by Joe Siegel

The much anticipated return of Bear Magazine was delayed a few weeks due to explicit content. The magazine is now being printed in Canada rather than in the U.S.

According to an email sent to the magazine’s subscribers, “Our print company (who work with print shops around the world) hit a snag with their usual U.S. printers. Because we’re printing NSFW content to such a high standard, their regular printers weren’t able to take on the job — so it’s been sent instead to a wonderfully LGBTQ+-friendly printer in Canada.”

The email continued, “This means a short delay [of two to three weeks]. Our Bear-owned fulfillment company is on standby and will ship the magazine out to everyone within a few days of it arriving. The good news is that the magazines are officially on their way, and future issues should be back on schedule, as we’re happy to now be sending the magazine to our friends in the north going forward.”

Bear Magazine is aimed at gay and bisexual men who are or admire “bears,” stocky or heavyset men with facial and/or body hair. The publication was founded in 1987 by Richard Bulger and his partner Chris Nelson and marketed to the bear community within the larger LGBTQ community.

The magazine underwent some ownership changes through the years. The previous incarnation of Bear ended in 2023. This September, BEAR will return to newsstands from coast to coast, as well as internationally. It will be published quarterly and will be 100-plus pages.

“It’s going to look to honor the original [magazine],” owner and publisher Richard Jones told Press Pass Q in August 2026. “It will have erotic content of naked bears, it will have personal ads, and features of people working in the bear community.”

“There’s a large team of bears creating it,” Jones noted. “We will be using no AI photography [in the magazine]. We’re encouraging our advertisers not to use any AI photography of bears.”

Jones said Bear will have a website and there will be original content, including a bear event calendar.

Jones also expressed frustration with the way the LGBTQ community has been treated by social media platforms.

“Regardless of whether it’s erotic content, the queer community is being harassed off of all the platforms. They don’t even tell you what you’ve done wrong. This is a way to draw a line in the sand. Let’s own our own media, let’s present our community, for and by the community in our own way that cannot be ad blocked, that cannot be deleted, that cannot be removed. Once you own it, it’s yours for life.”

For readers who don’t live in a major city, they can read Bear by mail order. “People can subscribe and it will be sent to them in discreet packaging,” Jones noted. “It becomes a treasure. Something to own and love.”

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Volume 28
Issue 8