'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'. He should not be confused with alternative musician David J. Boswell.
Boswell was born in 1953 in London, Ontario, but grew up in Hamilton and Dundas, Ontario. He studied film at Oakville's Sheridan College, where he graduated in 1974. He ranked columnist Robert Benchley, comedians Buster Keaton, The Marx Brothers, W.C. Fields and film directors Luis Buñuel and Josef Sternberg as his biggest creative influences. His favorite artist is Gustave Doré. After graduation, Boswell earned a living as darkroom technician. Since staging photographs and films is very difficult, while comics allow the artist to conjure up everything without outside interference on a piece of paper, he decided to draw comics. His debut, Heart Break Comics' (14 July 1977) was published in the weekly newspaper The Georgia Straight. To be closer to their office, Boswell moved from Toronto to Vancouver that same year. After a few weeks, he interrupted his comic for a year and a half, to learn himself architectural perspective.
'Heartbreak Comics'.
In June 1978, Boswell's 'Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman' debuted in The Georgia Straight. Based on a childhood bully with the same name, Reid Fleming uses aggressive means to sell his dairy products. 'Reid Fleming' was a hit, but after a while Boswell faced writer's block. He decided to quit and return to working with photography. But the newspaper's editor, Bob Mercer, was such a fan of the comic that he managed to get Boswell a raise, allowing him to continue. In 1980, the first 'Reid Fleming' comic book was published, followed by a sequel book in 1984. In 1986, the 'Reid Fleming' comics were distributed by Eclipse.
The 'Reid Fleming' series was a hit, and in 1987 Boswell sold an option to Warner Brothers to adapt his comic into a film, for a self-described "relatively small sum". Later Boswell discovered that this sale led to the frustrating situation that he no longer owned his own comic's merchandising rights, while the film itself never went into production. Among the actors considered for the role of Reid Fleming were Jim Belushi, Jim Carrey, Bobcat Goldthwaite, Bob Hoskins, Jack Nicholson, Dave Thomas and Robin Williams. In 1985, Boswell had also been 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.
After Eclipse went out of business in the early 1990s, Boswell bought 'Reid Fleming''s rights back and went in sea with another publishing company, Deep-Sea Comics. Boswell worked together 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. That same year, new adventures of Reid Fleming were published. In 2017, Cal Johnston scripted a crossover comic between Reid Fleming and the cast of the comedy TV series 'Trailer Park Boys'.
Another title David Boswell created is the one-shot 'Ray-Mond' (1998).
'Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman'.
On 7 May 2011, Boswell was inducted in the Canadian Cartoonists Hall of Fame. 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. 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.
As a photographer, Boswell has snapped many celebrities. One of them, Leonard Cohen, being interviewed for the Georgia Straight in 1978. Boswell's photo of Cohen were used for the official authorized biography about the singer, written by Sylvie Simmons.
'Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman'.