The Birth of Boris
bwana spoons
Boris THE BEE
Many moons ago I had the idea that there were these three bugs living by a log. They were sitting around a little stump table drinking some tea, and getting into a fuss about something.
I’ve always loved bugs. I’m sort of a wimp, never wanting to pick most of them up out of fear, cept ladybugs and rolly polleys, who could resist their cuteness. I would spend hours staring at ant mounds, and turning over rocks to see what I could find. To this day I’m still doing that, but my adult brain limits these activities to minutes:)
Anywhoo. Boris and his friends. I showed these drawings to Gargamel with no response, and then to Super 7 with no interest either. Oh well. They’re fun to draw at least. 8 months roll by and SDCC is on. I think maybe this was one of the years when most of the Grass Hut Gang was all together. Pretty sure it was at least Martin, kiyoshi, maybe Mike, and Most of the Gargamel crew. Midway through the show, kiyoka says “I want to make the fly.” Which i didn’t know what he was talking about for a bit, then it hit me. He was referring to my little bug buddies, and specifically Boris.
Less than a month later Brian Flynn said I want to do that beetle from those bug drawings, and Frederick the Beetle was born.
P.S. Bits. There were three bugs, but I can’t remember who/what the third one was.
I’m not sure whether the thing at SDCC or Brian saying he wanted to do Frederick came first, just that they were within weeks of each other.
Boris the Bee was initially named Frederick The Bee. But I mixed that up somehow. Maybe the way the names rolled off the tongue, or maybe it was because sometime in the late 90’s I had made a mini comic about a dung beetle named Frederick, and had forgotten about that as well. I’m good at that kind of stuff.
