Company & Sons

Company & Sons was an early underground comix publisher based in San Francisco, ran by John Bagley. The company operated from 1970–1973.

Company & Sons
Statusdefunct, 1973
Founded1970
FounderJohn Bagley
Country of originU.S.A.
Headquarters locationSan Francisco, California
Distributionhead shops
Publication typesComic books
Fiction genresunderground comix
ImprintsCocoanut Comix (an imprint of the Air Pirates collective)[1] Cloud Comix

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),[2] Wink Boyer's Buzzard,[3] 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.").[4]

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).[5][6] The first printing of 10,000 copies sold out almost immediately, leading to more printings and more sales.[6] Despite the first issue's success, however, Griffith and Kinney were dubious about Company & Son's accounting practices,[6] 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).[7]

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.[8] 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.[9] He was seen in 2001 by Last Gasp publisher Ron Turner, where Bagley was making jewelry while based on a farm in Northern California.[9]

Titles
all one issue unless indicated otherwise
gollark: It doesn't really have more security problems than usual. It's just bad.
gollark: I don't see how educating people on rights and whatever you suggested would fix a problem you claim is caused by people misusing systems.
gollark: Some are worse than others.
gollark: Besides, the growing trends toward unfreedom do not actually seem to be driven by things related to courts.
gollark: "yes, my server is perfectly secure as long as nobody does things I don't want them to to it"

References
  1. Fox, M. Steven. "The Dirty Duck Book," ComixJoint. Accessed Sept. 21, 2016.
  2. Fox, M. Steven. "Bogeyman #3," ComixJoint. Accessed Sept. 21, 2016.
  3. Fox, M. Steven. "Buzzard," ComixJoint. Accessed Sept. 21, 2016.
  4. indicia, Hee Hee (Company & Sons, 1970).
  5. Griffith, Bill. "Thinking Inside the Box," Lost and Found: Comics 1969-2003 (Fantagraphics, 2012), p. viii.
  6. Rosenkranz, Patrick. Rebel Visions: The Underground Comix Revolution, 1963-1975 (Fantagraphics, 200), p. 153.
  7. Fox, M. Steven. "Psychotic Adventures Illustrated," ComixJoint. Accessed Sept. 21, 2016.
  8. Levin, Bob.The Pirates and the Mouse: Disney's War Against The Underground (Fantagraphics, 2003), p. 50.
  9. Deitch. Kim. "A Lousy Week For Woods (Remembering Roger Brand)" (comments section), The Comics Journal website (Nov 5, 2011).
  10. Fox, M. Steven. "All Duck," ComixJoint. Accessed Sept. 21, 2016.
  11. Fox, M. Steven. "Collected Cheech Wizard," ComixJoint. Accessed Sept. 21, 2016.
  12. Fox, M. Steven. "Dan O'Neill's Comics and Stories Vol. 2 #1," ComixJoint. Accessed Sept. 21, 2016.
  13. Fox, M. Steven. "Drool," ComixJoint. Accessed Sept. 21, 2016.
  14. Fox, M. Steven. "Hee Hee Comix," ComixJoint. Accessed Sept. 21, 2016.
  15. Fox, M. Steven. "Honky Tonk," ComixJoint. Accessed Sept. 21, 2016.
  16. Fox, M. Steven. "Paranoia," ComixJoint. Accessed Sept. 21, 2016.
  17. Fox, M. Steven. "Psychotic Adventures Illustrated #1," ComixJoint. Accessed Sept. 21, 2016.
  18. Fox, M. Steven. "Tales of the Amorkins," ComixJoint. Accessed Sept. 21, 2016.
  19. Company & Sons entry, Who's Who of American Comic Books, 1928–1999. Accessed Sept. 21, 2016.
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