Denis Kitchen founded and served as publisher for the pioneering publishing house Kitchen Sink Press for 30 years, starting in the heyday of alternative comix in 1969 and lasting until the end of the last century in 1999. Along the way, he published comics and graphic novels by Will Eisner, Howard Cruse, Trina Robbins, S. Clay Wilson, Harvey Kurtzman, Robert Crumb and many others; he founded the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund; and he amassed a collection of “oddly compelling” curiosities.
Now his career, activism and, yes, those curiosities will be the subject of a new documentary — Oddly Compelling, by filmmakers Soren Christiansen and Ted Intorcio.
“Who would’ve thought that in the 21st century the world would watch Americans ban books, challenge free speech, and threaten its own democratic principles,” said Christiansen. “We’ve had threats to our democracy before, and every time these threats occurred, it took people, like Denis, to stand up and fight for those inalienable rights. He may be the least appreciated of the underground legends, in part because he devoted a disproportionate amount of his career to publishing the work of others. He was there at the very beginning of the Underground Comix movement, and his contributions, starting with Mom’s Homemade Comics, Krupp, Distribution, and Kitchen Sink Press are responsible for bringing ground-breaking and much-loved content to a much wider audience.”
The filmmakers plan to crowdfund the documentary via Kickstarter, and we have an exclusive clip that shows off some of Kitchen’s collection:
Kitchen’s collection includes more than 100,000 vintage postcards; scores of Big Boy, Kewpie, and celluloid figures, metal toys and robots; original comic art; political buttons; and much more. He has also spent years creating “The Valley of Frankenstein Dolls,” an eccentric outdoor art project that offers unique eye candy throughout the documentary.
Here’s the full trailer for the documentary, which will include interviews with Alison Bechdel, Warren Bernard, Eddie Campbell, Paul Gravett, Karen Green, Justin Hall, Gary Hallgren, Tom Heintjes, MariNaomi, Peter Poplaski, Carol Tyler, Jeff Trexler and of course Kitchen:
Check out the Kickstarter page for more information and to sign up to be alerted when the campaign goes live. In collaboration with Tinto Press and Denis Kitchen Archives, the Oddly Compelling campaign will offer rare Underground Comix, remarqued books, personalized prints, film posters and original Kitchen art, along with streaming and Blu-ray versions of the documentary, as rewards.
