Jim Boroch always tinkered around with drawing as a hobby, but never found an outlet for it until he joined the Army.

Boroch, 54, is better known for his work on the comic strip Pvt. Hazard, which appears in military-base newspapers such as the Redstone Rocket, Fort Bliss Bugle and The Fort Gordon Signal. The total circulations of those three papers means Boroch’s tales of the misadventures of Pvt. Hazard are seen by roughly 100,000 service members in three states.

“I try to just find the humor as opposed to trying to downgrade anyone,” Boroch told The News Courier on Wednesday. “It’s just silly things.”

Boroch, an Army brat himself, spent 28 years in the military and now lives with wife Hope in Tanner. In 2008 he noticed an advertisement in the Fort Bliss Bugle calling for cartoonists to submit entries for a weekly strip. Boroch sent them a packet of five strips featuring a fictional younger version of himself.

“I’ve been doing a weekly comic ever since,” he said.

Boroch draws inspirations for Pvt. Hazard from his military experience and humorous observations of today’s armed forces.

“I bounce (ideas) off of my wife, of course, because she has a better sense of humor,” he said.

Pvt. Hazard hasn’t won any official awards, but Boroch knows it resonates with more than a few people.

“I get more feedback walking around,” he said. “When I see a Pvt. Hazard cartoon on  someone’s wall, to me, that’s real positive feedback.”

Boroch has lived all around the country, was sent to Bosnia twice and served a tour of duty during Operation Desert Storm. His most recent military posting was to Redstone Arsenal and after he and Hope arrived in Alabama, they decided to stay. Upon retiring from the Army, he snapped up a contracting job with Kratos Defense & Security Solutions in Huntsville. They bought a home in Tanner, where he continues to work on Pvt. Hazard.

“We love it out there, it’s so nice,” he said.