Four decades • 300+ comix • 250+ books • A Who’s Who of Lowbrow Art
Last Gasp turns 40 this year and to celebrate, we are throwing a party and art show at 111 Minna Gallery in San Francisco.
The Last Gasp 40th Anniversary Art Show assembles a top-drawer lineup of artists – the haut monde of lowbrow. Over the past four decades, Last Gasp has published hundreds of artists in the underground comix and kustom kulture, to pop surrealism and street art movements.
Artists in the show include:
Gary Baseman, Tim Biskup, Glenn Barr, Robert Crumb, Richard Corben, Rob and Christian Clayton, Guy Colwell, Ron English, Tony Fitzpatrick, Christopher Felver, Camille Rose Garcia, Justin Green, Charles Gatewood, Bill Griffith, Rick Griffin, Ed Hardy, Frank Kozik, Joe Ledbetter, Carol Lay, Adrian Lee, Michael Manning, Chris Mars, Mats, Paul Mavrides, Scott Musgrove, Albert Morse, Junko Mizuno, Liz McGrath, Laurenn McCubbin, Mitch O’Connell, Annie Owens, The Pizz, Mark Ryden, Michael Rosen, Trina Robbins, Spain Rodriguez, Dori Seda, Winston Smith, Stanislav Szukalski, Larry Todd, Eric White, Robert Williams, Basil Wolverton, Attaboy, Aye Jay, and many more to be announced.
Writers, including San Francisco Poet Laureate Diane DiPrima will do a reading.
Design radicals GAMA-GO will produce a limited edition tee shirt for the event.
21 + over; Free and open to the public
When: April 1, 2010, 6pm until late
Where: 111 Minna Gallery, 111 Minna Street, San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 974-1719 www.111minnagallery.com Contact: Jay Howell
About Last Gasp
Last Gasp is one of the largest and oldest publishers and purveyors of underground books & comics in the world, as well as being a distributor of all sorts of weird ‘n’ wonderful subversive literature, graphic novels, tattoo and art books.
Last Gasp was founded in 1970 by Ron Turner. Last Gasp’s first publication, Slow Death Funnies #1 came out on the first “Earth Day,” April 15, 1970. Subsequent comics included the all-women’s comic It Ain’t Me Babe, and Skull Comics. Over the years they have published, and in some cases brought to light, some of the most respected and talented artists working today, including such luminaries as R. Crumb, Mark Ryden, Justin Green, Bill Griffith, Frank Kozik, Todd Schorr, Winston Smith, Spain Rodriguez, and Robert Williams to name but a few.
Ron Turner’s enthusiasm for underground comics, and in particular their autobiographical aspect, has been the driving force behind many groundbreaking publications. Last Gasp published Justin Green’s highly acclaimed confessional Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary in 1972, a book that became an inspiration to many artists now working in the autobiographical style. “Art Spiegelman, who won the only Pulitzer Prize for cartooning, has said he would never have started to do the autobiographical story of his family (in the graphic novel Maus) unless Justin had done it first. And Robert Crumb said the same thing,” said Turner.
Today, Last Gasp publishes 12-20 new titles per year, focusing on Lowbrow and Pop Surrealist artists, as well as graphic novels. The company has 18 full and part-time employees and is based in San Francisco. In addition to publishing, Last Gasp distributes for large and small publishers worldwide, providing a steady countercultural stream of books and other printed matter that spreads over six continents.
Last Gasp books have been glowingly reviewed in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Playboy, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, School Library Journal, Juxtapoz magazine, The Guardian (UK), Hi-Fructose magazine, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Austin Chronicle, American Book Review, and The Los Angeles Times.
Co-publishing partners include La Luz de Jesus / Billy Shire Fine Arts, Porterhouse Fine Art Editions, San Jose Museum of Art, Grand Central Art Center, Smokemuse, JaPress, Moulinsart, Presspop Gallery, Ignition Publishing, NewSkool/Analog, Laguna Art Museum, and many more.
The readers of the San Francisco Bay Guardian named Last Gasp the Best Local Publisher in 2009.
First publications: Slow Death, 1970 (comic); Breather’s Guide to Invisible Air Polution (book) 1970
Gilbert Shelton, underground cartoonist and author of the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Fat Freddy’s Cat, Wonder Warthog, and Not Quite Dead, will autograph copies of his work at Oat Willie’s Campaign Headquarters, 617 West 29th Street, Austin, TX, on the afternoon of Friday, March 12, 2010.
