Cartoonist, writer, editor, publisher and entrepreneur DENIS KITCHEN began his professional career in 1968, creating Mom's Homemade Comics as a self-published underground cartoonist in Milwaukee WI. The success of this venture led in 1969 to his formation of Krupp Comic Works, Inc., a small hippie empire which encompassed: Kitchen Sink Press, the comix publishing company; Strickly Uppa Crust, a head shop; The Cartoon Factory, a commercial art studio; Ordinary Records; Krupp Mail Order and Krupp Distribution. In 1970 he separately co-founded The Bugle-American, a Wisconsin-based alternative weekly newspaper that lasted seven years. In 1976 he co-founded The Fox River Patriot, a weekly alternative rural newspaper. But Kitchen's main focus over three decades was publishing comics and books.

As a Publisher: For thirty years (1969-1999) Kitchen published a variety of classic and underground artists alike. Among the highlights: Will Eisner (twenty graphic novels, over a hundred Spirit comics, Will Eisner Quarterly), Harvey Kurtzman (Jungle Book, Hey Look!, Goodman Beaver, with Will Elder, and others), Milton Caniff (Male Call, two volumes of Terry & the Pirates, twenty-four volumes of Steve Canyon), Al Capp (twenty-seven hard and softcover volumes of Li'l Abner), George Herriman (two volumes of Krazy Kat), R. Crumb (The R. Crumb Coffee Table Art Book, Kafka, Carload o' Comics, Waiting For Food, and other books, comix and merchandise), Jack Jackson (Secret of San Saba, Lost Cause), R.F. Outcault (Yellow Kid), Scott McCloud (Understanding Comics, three volumes of Zot!), V.T. Hamlin (three volumes of Alley Oop), Alex Raymond (six volumes of Flash Gordon, Secret Agent X-9), Dave McKean (Violent Cases with Neil Gaiman, and Cages), Art Spiegelman (various undergrounds), Cliff Sterrett (two volumes of Polly & Her Pals), Reed Waller & Kate Worley (over twenty comix and five collections of Omaha the Cat Dancer), James Vance & Dan Burr (Kings in Disguise, Owlhoots), Mark Schultz (Xenozoic Tales/Cadillacs & Dinosaurs), Bill Sienkiewicz (Voodoo Child), Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell (From Hell) Howard Cruse (Gay Comix, Barefootz, Dancin' Nekkid with the Angels), Frank Frazetta (Small Wonders, Pillow Book), Joe Shuster & Jerry Siegel (four volumes of Superman strips), Bob Kane (four volumes of Batman strips), Joe Matt (Peep Show), and Charles Burns (Molemen, Blood Club, Sketchbook, Black Hole 1-4). He also published numerous anthologies including Blab 1-8, Snarf 1-15, Dope Comix 1-5, Bizarre Sex 1-10, Twist 1-3, Buzz 1-3, Twisted Sisters 1-3, Blue Loco, Mona and others; plus histories such as the 2-volume Comic Strip Century. Additional comic books, magazines and graphic novels are too extensive to list here. A 1994 illustrated history, Kitchen Sink Press: The First 25 Years, by Dave Schreiner, provides the best primer to this era.

Awards: Kitchen Sink Press over the years won a disproportionate number of the comics industry's most prestigious awards, sometimes dominating the awards despite a market share hovering around 1%. In 1989 Kitchen Sink Press led all publishers with 13 Eisner nominations, edging giant DC Comics, with eleven. In 1993 Kitchen Sink won six Harveys, more than any other company and nearly 40% of the total awarded. In 1994 Kitchen Sink won five Harveys and two Eisners. The company won another five Eisners and Harveys combined in 1995. In 1997 Chris Staros (now heading Top Shelf) surveyed the entire field of comics for his independent Staros Report. The issue cited numerous KSP publications for outstanding merit and concluded by presenting Kitchen Sink Press with its first and only Best Publisher Award.

Volunteer work: In 1986 Denis Kitchen founded and continues to serve as President of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit corporation dedicated to defending the industry's First Amendment rights (www.cbldf.org). Since 2000 Kitchen has also chaired the Harvey Awards Committee, which oversees the annual industry award program for excellence, named after Harvey Kurtzman (www.harveyawards.org) In 2002 Kitchen became a member of the Board of Advisers of MOCCA (Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art) in New York City (www.moccany.org).

Current businesses: Since 1999 he has been a partner with Judith Hansen in Kitchen & Hansen Agency LLC Inc., a literary agency representing leading comic artists and writers (www.kitchenandhansen.com).

Since 1990, a separate entity, Denis Kitchen Art Agency (www.deniskitchenartagency.com) has been exclusively selling original cartoon art for clients such as Will Eisner, and both selling art for and representing the Harvey Kurtzman estate, the Russell Keaton estate and Peter Poplaski, as well as representing Capp Enterprises, Inc., among others.

Kitchen still publishes a small number of new books each year as a sideline, under the imprint Denis Kitchen Publishing Co. Recent DKP titles by Kurtzman and Crumb and sneak previews of upcoming books can be viewed at www.deniskitchenpublishing.com.

Current creative activities: As a "book packager" Kitchen is currently writing the annotations and introductions and providing the source material for four full-color volumes, Li'l Abner: The Frazetta Sundays for Dark Horse Comics, covering the years 1954 to 1961. He earlier contributed similar introductions and extensive annotations for Dark Horse's 2-volume Little Annie Fanny collections.

As an artist, Kitchen has recently come full circle to draw new comics again. A recent six-page story called "My 5 Minutes with God," which he insists is a true story, can be viewed at the following link...

In 2002, Editor Shannon Wheeler of Too Much Coffee Man Magazine interviewd Denis. The unexpurgated version appears here.

An article and interview with Denis appeared in the RiverWest Currents (The Community Voice of Milwaukee's Left Bank) online and print mag in July of 2003. Read it online here.

Kitchen recently donated an Alan Moore tribute page to a comic book raising funds to fight Alzheimer's disease. An oft-delayed collection of his work, The Oddly Compelling Art of Denis Kitchen, is finally in the design stage.

Denis also allegedly at work on a children's book, which he hopes will be finished while his daughter Alexa is still a child. Two other daughters, Sheena and Scarlet, are fully grown, no longer live at home and now must now pay for their own comic books.

Denis's wife Stacey built and operates the online store: Steve Krupp's Gallery & Curio Shoppe.