"Los Angeles Flipside Fanzine" was launched in 1977 in Whittier, California by five Whittier High School friends, Pooch, Larry Lash, Tory, X-8 and editor and publisher Al Kowalewski. The initial issues of the publication were produced by means of a photocopy machine, with Kowalewski's first modest goal set at selling 1,000 copies per issue. Beginning with a tiny local distribution in a few Los Angeles area record stores, within two years the publication had grown sufficiently to support sheet-fed offset printing on heavy white stock for production, with sales tallied in 12 American states and four countries. Later issues were produced on newsprint via a high speed web press and included a glossy magazine cover.