No stranger to Austin, Shelton began his art career at the University of Texas Ranger student humor Magazine in the early sixties, where he was a frequent contributor and began the groundbreaking Wonder Warthog comic series.
After graduation Shelton moved around the country searching for creative opportunities, stopping at Cleveland, New York, and back to Austin to attend graduate school. He tried various stints at humor and automotive magazines and a brief stay as Art Director for the Vulcan Gas Company, a psychedelic rock venue in Austin.
Finally, Shelton moved to San Francisco in 1968, hoping to join poster artists Victor Moscoso, Rick Griffin, Stanley Mouse, Alton Kelly, and Wes Wilson in creating posters for the exploding rock scene there. He and three other Texans pooled their resources, bought a printing press, and formed a company, Rip Off Press, to create, print, and publish rock posters.
But, as Shelton put it in a 2006 interview, “I wasn’t as good (as a poster artist) as these guys, but I discovered I could do comic books. And, we discovered that our printing press wasn’t good enough to print posters, but it was good enough to print comics.” The rest is history.
Over forty years later, Shelton has produced 14 Freak Brothers titles, as well as several collections. They have been translated into so many languages that it is easier to list the exceptions: every language except Chinese, Arabic, Russian, and the African vernaculars. Over thirty million Freak Brothers books have been sold
worldwide.
In addition to the Freak Brothers, Shelton is the author of the companion series Fat Freddy’s Cat, and has coauthored five titles in the series Not Quite Dead , the peripatetic adventures of the “worlds least famous rock band” with French cartoonist Pic. He was also a contributor to the Zap! underground comic series,
numerous fanzines and other publications, and was the creator of the drug dealing board game Feds ‘n Heads.
Old and new friends of the works of Gilbert can see him at the Oat Willie’s autograph party Friday, March 12th, at a show at the South Austin Museum of Popular Culture, on March 13th and at a panel discussion at SXSW on Monday, March 15th.
Randy Dodson, photographer extraordinaire for Juxtapoz was in our office yesterday to do a photo shoot with Ron for an upcoming issue of the magazine. The 40th anniversary of Last Gasp is coming up (April 1, 2010) and we wanted this photo to capture 40 years of publishing. We piled up a bunch of titles, but there was no way we could get them all in the frame. It’s really only a representative sampling.
Books are art objects, and whether you are a retailer, gallerist, or simply a collector with a personal library, they should arrive at your door in pristine condition. We pack every order using superior materials and methods perfected through 40 years of experience.
REMEMBER THE EGG-DROP TEST?
Design a package that can protect a raw egg when dropped from the classroom window. The winning formula has two key components: a rigid exterior, and good packing to cushion the blow and keep the egg away from the side walls.
WE USE THE SUPERIOR EGG-DROP FORMULA!
A sturdy double-walled cardboard box protects the outside, while crumpled recyclable paper protects the corners and holds books firmly in place. We double-box all international orders. We protect smaller orders in bubble-mailers surrounded by a cardboard box. Nearly 40 years of shipping experience is behind every order, and our packing is among the best in the industry. Don’t let these fine books arrive at your door in anything less than pristine condition!
A nice Christmas treat from the New York Times & Los Angeles Times: kind words about our series The Art of Hergé.
“…devoted not just to the cartoons but also to Hergé’s impressive, sometimes glorious work as an illustrator and graphic designer.”
Bruce Handy, the New York Times
on the Last Gasp series The Art of Hergé
“gorgeous”
Jennifer Schuessler, the New York TimesPapercuts blog
on the Last Gasp series The Art of Hergé
“…Philippe Goodin’s handsome three-volume survey…”
Charles Solomon, the Los Angeles Times
I am pleased to announce the opening of my new show “American Animals” this Saturday, November 14, 2009 at Billy Shire Fine Arts (5790 Washington Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232; phone: 323-297-0600).
The opening reception will be from 7 – 10pm. The show runs from November 14 – December 5
Robert Crumb stopped by the warehouse today to say hi, catch up while he’s in town, and to do a little shopping & shipping. Maria couldn’t resist his charms and had to get a few pics.
