Boris the Bear

Boris the Bear
Publisher	Dark Horse Comics
Creative team
Creators	James Dean Smith Mike Richardson
Original publication
Date of publication	1986 – 1991 (original run) 2007 (revival)
Language	English

Boris the Bear is a fictional comic book character featured in several comic book titles published between 1986 and 2007.

Starting in July 1986 and created by James Dean Smith and written by Mike Richardson and Randy Stradley,Boris the Bear was the second title published by Dark Horse Comics. Telling the story of an anthropomorphic bear, who is soon revealed to be a robot, the book parodied many other comic book characters while also satirizing the comic book industry as a whole. Often extremely violent, the book was a black comedy that developed a cult following. The title also served as the introduction to Wacky Squirrel, created by Mike Richardson and Jim Bradrick, who gained his own popularity and went on to star in his own series and specials published by Dark Horse.

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 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Usagi Yojimbo, Cerebus the Aardvark, the Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters, Hamster Vice, and others in an extremely violent matter. The trend continued through the early issues of the title with Boris confronting or parodying characters resembling the Transformers, the heroes of the Marvel Universe, Swamp Thing, Batman, and Elfquest. It wasn’t long before Boris even met the actual T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents.

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 Pengui and Eclipse Comics’ Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters.

...
Wikipedia