'Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman'.
David Boswell is a U.S. underground comic artist, photographer and illustrator, most famous for 'Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman' (1978). The misanthropic milkman and his surreal adventures gained a cult following. However, the comic achieved more notoriety due to a legal complication involving a potential Hollywood movie adaptation that effectively made the artist lose his merchandising rights. Somewhat of a cautionary tale, Boswell managed to bounce back by establishing his own publishing company, 'Deep-Sea Comics' and still bring out new 'Reid Fleming' stories to this very day. He should not be confused with alternative musician David J. Boswell.
Early life and career
David Boswell was born in 1953 in London, Ontario, but grew up in Hamilton and Dundas, Ontario. On 8 December 1970, it dawned on the 17-year old that he wanted to lead a creative life and wrote this important realisation down in his diary, despite not knowing yet in what direction he wanted to take his talent. He studied film at Oakville's Sheridan College, where he graduated in 1974. His biggest creative influences are columnist Robert Benchley, comedians Buster Keaton, The Marx Brothers, W.C. Fields and film directors Luis Buñuel and Josef Sternberg. His favorite artist is Gustave Doré, whose black-and-white engraving technique had a large impact on his graphic style, much like the cinematography of German Expressionist movies and other early films.
After graduation, Boswell earned a living as darkroom technician. As a photographer, he snapped several celebrities, including Hollywood actresses Lillian Gish, Ginger Rogers, poets Allen Ginsberg, Allen Purdy and pop musician Leonard Cohen. His photo of Cohen during his interview with the newspaper Georgia Straight ran in issue #572 (10-17 November 1978) and was in 2012 used for the official authorized biography about the singer, 'I'm Your Man', written by Sylvie Simmons. But most of the time, Boswell had to fulfill more boring commissions, like photographing tires for the Canadian Tire Company.
Since staging photos and films is very difficult, Boswell eventually decided to become a cartoonist, after reading that The New Yorker paid artists up to 600 dollars for a single cartoon. He also felt that drawing was an easier way to conjure up everything he wanted without outside interference or the cost of shooting film and developing it in a lab afterwards. Several of his comics were rejected by magazines like Esquire, Hugh Hefner's Playboy and National Lampoon, but always with encouraging letters-of-return. At a friend's advice, Boswell applied to the weekly newspaper The Georgia Straight in 1977, where he could both work as a cartoonist and photographer. To be closer to their office, he moved from Toronto to Vancouver that same year. He literally drew every new episode on Wednesday evening before his deadline the next day.
Heartbreak Comics
On 14 July 1977, Boswell's first comic strip, 'Heart Break Comics' (1977-1979), appeared in the weekly newspaper The Georgia Straight. The plot centers on Laszlo, a Hungarian lover who is admired by all women, but hated by all men. He is basically a stereotype from a simple-minded old Hollywood movie who finds himself in present-day reality, where his skirt-chasing isn't appreciated. Although everybody calls him Slavic, Laszlo insists that he is Hungarian. One day, Laszlo finds the woman of his life, Constance, and tries to build a steady relationship with her...
'Heartbreak Comics' is an entertaining series, with many plot twists and turns. But after 35 weeks, Boswell felt his drawing style was in urgent need of improvement, particularly regarding architectural perspective. He interrupted his comic for a year and a half. Once he felt he could draw buildings and perspectives more convincingly, he returned to his comic. But he soon faced both writer's block and financial problems. Three months after the return of 'Heartbreak Comics', Boswell decided to end on a high note and return to photography. However, his editor, Bob Mercer, was such a fan of his comic that he managed to get him a raise, allowing him to continue drawing from May 1978 on.
'Heartbreak Comics'.
Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman
In June 1978, Boswell's signature comic, 'Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman', debuted in The Georgia Straight. Like the title describes, Fleming is a milkman. The pug-nosed bottle deliverer hates his job with a passion. He doesn't care about customer friendliness, nor whether his products are put on people's doorsteps with care. Whenever somebody rubs him the wrong way, he insults them to their face. If somebody changes his order at the last minute, Fleming pisses in their flower garden. Overall, he is very combative, leading to his catchphrase: "I thought I told you to shut up!!". Oddly enough, the disgruntled dairy product deliverer also gets irked when somebody pokes fun at his milk truck. Instead of ignoring it, he brakes his truck, rushes out, punches the joker K.O. and screeches away again. Fleming is equally sensitive about his bald scalp, leading to his second best-known catchphrase: "I'm not bald, I get my hair cut this way." Boswell based this last line on a fellow rooming-house tenant in Toronto, a man named Darrell, who had a criminal past and tried to return to the right path. Fleming's name was inspired by a bully in kindergarten.
It's a mystery how Fleming ever got his job. But it boggles the mind even further why is never fired. His supervisor, Mr. Crabbe, understandably hates Fleming, but the company president, Mr. O'Clock, prefers to keep his employee aboard. His only punishment is taking money from Fleming's wage to compensate for all the trucks that he's turned into wrecks. Interviewed by Robert Dayton for Carousel Magazine (2012), Boswell said that he understands that a large part of Fleming's appeal stems from the fact that he does what many of us all think of doing, but never dare to do. Nevertheless, he wants to maintain a certain believability: Fleming does get chased by the police at times. The milkman even exhibits some enjoyment of life. He feels compassion to a woman named Lena, who presents a TV show alongside Commander Bob. The program is broadcast from a flying house and guests are kidnapped by rope ladder. Fleming likes her, despite the fact that she has been divorced three times already. He also accepts the presence of his colleague, Cooper, though mostly because he's often sleeping. When awake, Cooper is very passive about Fleming's behavior, which might be another reason why they get along so well.
Apart from the humorous misanthropy, 'Reid Fleming' is also enjoyably nonsensical. Fleming frequently does wild things that would've gotten a normal person fired or killed a long time ago. Many of his exploits are so off the wall that they're hilarious. Fleming is able to lift cars and trucks with his bare hands and toss them away from great distances. His company, Milk Inc., has a subterranean crypt for dead milkmen. His favorite TV show, 'Dangers of Ivan', stars a man who is in a coma. For reasons incomprehensible to anybody else, our favorite anti-hero finds this show endlessly fascinating and will even change the channel if others try to watch it. At a certain point, Ivan dies, leading to a change in title, 'Horrors of Ivan', with the show now centering on his corpse.
Reid Fleming: success
Despite originally meant as a one-shot gag, readers found 'Reid Fleming' so entertaining that Boswell was asked to draw more gags. He often received fan letters from college students. Having a strong cult following, he self-published his first book compilation in 1980. 'Reid Fleming' was released with a print run of 10,000 copies, but no distribution set-up. Boswell was lucky that Ron Turner, publisher at Last Gasp, bought one and then ordered 500 copies, which quickly sold out, allowing a second print run. Much of the cult appeal of 'Reid Fleming' can be attributed to the spirit of the late 1970s and 1980s, when economic misery was rampant and punk music was popular. In many ways Fleming has a non-conformist attitude. But the comic also has a more timeless flavor, since everybody can relate to the feeling of being stuck in an unpleasant job and wanting to ventilate frustrations.
Despite the success, Boswell still had to accept many other illustration jobs to keep himself financially afloat. He recalled going downstairs one night, trying to get some food from his kitchen. To his shock, the only thing in his fridge was a jar of maraschino cherries from past Christmas. This made him wonder what his children were eating? By Halloween 1983, he almost faced eviction. Luckily, his friends were able to get the necessary funds together to help him release a new comic book, 'Heartbreak Comics', in which Reid Fleming and Laszlo the Slavic Lover have a crossover adventure. Published in October 1984, the book centers on Laszlo's colossal mistake to start an affair with Fleming's wife, Lena, causing him to hire a private investigator, Ken, to track Laszlo down....Compared with Boswell's earlier comics, 'Heartbreak Comics' relied less heavily on comedy and featured more genuine suspense and drama.
