Mind Candy for the Masses... Last Gasp is one of the largest and oldest publishers and purveyors of underground comic books in the world, as well as being a distributor of all sorts of weird 'n' wonderful subversive literature, graphic novels, tattoo and art books.

BIRTH STORY: [partial] "I can't remember now who came up with the name Last Gasp" he laughs. "It was either me or Gary Arlington (of the San Francisco Comic Book Co.). We originally needed a name for the (Ecology Center) comic book - one of us suggested Slow Death Funnies and the other suggested Last Gasp Comix & Stories. When I needed a name for the company I just used the runner-up name, ...so I'm always indebted to Gary for his insight into naming comic books." During this time, Ron had been working at Kaiser Hospital in San Francisco doing studies in allergies and emotions. However, this job was to end abruptly as Nixon began cutting science funding in order to cover the spiralling costs of the war in Vietnam. Armed with twenty thousand copies of Slow Death Funnies #1, he began travelling back and forth across the country selling and giving away comic books. Last Gasp was thus founded.