Pay what it's worth or he'll piss in your garden
February 27, 2013 1:14 AM   Subscribe

Every issue of Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman, is now available for free download from his creator David Boswell's side. For those who haven't had the pleasure to encounter Reid yet, here's an 1991 interview with Boswell, courtesy of CBC's Midday, as well as a 2011 appreciation of Reid Fleming by Tom Hawthorn for the Globe & Mail, written when Boswell was induced in the Canadian Cartoonists Hall of Fame.
posted by MartinWisse (25 comments total) 34 users marked this as a favorite
 
Thank you!

I think I have most of these in a box somewhere, but it will be good to fill in the holes, and to re-read them from an older vantage point.
posted by sebastienbailard at 1:46 AM on February 27, 2013


What the hell I literally JUST ordered this from Amazon for like forty bucks (international postage).

But you know what? I'm glad I ordered it. I have a handful of back issues of this but nowhere near a complete run and I think it's just fab, and I'm glad to support Boswell in my roundabout Amazon-y way. Apparently the next hardcover will contain an ALL-NEW! Reid Fleming graphic novel.

What I would like to see next is a Flaming Carrot omnibus. That and Reid (who I was actually introduced to through an AskMe thread a while back) are just a great combo, and are pretty much the only two of those weird-ass black and white indie comics from the 80s that don't suck after nostalgia has worn off.
posted by turgid dahlia 2 at 2:15 AM on February 27, 2013


FYI - he isn't balding; he gets his hair cut that way!
posted by Guy Smiley at 2:27 AM on February 27, 2013


Also, anyone who doesn't leave work to go home and watch "The Horrors of Ivan" gets a fist in a painful place.
posted by Guy Smiley at 2:29 AM on February 27, 2013 [3 favorites]


What, this?
posted by turgid dahlia 2 at 2:38 AM on February 27, 2013 [1 favorite]


This is great, I had never heard of it before. Wonder if it was part of the inspiration for the Milkman Dan character in Red Meat.
posted by pete_22 at 2:39 AM on February 27, 2013


What I would like to see next is a Flaming Carrot omnibus.

That would be nice. But if you like Reid Fleming and FC, do you have the Milk and Cheese hardcover yet?
posted by MartinWisse at 2:40 AM on February 27, 2013 [2 favorites]


MartinWisse, that's another thing I was looking at on Amazon, but have yet to properly sample with my eyeballs and hands.
posted by turgid dahlia 2 at 2:44 AM on February 27, 2013


I LOVE Reid Fleming. Haven't thought about this comic for 10 years or more, may ask my friend Paulie if I can look at his books again.
posted by Mister_A at 2:47 AM on February 27, 2013


Pay what it's worth or he'll piss in your garden

That's not a threat, it's an incentive!
posted by fairmettle at 3:04 AM on February 27, 2013


I discovered the first Reid in a comic store in Santa Monica back in 1981 or '82 and became an immediate fan. (I thought Peter Boyle would have been an ideal movie Reid.) For Christmas one year I had my magazine's prepress house make big blowups of classic Reid panels and I had them framed and gave them as gifts. One was "78 cents or I piss on your flowers," another was "I thought I told you to shut up." Mine is "Make him drink coffee til it comes out his ears," and it still holds a place of honor on my home office wall, more than 20 years later. Last year ordered a bunch of tee shirts from Boswell's online store. He even sent me some autographed prints.
posted by Man-Thing at 5:19 AM on February 27, 2013


If you can translate the 'especially vile Hungarian epithet' it's worth it.
posted by ovvl at 5:35 AM on February 27, 2013


Love love LOVE Reid Fleming. Own the comics, wore out the t-shirt, still smile when I re-read the old books.