In 1986, the 'Reid Fleming' comics were distributed by Eclipse. After they went out of business in the early 1990s, Boswell bought 'Reid Fleming''s rights back and established his own publishing company, Deep-Sea Comics. In 2001, new gags of 'Reid Fleming' appeared in the men's magazine Razor. Boswell worked with Bob Burden on a crossover between Reid Fleming en Burden's signature character the Flaming Carrot, 'Flaming Carrot and Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman' (Dark Horse Comics, 2002). Interviewed by Robert Dayton for Carousel Magazine (2012), Boswell said this collaboration was fun, but also very difficult, taking several years to round it all off.
In 2011, the collected adventures of 'Reid Fleming' were bundled by IDW Publishing. In 2012, new adventures of Reid Fleming followed. In 2017, Cal Johnston scripted a crossover comic between Reid Fleming and the cast of the comedy TV series 'Trailer Park Boys'.
Reid Fleming: the never-realized movie adaptation
The 'Reid Fleming' series was such a hit that in 1982 MGM considered making a live-action movie. In 1985, Boswell was also approached by film producer Nat Cohen to adapt 'Heartbreak Comics' into a film, starring Peter O' Toole in the title role, but this plan also went nowhere. Among the actors considered for the role of Fleming have been Jim Belushi, Jim Carrey, Bobcat Goldthwaite, Bob Hoskins (Boswell's personal favorite for the role), Jon Lovitz, Jack Nicholson, Dave Thomas and Robin Williams. Interestingly enough, a screenplay performance was staged for Hollywood executives with help from actors Phil Hartman (later famous as Troy McClure in 'The Simpsons'), Lisa Kudrow (later famous as Phoebe in 'F.R.I.E.N.D.S.'), Ed Asner, Dan Castellaneta (later famous as Homer in 'The Simpsons'), Charles Napier and narration by Maurice LeMarche (later famous as Bender in 'Futurama'). For the longest time, Jonathan Demme (famous for 'Silence of the Lambs') wanted to direct a Reid Fleming movie and wrote a foreword to the 2013 book compilation of the comic strip.
In June 1987, Boswell signed a deal with Warner Brothers for a 'Reid Fleming' movie adaptation. Many sources have incorrectly claimed that Boswell sold the film rights, while in reality he only sold the option for a self-described "relatively small sum". According to Boswell, an executive in New York only came around reading the screenplay in July 1988 and didn't understand the comedy. As a result, the project got pushed around until it landed in the dreaded so-called "development hell", never going into production. Boswell now came to the shocking conclusion that he didn't own the rights to his own comic. This meant that he couldn't capitalize on his best-selling series. As long as the movie wasn't made, he couldn't get out from underneath his original contract either, nor sell it to another studio. His Hollywood experience has become part of Boswell's infamy, treated as a cautionary tale for aspiring cartoonists. Luckily, he could still make new 'Reid Fleming' stories and earn a small profit from the books themselves.
Other comics and cartoons
In 1985, Boswell made a weekly one-panel gag cartoon for The Georgia Straight, typically revolving around absurd situations. Between 1990 and 1996, he illustrated Dave Barry's humorous columns in the newspaper The Vancouver Province. In 1998, Boswell created the comic book 'Ray-Mond', about an extraordinarily dumb wannabe superhero.
'Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman'.
Recognition
On 7 May 2011, Boswell was inducted in the Canadian Cartoonists Hall of Fame. This marks the only major award he's received so far.
Legacy and influence
In a 1989 episode of the TV series '21 Jump Street', titled 'Draw the Line', Johnny Depp can be seen reading 'Reid Fleming' in prison. The same year, a band named itself Milk Inc., after Fleming's company in the comic, and wrote and performed an entire rock opera based on the comic strip.
A short documentary called 'I Thought I Told You to Shut Up!!' by Charlie Tyrell and Jonathan Demme was released in 2015. It contained contributions by Matt Groening, Colin Upton and Marv Newland (of 'Bambi vs. Godzilla' fame). Boswell was also an influence on Groening, who placed 'Reid Fleming' on nr. 60 in his personal list of '100 Favorite Things'. In the aforementioned documentary, he also revealed that Homer's baldness was inspired by Reid Fleming. Three other comic artists who expressed their admiration for Boswell's comics are Lynda Barry, Harvey Pekar and Shannon Wheeler (who cited 'Reid Fleming' as a direct influence on his own comic 'Too Much Coffee Man').
'Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman'.