[1] It was a self-publishing venture by cartoonists Kim Deitch, Bill Griffith, Jerry Lane, Jay Lynch, Willy Murphy, Diane Noomin, and Art Spiegelman.

[2] The company released only nine comics in their two years of existence, but published work by a number of notable comix creators in the process.

In addition to the founding members, cartoonists published by Cartoonists Co-op Press included S. Clay Wilson, Robert Crumb, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Trina Robbins, Leslie Cabarga, Justin Green, Ted Richards, Gary Hallgren, Lee Marrs, Jim Osborne, and Spain Rodriguez.

The press was launched on the verge of the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, in Miller v. California, that local communities could decide their own First Amendment standards with reference to obscenity.

In the mid-1970s, sale of drug paraphernalia was outlawed in many places, which caused head shops, where comix were typically sold, to go out of business.