And I agree that Reid Fleming and the Flaming Carrot are two of my favorite comic book characters of the era. (Also Roachmill, but he was more grim than funny.) The one time I went to a comic con, Bob Burden was there and I bought several Flaming Carrot issues and he happily signed them all after I -- about 12 years old -- gushed about him for a few minutes.
posted by wenestvedt at 6:19 AM on February 27, 2013


There is a solicitors nearby called Fleming & Reid and i always have a laugh remembering these . It must be about time for some more "Tales from the Beanworld" from about the same era
posted by stuartmm at 7:50 AM on February 27, 2013 [1 favorite]


Another Reid Fleming fan here. Like wenestvedt, I wored out the t-shirt. Passed on the comics to my children. Went in costume to a Halloween party back in 198_.
posted by doctornemo at 8:18 AM on February 27, 2013


Wish I could extra favorite this. My older brother introduced me to these. I can't get enough of them.
posted by Smedleyman at 9:23 AM on February 27, 2013


At last! I found a bunch of Reid Fleming comics in an old box stashed away years ago and found myself wondering, what has David Boswell been up to since the '80's? If he never drew another page, those early Reid comics would be a fine achievement forever after.
posted by motown missile at 11:55 AM on February 27, 2013


I've often wondered what my dad was thinking when he left a Reid Fleming issue in his middle schooler's Christmas stocking.

Listen -- don't ever call me a skinhead! I'm not bald! I get my hair cut this way!
posted by Ice Cream Socialist at 1:06 PM on February 27, 2013


(I thought Peter Boyle would have been an ideal movie Reid.)

Dave Thomas worked really hard trying to get that movie made. Boswell was an SCTV fan. Later, he wanted Bob Hoskins to play Reid. Jim Belushi, Jon Lovitz were also possibilities. Warner still has his script.
posted by CCBC at 2:47 PM on February 27, 2013


(I thought Peter Boyle would have been an ideal movie Reid.)

Me too! But I'd be ok with Bob Hoskins, if it came right down to it.

Is it weird that I keep my Reid Fleming comics in my sock drawer? It's just that if I couldn't lay my hands on them quickly in an emergency, I wouldn't feel right.
posted by sneebler at 7:09 PM on February 27, 2013 [1 favorite]


Very very cool. I sent Mr. Boswell $20 because it was the nice thing to do as he's put 'em all up for free, and got a message from the man himself how the money'd be wisely spent on sandwiches, hookers, and booze for Reid. David Boswell for Prime Minister! Or else!
posted by Zack_Replica at 8:26 PM on February 27, 2013


Oh man, Reid Fleming.

For a while there, "I thought I told you to shut up!" was a commonly heard phrase at many, many Seattle punk shows (most of the time uttered by John Bigley on stage).

Flemming was this odd thread that ran through the Seattle Punk scene. It was all of a piece. Flemming somehow fit in with the horrid weather, the angst, the don't give a damn attitude, the strange devotions to esoterica (TV shows not that far off from "The Horrors of Ivan") ... You either saw Reid Flemming do it or say it in a comic, or you saw something right out of one of his comics in real life.

When I learned that Boswell was from right up the road in B.C., all I could say was, " ... figures ... "
posted by Relay at 8:54 PM on February 27, 2013 [1 favorite]


In the 80's, my uncle printed T-shirts for, and shared a building with, the good people of Last Gasp, so I was exposed to a lot of amazing, occasionally inappropriate comics at a really young age (I also had a lot of great t-shirts). Along with Bob Burden's Flaming Carrot books, I loved David Boswell's Reid Fleming most of all - both really appealed to the part of my brain that was obsessed with the Three Stooges and old black and white movies. And comic books, of course.

At the time, I was obsessed with becoming a comic artist, so I sent David Boswell a letter and included some drawings of Reid. To my surprise, he sent me a package that contained: my drawings, autographed; a long letter full of compliments on my work; and some books, including a copy of Heartbreak Comics that he signed with the inscription: "To (sluggo) - hoping these shoes don't fit!" I still have it.

Thanks, David - and I'll always remember: Real men don't wear suspenders.
posted by sluggo at 7:03 AM on February 28, 2013 [2 favorites]


Reid who?
posted by reidfleming at 6:47 AM on March 3, 2013 [4 favorites]


I loved this series since I was introduced to it in the 80's. At the time I thought Jack Nicolson would have been an excellent Reid at the time.
The Horrors of Ivan really appealed to me. I even went to a few parties as Ivan, but nobody got it. (aren't you going to open the chips?).
posted by boilermonster at 11:27 PM on March 12, 2013


« Older Is artificial intelligence more a threat to...   |   DHS Checkpoint Refusals Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments