Posted on 07/13/2015 3:55:50 PM PDT by iowamark
Fans of the well-loved comic strip Bloom County are celebrating this morning, after cartoonist Berkeley Breathed issued the first panels of his satirical strip in decades.
Breathed won a Pulitzer Prize for his work on Bloom County back in 1987; two years later, he quit producing it. On Sunday, he posted a photo of himself to Facebook in which he sat in front of a computer screen with an empty cartoon template titled Bloom County 2015.
"A return after 25 years. Feels like going home," he wrote.
And on Monday, one of Breathed's central characters, Opus, awoke from his long slumber with a question:
"That was some nap!! How long was I out, Milo?" "25 years."
Breathed released the new strip via Facebook. The most popular comment on his post seems to sum up many fans' response: "And suddenly the world is back in alignment. Thank you Sir."
Fans of Bloom County had been anticipating the strip's return — particularly after Breathed responded to a commenter's request for new material last week by writing, "Watch this space."
The strip's return promises to reunite readers with Opus, Bill the Cat and other characters that were previously seen just in Breathed's two Sunday-only strips, Outland (1989-1995) and Opus (2003-2008). They're likely to have plenty to talk about: Bloom County, whose small-town characters often found absurdity in America's cultural and political life, returns as the country heads into a new presidential election season.
It's unclear whether Breathed will syndicate his new work in newspapers; he recently recalled how an editorial dispute with a publisher had a direct role in his decision to quit cartooning in 2008. His Facebook postings, Breathed said earlier this month, are "nicely out of reach of nervous newspaper editors, the PC humor police now rampant across the web ... and ISIS."
When Bloom County went idle in 1989, it was one of several clever and inventive comic strips, such as Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side, that were beloved by fans and yet were also comparatively short-lived. Today, devoted fans are treating its return as a small miracle.
"As every day there's some part of my childhood dying off, this morning I awoke to see one part be brought back to life," a reader named John Lowry wrote on Facebook. "Thank you from the bottom of my heart Mr. Breathed, you made my day!"
I bought an autographed lithograph of this off of his website. Hand drawn Bill the Cat on it as well. Money well spent.
He leans Left. His characters are great. I for one and excited he is returning.
Excellent, thanks. I just checked amazon, no Shoe books in a long time.
I agree I even have a stuffed Opus in my den. His work done for the movie ‘Secondhand Lions’ was even good. One of my favorite books of my youngest Daughter was ‘A wish for Wings that Worked’.
Meh. Call me when “Calvin and Hobbes” comes back.
CC
I still have my copy of Penguin Dreams And Stranger Things.
I love Bloom County!!
Truly inspired comedy!
Meh. