Box Office Poison originally appeared in comic book form by Antarctic Press, which published 21 issues plus a special from October 1996 to October 2000. The collected Box Office Poison is over 600 pages long. Robinson stated that serializing such a long story in black-and-white form was inspired by Dave Sim's Cerebus. Box Office Poison has been translated into Spanish, titled Malas Ventas; Portuguese, titled Fracasso de Publico; French, titled De mal en pis, and Greek. In 2003, Top Shelf published BOP!: More Box Office Poison, a collection of previously published stories that had not been included in the 2001 trade paperback, plus a few new stories.
Characters
Box Office Poison features a wide array of major, supporting, and minor characters from many walks of life.
Lead characters
Sherman Davies, a bookstore clerk. His hatred of his job is never quite enough to get him to quit.
Ed Velasquez: Sherman's friend, who laments never having had a girlfriend for the better part of the series. Ed has aspirations of being a major cartoonist, which are hampered by the various twists and turns of the industry. Marries Hildy at the end of the series.
Beatrice Dorothy Lestrade, who goes exclusively by her middle name. Works as a writer at a magazine. Sherman's girlfriend throughout the book.
Stephen Gaedel, history professor. Sherman rents a room in Stephen's apartment.
Jane Pekar, cartoonist, and Stephen's longtime girlfriend. Her hatred for Dorothy is a recurring characteristic.
Irving Flavor, a cartoonist and creator of the fantastically popular 'Nightstalker' character. With some help from Ed, he is coaxed into fighting Zoom Comics, the owner of the Nightstalker, for some payback on the profitable franchise.
Hildy Kierkegaard, beleaguered assistant of comics writer Archie Pupkin III. She strikes up a friendship with Ed that turns into a romance, and eventually they get married.
Supporting characters
"The Dragon," Sherman's bookstore supervisor. She calls him into her office multiple times to reprimand him against various mess-ups.
Sora Tweed, owner of the apartment building Sherman lives in. She ultimately dies of a heart attack.
Minor characters
Emil and Mora Yossarian, residents of the aforementioned apartment building. Their last name appears to be a nod to Joseph Heller's Catch-22, featuring a man named Yossarian. The book Catch-22 is featured later in the story, reinforcing this idea. Emil appears to be on probation. The Yossarians have a dog and a baby.
