Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman

David Boswell
David Boswell, cartoonist & photographer, in the Dominion Building [office 702], Vancouver, BC, Canada. 8 April 1998.
Born	1953 (age 63–64) London, Ontario, Canada
Nationality	Canadian
Area(s)	Cartoonist, Writer, Penciller, Artist, Inker, Editor, Letterer, Colourist
Notable works	Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman
Awards	2011 Canadian Cartoonist Hall of Fame (Doug Wright Awards) "Giant of the North"
http://www.reidfleming.com

David E. Boswell (born 1953) is a comic book writer and artist, illustrator, and photographer based in Vancouver, British Columbia who has worked in the comics industry. He is the creator of the series Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman.

Boswell grew up in London, Ontario, Canada, and Hamilton and Dundas, Ontario. He studied film at Oakville, Ontario's Sheridan College, where he graduated in 1974. After graduation, Boswell attempted to earn a living as a cartoonist, and his first full-page comic, "Heart Break Comics", was published in The Georgia Straight from 1977–1978. Boswell moved to Vancouver in 1977, and in 1978, he launched Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman. Another title Boswell created is Ray-Mond.

Boswell's influences include film directors Josef von Sternberg and Luis Buñuel, composer Hector Berlioz, comedians Buster Keaton, and W.C. Fields, and humourist Robert Benchley, as well as early Hollywood and European cinema stars, and he often features references in his work. He has written a number of screenplays for movies, none of which have been made.

In 2011 Boswell was inducted into the Canadian Cartoonist Hall of Fame.

Boswell based the character of Reid Fleming on a childhood bully with the same name. Reid employs extremely aggressive means in delivering his dairy products. His supervisor is Mr.Crabbe, whose head is unusual in shape, and who has little, if any, patience with Reid Fleming. If it was up to him, Reid would have been fired years ago, but Reid's employer, Mr. O'Clock, for some reason prefers to just dock Reid's pay for all the milk trucks he wrecked in his recklessness (8 at the start of the story). Reid is also in love with Lena Toast, who has a TV show with Commander Bob. The latter wears "winged boots of doom" that do not enable him to fly. He gets around in a flying house, and uses a rope ladder to literally drop in on a randomly selected guest and kidnap him or her to be interviewed on the show. He uses a power blast on unco-operative guests. He is not the only super-powered character on the show. Reid is able to lift his milk truck with his bare hands and has a degree of invulnerability that has prevented serious or lethal injury. Lena, having been divorced 3 times now, is not a good prospect for a guaranteed marriage.