Don Donahue

Who was Don Donahue?

Don Donahue was a comic book publisher, operating under the name Apex Novelties, one of the instigators of the underground comix movement in the 1960s.

In San Francisco in 1968, Donahue traded his hi-fi tape player to poet Charles Plymell to publish the first issue of Robert Crumb's Zap Comix on his printing press. Donahue later purchased the equipment and founded Apex Novelties, which published numerous influential comics from that movement, including work by S. Clay Wilson, Kim Deitch, Shary Flenniken, Justin Green, Bill Griffiths, Spain Rodriguez, Gilbert Shelton, Art Spiegelman. He was known for publishing material by radicals, including the Symbionese Liberation Army.

The partner of cartoonist Dori Seda, he inherited the rights to her work following her death at the age of 37, and published Dori Stories, a compilation of her comics.

Donahue died of cancer on October 27, 2010.