Status defunct, 1973 Founder John Bagley Distribution head shops | Founded 1970 Country of origin U.S.A. | |
Headquarters location San Francisco, California | ||
Company & Sons was an early underground comix publisher based in San Francisco, run by John Bagley. The company operated from 1970–1973.
Contents
Creators associated with Company & Sons included Rory Hayes, Dan O'Neill, Charles Dallas, Vaughn Bodē, Bobby London, and Larry Todd. Company & Sons was the first publisher of the long-running anthology Young Lust.
History
In 1970 Company & Sons published Rory Hayes' Bogeyman Comics #3 (taking over from the San Francisco Comic Book Company), Wink Boyer's Buzzard, Boyer & Dave Geiser's Honky Tonk, and the anthology Hee Hee Comics (which was produced "in conjunction with The San Francisco Comic Book Co., Gary E. Arlington, prop.").
But the company hit pay dirt in October 1970 with Jay Kinney & Bill Griffith's Young Lust (which had been previously turned down by fellow San Francisco-based underground publishers Print Mint, Rip Off Press, and Last Gasp). The first printing of 10,000 copies sold out almost immediately, leading to more printings and more sales. Despite the first issue's success, however, Griffith and Kinney were dubious about Company & Son's accounting practices, so they brought issue #2 to Print Mint. (The bulk of Young Lust's run was ultimately published by Last Gasp.)
In 1971 Company & Sons published three issues of Dan O'Neill's Comics and Stories and Larry Todd's Tales of the Armorkins.
In 1972 the company published the All Duck anthology, Vaughn Bodē's The Collected Cheech Wizard, Bobby London's The Dirty Duck Book, editor Bill Surski's Drool Magazine anthology, the anthology Paranoia, and the first issue of Charles Dallas' Psychotic Adventures Illustrated (issues #2 [Oct. 1973] and #3 [June 1974] were picked up by Last Gasp).
In 1973 the company published Paul McKenna's Folk Funnies.
The company went out of business in 1973; reportedly, publisher Bagley claimed he had a fatal disease. The reality is that the company suffered from poor sales due to mediocre products.
Very little is documented about Bagley other than he was an avid collector of Classics Illustrated. He was seen in 2001 by Last Gasp publisher Ron Turner, where Bagley was making jewelry while based on a farm in Northern California.