Can you tell me what you're looking at...? That's the very 1st cover of the very first BEAR magazine (full cover) which was published back in '87. Were you ever curious as to what those early BEAR rags looked like? Well you'll soon be able to see all the back issues online. Bear Fund is working right now on posting the complete archives ~ issues #1 thru #64. All the proceeds will benefit the Bear community through the Bear Fund and the Bears of San Francisco.

A little Bearish history lesson: Richard Bulger and Chris Nelson started the mag back in '87 as a photo-copied flyer. As the magazine grew in popularity, they decided to 'inc' it and they formed Brush Creek Media (archived website) as well as grab the brand name 'BEAR' as a registered trademark.

In '94, they sold the company to BearDog Hoffman who at decided to expand Brush Creek into several 'special-interest' mags (such as 'International Leatherman', 'Hombres Latinos', 'Foreskin Quarterly' to name a few). However, by '00 the company was having financial issues and by '02, BearDog had run the company into the ground. This forced Brush Creek to go bankrupt.

For years the brand name 'BEAR' was actually up for grabs, and either nobody knew about it or nobody actually cared. It wasn't until '06 when Butch Media Ltd of Las Vegas, a creditor's of Brush Creek, decided to go court and they were judicially assigned the name BEAR. Since then, Butch Media has formed Bear Omnimedia and has already published their very 1st BEAR Magazine ~ issue #65, with issue #66 slated for the winter '09 (website - interview - profile).

Once they acquired the BEAR name, they also acquired all the back issues (1 thru 64) as well as the videos. After speaking with the guys at Bear Omnimedia, they told me that they might put up a pay section for guys to view the back issues and whatever proceeds they make from doing this, it will to be benefit charitable groups.

So there's your Bear history lesson for today. Keep an eye out on the Bear Fund website, and we'll be sure to let you know here at PlanetBears when you can start perusing them very 1st BEAR issues... 'cause it's real important to know where your Bear roots come from, and what better way than to look at naked photos of Bearish men (some sources from Wikipedia's article on BEAR Magazine).