Boris the Bear
Mike Richardson
Boris the Bear is a fictional comic book character featured in several comic book titles published between 1986 and 2008.
Publication history
Starting in July 1986 and created by
Early issues of Boris the Bear centered on parodies of industry trends at the time. For example, the first issue, titled Boris the Bear Slaughters the Teenage Radioactive Black Belt Mutant Ninja Critters features Boris disposing of characters resembling the
The popularity of Boris led to two early appearances in the third and fourth issues of the first volume of Dark Horse Presents as well as full color reprints of the first three issues of his own book, under the title, Boris the Bear Instant Color Classics. The character's popularity also led to parodies of Boris himself and “revenge” stories appearing in titles such as Blackthorne Publishing’s Laffin’ Gas, Slave Labor Graphics' Samurai Penguin and Eclipse Comics’ Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters.
In 1987, a disagreement with Dark Horse, over the direction of the title, convinced Smith to take Boris back from Dark Horse after the twelfth issue, and begin self-publishing the book under his own Nicotat Comics banner. The book picked up with the thirteenth issue, one month after the departure from Dark Horse. Nine months later, Nicotat introduced what was intended to be an ongoing second title, Boris’ Adventure Magazine. The original Boris continued to parody other comic books, although in a less vicious way, while also maturing into more of a somewhat serious adventure title. As the title changed and the book began shipping more and more infrequently, readership dropped and sales decreased. Eventually, despite Smith having the title plotted through the fortieth issue, Nicotat ended its run with the thirty-fourth issue in November, 1991.
In 1992, Boris briefly returned to Dark Horse with a short story in the sixty-fourth issue of Dark Horse Presents.
In July, 1996, Nicotat returned to the Boris character with a second issue of Boris’ Adventure Magazine. The title ran bi-monthly for two more issues, through November, 1996. Solicitations for the fifth and sixth issues were sent to retailers but the actual issues were never published. The book was officially canceled in 1997.
In April, 2007 James Dean Smith began self-publishing again under the name Oasis Comics. Smith handled writing, art, lettering, editing and production chores on a brand new Boris the Bear title that began with a new first issue. Boris The Bear: A Fall Into Spring Special followed in 2008. That same year, Smith announced that he was working on a Boris the Bear online comic strip, as well as a new one-shot comic book titled Boris the Bear: Pissed but neither of these projects materialized.
References
- ^ a b "Boris the Bear". Dark Horse Comics.
- ISBN 0-13-275561-0. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
External links
- Oasis Comics official site. Archived from the original on May 10, 2010.
- Boris the Bear at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on February 22, 2018.