Bear Magazine
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 Jack Radcliffe on the cover of Bear Magazine (Issue No. 65, September 2008.) |
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| Editor-in-chief | Steven Wolfe |
|---|---|
| Categories | Men's magazines |
| Frequency | Quarterly |
| Circulation | 40,000 (2008) (U.S.) |
| Publisher | Bear Omnimedia LLC |
| First issue | 1987 |
| Country |  United States |
| Based in | Las Vegas, NV, United States |
| Language | English |
| ISSN | 1049-6521 |
Bear Magazine (ISSN 1049-6521) is one of the longest-established erotic periodicals specifically geared toward gay men who are — or who admire — masculine men with body or facial hair, i.e., bears. First published in San Francisco, CA the magazine used the tagline "Real Men, Real Sex, Real Hot."[1] Bear and its early readers were part of the emergence and mainstreaming of the bear community into the larger LGBT communities.[2]
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[edit] Chronology
Richard Bulger and Chris Nelson started the magazine in 1987 as a photo-copied flyer, published from their apartment. Bear grew, over the course of years, into an internationally distributed glossy magazine, which featured erotic photographs of masculine, mature men, and erotic stories. There was also a classified personals section which, before the emergence of the internet, was one of the few ways for bears to find compatible romantic and sexual partners, and to network with like-minded men. Bulger and Nelson first established Creative Options Associates (COA) to publish the magazine. In 1991, COA became Brush Creek Media Inc., named for Brush Creek, California, the town where their vacation cabin was located. Brush Creek Media obtained a trademark on the name "Bear" for a men's magazine in 1992.[3]
In 1992, Bear Magazine, under pressure from its worldwide distributor, threatened trademark infringement lawsuits against several smaller publications which included the word "Bear" in their title. This caused a good deal of animosity between the smaller, often locally-oriented and local-bear-group operated-publications, and the internationally distributed "Bear." As a side note, the current BEAR trademark only applies to print, electronic media and video.
The company's various publications, as well as clothing and lifestyle products, were originally displayed and sold at the "Bear Magazine office-store" above a 1908 former fire-house at the corner of 16th and Albion Streets in San Francisco. In 1994 Brush Creek Media moved to the "The Bear Store", at 367 9th Street in the South-of-Market district which is the center of San Francisco's historical gay leather district. Rick Redewill's Lone Star Saloon relocated less than a block away after losing its Mission Street location to the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, eventually becoming the quintessential bear bar which, with "The Bear Store" and nearby bars, shops and hotels catering to the bear communities formed a bear circuit for events like the annual international bear events, Folsom Street Fair and similar events that attracted tourists.
Beardog Hoffman purchased Brush Creek Media Inc. in 1994 and began expanding the company into several special-interest gay magazines and video series. In 2002 Brush Creek Media closed its doors when the IRS seized its inventory.[4] Bear Magazine was one of the casualties and publication ceased after issue #64.
In 2006, The Bear Magazine trademark was judicially assigned and registered to Butch Media Ltd of Las Vegas, Nevada, a creditor of Brush Creek Media. Similarly, in 2007 the court assigned Bear Magazine and the Brush Creek Media copyrights to Butch Media Ltd.[5] Bear Omnimedia LLC, the parent company of Butch Media Ltd, re-launched Bear Magazine starting with issue #65, published in August 2008. Bear Omnimedia also offers erotic DVDs under the BEAR brand and is re-releasing on DVD some of the older VHS titles originally published by Brush Creek Media. Inc.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Serial No. 75623942
- ^ Abley, Sean (August 26, 2005). "The Politics of Fur". Advocate (944): pp. 80–82.
- ^ U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Serial No. 74222548
- ^ Jack Fritscher, http://www.jackfritscher.com/Drummer/Issues/119/Buckskin.html, AUTHOR'S HISTORICAL CONTEXT INTRODUCTION [to Drummer Article] written April 15, 2003
- ^ U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Serial No. 78518965 and 78518967
