In San Francisco in 1968, Donahue traded his hi-fitape player to poet Charles Plymell to publish the first issue of Robert Crumb'sZap Comix on Plymell's printing press. Donahue later purchased the equipment and founded Apex Novelties. The publisher's first headquarters was in the third-floor ballroom of the former Mowry's Opera House, located at 633 Laguna Street in Hayes Valley. After a fire almost destroyed the building in late 1969, Apex Novelties moved to a storefront at 1417 Valencia Street in the Mission District. In 1970, Susan Goodrick became Donahue's partner in Apex Novelties, staying with the company until 1978. Also in 1960, Donahue helped Gary Arlington recruit artists for, and helped edit the first issue of, Arlington's anthology title San Francisco Comic Book. Apex Novelties published the bulk of its comix from 1968–1974. Other than Zap, Snatch Comics, and Mr. Natural, all the titles Apex published were one-shots. Donahue and Goodrick co-edited The Apex Treasury of Underground Comics, published in 1974 by Links Books/Quick Fox. The 192-page anthology collected previously-published stories and strips by Robert Crumb, Kim Deitch, Shary Flenniken, Justin Green, Bill Griffith, Bobby London, Jay Lynch, Willy Murphy, Spain Rodriguez, Gilbert Shelton, and Art Spiegelman. In the mid-1970s, the company was known for publishing material by radicals, including the Symbionese Liberation Army. Donahue's final published comix title was in early 1979 with the R. Crumb comic Best Buy Comics. In the early 1980s, Donahue moved operations to Berkeley's Dakin Warehouse, where he lived and worked with other like-minded people. From that location, he became one of the country's top dealers of underground comix and other ephemera. According to underground historian Patrick Rosenkanz, Donahue's "last publishing venture was a series of silk-screened posters he made in the early 1990s." The partner of cartoonist Dori Seda, Donahue inherited the rights to her work following her death in 1988 at the age of 37, and edited Dori Stories, a compilation of her comics, which was published by Last Gaspin 1999. Donahue died of cancer on October 27, 2010 in Berkeley, CA after many years of alcohol drinking problems.
Comix titles published
Ace Hole, Midget Detective — large-format black-and-white comic by Art Spiegelman
Best Buy Comics – Consists primarily of Crumb material originally published in CoEvolution Quarterly
Black and White Comics — R. Crumb
Cunt Comics — Rory Hayes, with minor contributions from Donahue, Lynch, and Deitch
Four Sketchbooks and a Table of Useful Information — digest-sized collection of sketchbooks by Art Spiegelman, Bill Griffith, Spain Rodriguez, and Justin Green
Funny Aminals — anti-animal vivisection anthology edited by Terry Zwigoff featuring Crumb, Lynch, Green, Flenniken, Michael McMillan, Bill Griffith, and Spiegelman
Jiz — anthology featuring R. Crumb, Lynch, Spain, Hayes, S. Clay Wilson, and Victor Moscoso
King Bee — tabloid anthology mostly by S. Clay Wilson with contributions from several other Zap Comixcrew members — Crumb, Moscoso, and Rick Griffin — as well as Jeremy Marks and Peter Max
Left-Field Funnies — anthology featuring cartoonists associated with the Air Pirates collective, including Bobby London, Gary King, and Willy Murphy
The Life and Loves of Cleopatra — reprint of a self-published Harry Driggs comic originally released in 1967
