It’s a bit of a challenge to hold a serious conversation with a life-sized Bruce Lee figure poised with nunchucks looming overhead. Or a vintage sideshow banner advertising a woman with no head. Or a stuffed two-headed calf jutting out from the wall.
But even with the peculiar scenery, the concerns on publisher Ron Turner’s mind cut through with a stark and depressing portrait of the publishing industry.
“Right now, because the publishing industry has changed so much, we’re trying to figure out how we can continue,” Turner said.
As the founder of San Francisco’s iconic Last Gasp publishing house, Turner has weathered 45 years of ups and downs, lawsuits, bans, and upturned noses at some of the risqué and controversial books he likes to peddle.
“The thing we want to do is bring really oddball and necessary books to people,” said Turner, flanked by hundreds of odd items in his personal art gallery, just steps from Last Gasp’s book warehouse in San Francisco’s South of Market.
Turner originally launched the company to publish an ecology-themed comic and then found success publishing artists like R. Crumb. The company carved out a niche publishing underground comics, emerging artists and off-the-beaten-path topics. Turner plucked a book from a warehouse shelf and examined its cover. “Cannabis fantasy coloring book,” he read with a bemused glee.
But Turner isn’t smiling over the state of his industry. He estimated that of the 20,000 bookstores that once carried Last Gasp titles like “Freaks, Geeks and Strange Girls,” only about 5,000 are still in business. So now Turner is taking the unusual step of launching a Kickstarter campaign to try and fund the company’s fall run of books.
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Turner said the company needs to raise $75,000 to put out a series of new titles by artists like Camille Rose Garcia. So far, the company has raised more than $20,000 with two weeks left in the campaign.
Turner sees it more as an advance, than a handout.
“So now we’re thinking the best way is to get people who really like what we do to kick in their money first and help support the print runs of what we do," he said.
Turner said if the fundraiser falls short of its goal, Last Gasp won’t close its doors, but will delay the release of the new books.
The struggles of Last Gasp are the norm as the publishing industry has taken a decade-long beating from electronic book downloads and tablet-based readers.
“I’m beginning to think pretty soon the only things that won’t be digitized and given away for free is food and cars," said long-time Last Gasp employee Jon Longhi.
Turner has even turned to selling-off some of his original art to help keep the company going.
“In a way it’s desperate because the way the book industry has gone,” Turner said of the campaign. “I still have passion for the books we publish and the artists we represent.”
