Bijou Funnies, Bizarre Sex, Dope Comix, Death Rattle, Snarf and R. Crumb s Mr. Natural, Homegrown, XYZ, Snoid and countless other undergrounds.
The company diversified early, publishing definitive collections of classic strips such as Will Eisner s Spirit (150 comics and magazines), Milton Caniff s Steve Canyon (26 volumes) and Male Call, V.T. Hamlin s Alley Oop (4 volumes), Alex Raymond s Flash Gordon (6 color volumes), Ernie Bushmiller s Nancy & Sluggo (5 volumes) and Al Capp s Li l Abner (27 volumes) Harvey Kurtzman s Jungle Book, Hey Look! and Goodman Beaver and numerous others. Kitchen Sink pioneered the advent of graphic novels, starting with Will Eisner, the father of modern graphic novels, publishing his groundbreaking A Contract with God and nearly twenty other Eisner titles and Scott McCloud s also groundbreaking Understanding Comics (and Zot!) while serializing and/or collecting such works as Charles Burns Black Hole, James O Barr s The Crow, Waller & Worley s Omaha the Cat Dancer, Monte Beauchamp s Blab! anthologies, Mark Schultz s Xenozoic Tales, Alan Moore s From Hell, Dave McKean s Cages, Vance & Burr s Kings in Disguise and R. Crumb s Kafka, Waiting for Food, Carload O Comics and the Coffee Table Art Book among numerous others. Space here does not permit further detail.
Kitchen Sink The First 25 Years (1969-1994) includes sidebars with all-new commentary and/or new illustrations done especially for the silver anniversary by such luminaries as Stan Lee, Alan Moore, Will Eisner, R. Crumb, Mark Schultz, Frank Stack, Will Elder, Adele Kurtzman, Howard Cruse, Leonard Rifas, Trina Robbins, Reed Waller, James Vance, Mike Baron, Jay Lynch, Kevin Eastman, P.S. Mueller, Art Spiegelman, Steve Geppi (Diamond), Milton Griepp (icv2) and others. After reaching its 30th anniversary in 1999, Kitchen Sink went under, but this book helps capture the magic of 5/6th of the company s fascinating history as well as an important part of the history of comics and pop culture. 128 pages. Color throughout. 8.5 x 11 softcover.

Genres: Comics, History

128 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1994

Reviews

[Johnathon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb chronicle of the first 25 years of the late Kitchen Sink Press company, the premier publisher of comix's. The late Dave Schreiner gives a warts and all story about how the company formed and progressed through the years, with great asides by many of the great creators who worked with them, from Stan Lee to Alan Moore. The year by year account keeps things going smoothly, along with a checklist of everything they publishing coming off as a required reading list. If you've ever wanted to know the history one of one of the best underground comic book publishers, look no further.

[Luke W. Henderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a lot of cool stuff in here, but this feels like it was written for people who were fans of KSP at the time, so there's some assumed context that isn't explained. This at times feels like a list of things published and done without going too deep into the why about it.

The blurbs from creators and people associated with KSP are excellent as they give a better inside look and I love the checklist of books published for each year. Definitely helpful for someone wanting to collect some KSP titles.

[Rene Blansette · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a quick, fun, read and equally quick overview of the history of Kitchen Sink press. I reread it because some friends met Kitchen in Wisconsin, of all places, and started looking through it.

[Dr Zorlak · Rating 4 out of 5]

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