Kitchen Sink Press - History

History

In 1969 artist Denis Kitchen decided to self-publish his comics and cartoons in the magazine Mom’s Homemade Comics, inspired in part by Bijou Funnies and Zap Comix. The selling out of the 4000 print-run inspired him further, and in 1970 he founded Kitchen Sink Press (initially as an artists' cooperative) and launched the underground newspaper The Bugle-American, with Jim Mitchell and others. Under the name of the Krupp Syndicate, he syndicated comic strips to almost fifty other underground and college newspapers. In addition to Milwaukee artists like himself, Mitchell, Bruce Walthers, Don Glassford, and Wendel Pugh, Kitchen began to publish works by such cartoonists as Howard Cruse, Trina Robbins and S. Clay Wilson, and he soon expanded his operations, launching Krupp Comic Works, a parent organization into which he placed ownership of Kitchen Sink Press and through which he also launched such diverse ventures as a record company and a commercial art studio.

In 1993, Kitchen moved operations from Princeton, Wisconsin, to Northampton, Massachusetts in a controversial merger with Tundra Publishing. After the failure of expansion into other venues of entertainment and merchandising, Kitchen Sink Press dissolved in 1999.