Crowdfunding Corner: DENIS KITCHEN: Three Comics Collections
Conventional wisdom would have us believe that old hippies burn out and fade away, but conventional wisdom never met an overachiever like Denis Kitchen.
Self-publishing his humorous, sometimes psychedelic comics in the late ‘60s led to founding the incredibly influential Kitchen Sink Press that helped launch such underground luminaries as Robert Crumb, Art Spiegelman, Trina Robbins, S. Clay Wilson, Justin Green, and Howard Cruse. Kitchen Sink weathered the ups and downs of the comics industry through the ‘90s publishing work by legendary artists Will Eisner, Al Capp, Charles Burns, and Harvey Kurtzman.
During the moral panic of the ‘80s involving police crackdowns, obscenity arrests, and censorship threats, Kitchen founded the non-profit organization Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) to help protect targeted comic shops and alternative comics publishers.
Kitchen’s inertia continued with Denis Kitchen Art Agency, representing Harvey Kurtzman, Will Eisner, and other heavy hitters.
Throughout it all, Kitchen drew his own comics, often self-deprecating autobiography with the occasional flights of fancy into his subconscious or whimsical takedowns of corporate chicanery. These comics (and illustrations for alternative newspapers) made their way into various anthologies but have never been collected…until now!
Fellow cartoonist and founder of the comics press and distro Birdcage Bottom Books J.T. Yost hopes to bring a fresh audience (alongside established fans) to Kitchen’s work by compiling and risograph printing three loosely-themed collections: Hippie Komix, Square Comix, and Working Stiff Comics. These limited-edition collections (200 copies of each title) will be available through a Kickstarter campaign currently running through Sunday, September 27, 2026 at 8:55 AM EDT.
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