Boris the Bear

Boris the Bear is a black and white independent comic book that was published for 34 issues. Created by James Dean Smith, it was one of the first titles published by Dark Horse Comics in 1986, until being self-published as of issue 13 under the name Nicotat Comics. Telling the story of an anthropomorphic bear (who is later revealed to be a robot), the book parodied many other comic books and satirized the comic book industry as a whole. Often extremely violent, the book was a black comedy that developed a cult following.

"Boris the Bear" often parodied current industry trends, such as in the first issue, given the self-explanatory title "Boris the Bear Slaughters the Teenage Radioactive Black Belt Mutant Ninja Critters". Characters suspiciously resembling Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Usagi Yojimbo, Cerebus the Aardvark, Wile E. Coyote and the Smurfs get viciously murdered (although strangely enough, he allows Droopy to survive). He is implied to murder the Care Bears off-page.

The comic was cancelled after the production of issue number thirty-four in November 1991.In April 2007 James Dean Smith has relaunched the comic under Oasis Comics.

A set of characters very similar to Boris the Bear and his enemies, militant squirrels, were included in the video game "Conker's Bad Fur Day".

References

* [http://www.oasiscomics.com Oasis Comics] Official site and home of Boris the Bear
* [http://www.boristhebear.de.vu Boristhebear.de.vu] Official Boris the Bear-archive