Share, RSS
Wednesday, December 10, 2008

It was only last week we mentioned that issue #66 of BEAR Magazine will be available in January. Well today we got word that they got the rights to the dotcom for BearMagazine.com. Bear Omnimedia said the domain name was placed into an auction, they made a bid, and they won it.

The following is from Bear Omnimedia: "Ok, it's official, the domain BearMagazine.com has finally come back to BEAR Magazine! Since the implosion of Brush Creek Media in 2002, much of its contents have been hidden or scattered. For the past year Bear Omnimedia has been working on putting some of the pieces back together under the BEAR label, such as reassembling all of the back issues (#1 ~ #64), for eventual posting online (article); also repackaging and re-releasing some of BCM's more popular Bear movies on DVD. Not only in support of the new BEAR, but also in acknowledgment of Bear History and its continuing relevance. Having the domain back with the magazine may be a minor gain, but it's a definite step forward.

If you have any of the old BCM movies or publications, and are interested in helping us in our efforts to reassemble the Bear archives, please email me, Teddy".

Share, RSS
Saturday, November 29, 2008

Editor of magazine Beef Mag (website) Scott McGillivray (website - profile) is letting us know that their 40th issue will soon be out for Dec / Jan. And good news, they have now switched to all color throughout the magazine. You see that thumbnail image of Roger (enlarge - galleries - profile)...? That's our ad that will be showing up in their mag. A huge thanks to Scott for designing it.

In other news - they are starting to making plans for their very first 100 BEEF weekend at the Canyon Club Resort in Palm Springs over Memorial Day Weekend 2009. There's not many details as of now but we'll keep you informed as we get more.

Lastly, Scott is wishing to inform all that BEEF is in no way associated with the 'new' BEAR magazine (website - profile). For those who don't know, Scott was the editor for BEAR but this was when the magazine was owned by Brush Creek Media. Recently, the group Bear Omnimedia (website) has acquired the rights to the 'BEAR' trademark, yet they are not affiliated in any way.

ps - here's the full sized image of that thumbnail pic of Roger.

Share, RSS
Sunday, November 2, 2008

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).

Share, RSS
Friday, February 15, 2008

I remember way back over 5 years ago a now defunct Bear's Mailing List (of QueerNet) was all abuzzed about a certain San Francisco rag going belly up - this mag known as Bear. Some of the guys that were working for this mag decided to get together and wanted to create a new mag by compiling images of what they considered to be good looking men. They wanted to slightly move away from the 'Bear' tag (since the last mag didn't do so well) yet this mag was still all about husky hairy and mature looking men. Thus was born 100% Beef Mag (website ~ TubeBear profile). 5 years later and the magazine is still going strong, publishing their 35th issue (cover) which you can pick up from their website (via subscription) or at your local XxX store. And as of right now, Beef Mag is truly the only real 'Bear' magazine out there, ever since American Bear and American Grizzly went belly up as well a couple of years back (AmaBear - all gone now).

ps - 5 years later and Bear mag 'still' has their website up - Brush Creek Media - and they are 'still' selling stuff like hats and magazines, however there is no store that exists, meaning if you send your money to that site, it's like donating it to some fundamentalist religion... meaning... you're just donating your money to thin air. Instead, go to Beef Mag's site and get yourself a copy of a real subscription.