David Boswell

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.

Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman
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.

Reid's favorite TV program, which he sometimes goes absent from his delivery schedule to see his favourite soap opera, The Dangers of Ivan. At one point, Ivan has a terrible accident while driving, spends 6 years in a coma, and, upon awakening, falls to his death from an open window. He returns as an undead monster starring in The Horrors of Ivan. Despite this drastic change, Reid remains a member of his fan club.

In Rogue to Riches, which starts right after the 1-shot Eclipse issue, Reid is finally fired by Mr. O'Clock for wrecking one truck too many (which he didn't do), shacks up with Lena, gets employment with a cable company, and, though he appears to be good at it, he and his partner are finally fired for damages to a customer's lawn gnome. He then goes to get his original job back, as it was his calling. There are dream sequences as well, showing Reid's inner anxieties and fears. A Fieldsian revelation wraps up the story. In the 1980s Hollywood bought the rights to the screenplay, which was written by Boswell. A film has yet to be made.

Publication history
Although Reid's adventures were first published in 1978, his first comic book was self-published by Boswell in 1980.

Beginning in 1986 and continuing through 1991, Eclipse Comics published two specials and five annuals featuring Reid. From 1996–1998, the Canadian publisher Deep Sea Comics published nine issues of Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman, plus one special. The first six issues consisted of new printings of the 1980 self-published series and the 1986–1990 Eclipse series. (The 1986-1990 Eclipse issues were numbered #1-5; when reissued under the Deep Sea logo, #s 1-5 were renumbered #2-6, with #1 being the 1980 self-published book).

Issues #7–9 and the special featured new stories. In 2002, Dark Horse Comics published a one-shot featuring Bob Burden's Flaming Carrot and Reid. 2011 saw the first of two hardcover collected volumes released by IDW Publishing, "Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman Volume 1" contains the first Reid Fleming comic and the mini-series, Rogue to Riches, as well as Heartbreak Comics.

In popular culture
Issue #3 of the 1991 DC Comics limited series Challengers of the Unknown features a poster depicting the character Leslie "Rocky" Davis starring in a Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman movie. Reid also appears in issue #5 of that same title, threatening to "piss on [Rocky's] flowers" unless he pays a $17.28 bill. This is an allusion to a well-known scene in the 1980 self-published issue where Reid threatens to urinate on someone's flowers unless 78 cents is paid.

Photography
Boswell's 1978 photograph of Leonard Cohen is the cover photo on the authorized biography by Sylvie Simmons in the following countries: Canada [hardcover and paperback], United States [hardcover and paperback], the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Norway, Denmark, Israel, and Poland.