Post #5001.

§ November 4th, 2019 § Filed under collecting, indies § 9 Comments

I noticed a while back that post #5000 was quickly approaching…then completely forgot to mark the occasion. Though, as was told to me on Twitter, it certainly is somewhat fitting to have an End of Civilization entry for that particular milestone. Or millstone, as the case may be.

But hey, 5000 posts, that’s pretty good, right? Especially given that for the last few years I’ve only been doing about three posts a week. Anyway, see everyone back here in about 6 1/2 years for post #6000!

While we wait, let’s talk a little bit about Boris the Bear.

I’ve written about Boris the Bear before, in this post highlighting a few of the better titles from the 1980s black and white boom. I really, really enjoyed that series and it’s always on my “I should reread that” list, once I, um, catch up on all the new comics that have come out since April.

I acquired in a large-ish collection recent a full set of the Boris the Bear comics, including the Boris Adventure Magazine spinoff, and the Instant Color Classics reprints, and so on. In fact, this collection was so complete, it had both the first and the second printing of the first issue from 1986. If you’ll take a look at the crookedly-displayed comics in the photos below:


The fronts are identical, but the back covers are different (1st print is on the left):


Here’s a closer look at the back cover of the first printing:


I only bring this up because…I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a first printing of this comic before. The copy of #1 in my personal collection is a second print, and now that I’m thinking about it, the first issue of this series I bought off the rack was #2 (the Transformers/robot parody issue). I think I’d read a positive review of the first issue somehow (probably in Amazing Heroes…I mean, not many other options at the time) and ended up- buying the second issue when next I visited the shop since that was what was available.

Now clearly I bought that second printing of #1 eventually, since I have one (I mean, it only follows). According to a blurb inside the second printing, Boris #3 was supposedly released concurrently with the first issue’s reprinting.

I noted the Boris Adventure Magazine earlier in this post…featuring a more immersive parodic experience than you were getting in the main title. I’d only bought the first issue at the time…but this collection has ’em all, so I may end up keeping a few of those for myself. Plus…I don’t havethem here to double check, but I’m reasonably sure the collection had five issues of the series while a couple of the online comic book databases I looked at only have issues one through four. I’ll keep you all updated if there is, in fact, the rare #5 at the shop when I go back in Monday. EDIT: Turns out I was mistaken. There’s just four. No idea why I thought there was a fifth issue.

So anyway, kicking off the next 5,000 posts with a little Boris the Bear talk. TIMELY AS EVER, SEZ I. Thanks for sticking with me and reading all my nonsense, and I’ll have more of it for you later in the wek. See you then, pals.

9 Responses to “Post #5001.”

  • philfromgermany says:

    Reading the back-cover text of the 1st printing:
    “Quite frankly…” made me think of Frank Quitely.

  • I eked out 1,000 posts on my first blog, back in those heady days of the comixweblogosphere. Keep going and you’ll wind up the last geek standing. Well done.

  • BobH says:

    I had a scattering of issues and always enjoyed them, and then a while ago found about half the issues I was missing pretty cheap at a show. Since then I’ve kept my eye open for more, and recently decided to mail-order a few to close up the holes in my run, so once those are delivered I’ll have 1-28 and Adventure Magazine 1-4. When I get a chance to read/re-read all of them I’ll decide if I want to get those last six. So I’m really curious about that supposed #5 of the Adventure Magazine. Quickly checking five online and two print sources and I can’t find anything beyond #4.

  • Seth Michaels says:

    So what are your thoughts on Roachmill, Mike?

  • John Lancaster says:

    Congrats on #5000! It got me curious as to the first time I was here so I went back into your archives. If I did the math right, it was post #45 on Jan 6, 2004. It was, of course, a Swamp Thing post. I think it just came up in a general Swamp Thing search I was doing (’cause that’s how I killed time back then). I think it was a few weeks before I realized you were posting every day like a madman. At that point you were bookmarked and visited Every. Single. Day. By my count, that’s now been 5,782 days. Hell, it’s been so long that I still had a little brown left in my glorious silver locks back then and I didn’t yet have the bifocals.
    –and yeah! for Boris the Bear. Bought #1 right off the rack at Mad Dogs in Chicago and signed up for it after that. I recently (well, 10 years ago – but that’s recent for me) reread them and they were still very entertaining.

  • Jack Norris says:

    So nobody went for the obvious “Ha ha! “Avengers Monopoly” is ironic because eventually Disney & the MCU will be the only entertainment there is! Get it?” joke…

    (This is where I meant to put that)

  • Jack Norris says:

    No it’s not! Damn this “comments link at the top” format…

  • Neilalien says:

    5,000 posts! Excelsior!