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This year, independent publisher Last Gasp will celebrate 40 years of art and comics. The San Francicsco based publisher and distributor has produced comics and contemporary art books by R.Crumb, Todd Schorr, Robert Williams, and Japanese alternative/psychedelic mangaka Junko Mizuno.

"When we started out, [underground comics] were brand new, " founder Ron Turner told PW Comics Week about the birth of Last Gasp in 1970 during the years of the Underground Comix movement in San Francisco. "There was nothing like it. So we had to create our own rules." Everything from pricing structure to distribution had to be built or negotiated. At first, retailers balked at the floppy, stapled, comic book format of the Underground Comics that had a price point of 50 cents, and Turner found himself selling or trading his books to other publishers who had established distribution networks. Turner also found himself becoming his own distributor, selling the stock he had from trading books with other publishers to retail outlets in the Bay Area. "I sold at tattoo parlors, custom auto shops, mostly within the ‘lowbrow' art area."

From there, two arms of the company, Last Gasp Publishing and Last Gasp Distribution, emerged as separate but co-dependent entities. "It's hard to say which supports the other," Turner said. Last Gasp Distribution currently buys from 500 vendors including Random House, Chronicle Books and Perseus, down to medium size independent publishers and self-published books. Last Gasp also imports from publishers in Europe, Australia, and Asia.

According to Colin Turner, Ron Turner's son, who has taken over the management of the two companies, the model confuses some. "You talk to people in publishing and they think you're either a publisher or a distributor," he said. Indeed, Last Gasp is a pioneer in combining publishing and distribution and over the years, many more distributors now combine the two businesses. Being both a publisher and a distributor has driven Last Gasp's growth and development over the past 40 years. "It's part of what's made Last Gasp successful and able to do unusual and interesting things."

Later this fall, Last Gasp will publish 12 books led by a collection of Mark Ryden's snow yak paintings in The Snow Yak Show, a second volume of art work from the magazine Hi-Fructose, and a third volume of the Best Erotic Comics which includes artwork by R.Crumb and Molly Crabapple. Suehiro Maru's oppulent manga adaptation, Strange Tale of Panorama Island will also be published this fall. Last Gasp plans to publish 16-18 books in 2011 and the following year.

The publisher's success with artbooks stems from the growing popularity of so-called lowbrow art which has moved into the contemporary and commercial art realms ala artists like Ed Hardy. "Young hipsters now are likely to have three to four original [pieces of art] in their houses, and three to four on their bodies-as well as signature sneakers, and various things," Ron Turner explained. "If they're demanding this kind of art, they're going to want to see books about it."

Ron Turner also sees publishing art books as an extension of curating. Last Gasp has built and continues to develop ties with museums and art galleries in San Francisco and New York, including The Grand Central Art Center. "You make relationships with these artists and it becomes a special thing. It's not just a business, it's a vast intertwined social network where we're promoting the creativity of these people." Last Gasp will celebrate 40 years in publishing at the Minna Gallery in San Francisco on April 1st, and the house will exhibiting at this year's WonderCon, held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, April 2-4.

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