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Post by Brother J on Sept 23, 2008 17:48:57 GMT -5
I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with Boris the Bear. It was a big seller back in the late 80's, around the time of the great Black and White comic glut. Boris gained notice because he made it his goal to kill all the Teenage Mutant Ninja Critters that were so popular at the time (basically all the black and white Ninja Turtle ripoffs). The series published 12 issues with Dark Horse, then James Dean Smith, the creator and artist of Boris took the book to publish it on his own. The series lasted 34 issues with four issues of a spin-off series called Boris' Adventure Magazine and three issues of color reprints of the first three Dark Horse issues. I recently found that Boris is still around, although he is only published infrequently nowadays. Jim Smith now uses an On Demand printer similiar to what Angelo Furlan did with Sinnamon. Since I had recently completed my set of Boris books, I decided to add the two new Boris books Jim put out recently, plus another book he published. I received the books in the mail yesterday and read them today. Lots of fun, the character has stayed pretty much close to his roots. Anyway, Jim was good enough to sign all the books, plus he included three prints he did of Boris in various superhero garb. Here's a picture of the items I just received in the mail:  |
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Post by VaultKeeper on Sept 23, 2008 18:00:18 GMT -5
Cool. Pretty nice extras!
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Post by Defiant1 on Sept 23, 2008 18:59:28 GMT -5
I'm familiar with it, but the combination of it being indy, anthropomorphic, and starting in the 80's or 90's is enough for me to not get enthralled. If you are a fan, it looks like you got an excellent set of stuff and I do like seeing things like this.
Defiant1
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Post by Brother J on Sept 23, 2008 19:20:14 GMT -5
I'm familiar with it, but the combination of it being indy, anthropomorphic, and starting in the 80's or 90's is enough for me to not get enthralled. If you are a fan, it looks like you got an excellent set of stuff and I do like seeing things like this. Defiant1 Boris doesn't count as anthropomorphic, because he's actually a robot! He's kind of like Teddy Ruxpin, except with a real personality and free will which was caused in a laboratory accident. ;D yeah, I know most would probably still list him as anthropomorphic, just because he is a bear, robotic or no. |
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Post by Defiant1 on Sept 23, 2008 19:45:32 GMT -5
I'm familiar with it, but the combination of it being indy, anthropomorphic, and starting in the 80's or 90's is enough for me to not get enthralled. If you are a fan, it looks like you got an excellent set of stuff and I do like seeing things like this. Defiant1 Boris doesn't count as anthropomorphic, because he's actually a robot! He's kind of like Teddy Ruxpin, except with a real personality and free will which was caused in a laboratory accident. ;D yeah, I know most would probably still list him as anthropomorphic, just because he is a bear, robotic or no. ....and they still be technically correct by the definition I found online... anthropomorphic "Attribution of human motivation, characteristics, or behavior to inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena." Interesting twist. I'd never have guessed that by looking at what I've seen. That sounds so 1980's though! Still a cool package though. Defiant1 |
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Post by starbrand on Sept 23, 2008 22:23:36 GMT -5
Boris first hit the shelves in 1986, the year The New Universe also premiered. I distinctly recall since I had a comic store at the time.
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Post by Brother J on Sept 23, 2008 23:14:39 GMT -5
Boris first hit the shelves in 1986, the year The New Universe also premiered. I distinctly recall since I had a comic store at the time. I worked at a shop at the time, as well. I think it did so well because so many dealers were sick of the crap coming out like Cold Blooded Chameleon Commandos and all the other TMNT clones, that they loved seeing Boris kill off all those mutant critters. It also helped that the book was genuinely funny and Jim Smith is a pretty good artist. |
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Post by Brother J on Dec 28, 2012 19:52:21 GMT -5
Going through a re-reading of this series right now. There was an amusing "error" by Dark Horse. They ran a contest to see who was Boris the Bear's #1 fan. Lots of people sent in various items, whether it be pictures, drawings, or ripped up copies of various "mutant critter" comics. One person filmed himself doing something, apparently it was enough to prove to the person judging the contest that this person deserved to win. Anyway, on the page announcing the winner, Dark Horse also offered to sell copies of the winning video to anyone who wanted to shell out $9.95. This must have rankled a few feathers, possibly including the person who made the winning video.It seemed that Dark Horse intended to make money off someone else's work, a video that was sent to them in an effort to win a contest. Dark Horse quickly backpedaled, claiming the regular editors were not in the office when the ad was published and it was put in the book as a "joke" by one of the assistant editors. Certainly sounded like a bold faced lie and an attempt to save face to me.
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Post by Defiant1 on Dec 28, 2012 20:00:21 GMT -5
I'm not shocked. To this day, I still don't think I've ever owned a Boris the Bear comics.
Defiant1
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Post by Brother J on Dec 29, 2012 3:22:24 GMT -5
I'm not shocked. To this day, I still don't think I've ever owned a Boris the Bear comics. Defiant1 I think the story I told above reflects more poorly on Mike Richardson and Randy Stradley, the gentlemen behind Dark Horse, rather than Jim Smith, the creator of Boris. Jim split from Dark Horse after issue #12, and from reading Jim's editorial in #13, it did not sound like a happy breakup, although Mr. Smith did not go into details. |
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Post by Defiant1 on Dec 29, 2012 5:37:59 GMT -5
I'm not shocked. To this day, I still don't think I've ever owned a Boris the Bear comics. Defiant1 I think the story I told above reflects more poorly on Mike Richardson and Randy Stradley, the gentlemen behind Dark Horse, rather than Jim Smith, the creator of Boris. Jim split from Dark Horse after issue #12, and from reading Jim's editorial in #13, it did not sound like a happy breakup, although Mr. Smith did not go into details. I think that Mike R. has a growing string of bad splits with creative talent. BWS doesn't really speak out much on anything, but he was quite verbose on his dissatisfaction with Mike Richardson. Defiant1 |
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