even possessing them might be subject to harassment, disciplinary action, or arrest. The idea of smuggling a full-size printing press into South Vietnam was determined to be too dangerous to attempt. As an alternative, a few G.I.'s based in South Vietnam were issued small kits to enable them to produce little hektograph-type zines. Technological and financial realities The boom in the underground press was made practical by the availability of cheap offset printing, which made it possible to print a few thousand copies of a small tabloid paper for a couple of hundred dollars, which a sympathetic printer might extend on credit. Paper was cheap, and many printing firms around the country had over-expanded during the 1950s and had excess capacity on their offset web presses, which could be negotiated for at bargain rates. Most papers operated on a shoestring budget, pasting up camera-ready copy on layout sheets on the editor's kitchen table, with labor performed by unpaid, non-union volunteers. Typesetting costs, which at the time were wiping out many established big city papers, were avoided by typing up copy on a rented or borrowed IBM Selectric typewriter to be pasted-up by hand. As one observer commented with only slight hyperbole, students were financing the publication of these papers out of their lunch money. Syndicates and news services In mid-1966, the cooperative Underground Press Syndicate (UPS) was formed at the instigation of Walter Bowart, the publisher of another early paper, the East Village Other. The UPS allowed member papers to freely reprint content from any of the other member papers. During this period, there were also a number of left-wing political periodicals with concerns similar to those of the underground press. Some of these periodicals joined the Underground Press Syndicate to gain services such as microfilming, advertising, and the free exchange of articles and newspapers. Examples include The Black Panther (the paper of the Black Panther Party, Oakland, California), and The Guardian (New York City), both of which had national distribution. Almost from the outset, UPS supported and distributed underground comix strips to its member papers. Some of the cartoonists syndicated by UPS included Robert Crumb, Jay Lynch, The Mad Peck's Burn of the Week, Ron Cobb, and Frank Stack. The Rip Off Press Syndicate was launched 1973 to compete in selling underground comix content to the underground press and student publications. Each Friday, the company sent out a distribution