The anthology was originally a byproduct of the Rip Off Press syndication service, which, starting in the early 1970s, sold weekly content to alternative newspapers and student publications.

[1] The syndication service was discontinued by 1979, but strips produced by such cartoonists as Gilbert Shelton, Joel Beck, Dave Sheridan, Ted Richards, Bill Griffith, and Harry Driggs (as R. Diggs) were published in early issues of Rip Off Comix.

For a period, Rip Off Comix was billed as "the International Journal of Humor and Cartoon Art", and became a showcase for the work of European cartoonists.

Issue #9 highlighted "comix from France", including Jean-Marc Reiser, Bernard Willem Holtrop, Florence Cestac, and Charlie Schlingo.

Issue #11 devoted a section to Dutch cartoonists, including Joost Swarte, Kamagurka, Peter Pontiac, and Evert Geradts.

Shelton and Paul Mavrides began serializing "The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers in The Idiots Abroad" in issues #11 and 12.

Regular contributors in the late 1980s-early 1990s included such notable names as Mary Fleener, Dennis Worden, Trina Robbins, Larry Welz, Mark Bodé, Joshua Quagmire, J. R. Williams, Paul Ollswang, Ace Backwords, Carol Lay, and Nina Paley, as well as R. L. Crabb, Ronn Foss, Bruce Bolinger, Wayne Honath, Douglas Michael, Lindsay Arnold, The Pizz, George Parsons, and Lyndal Ferguson.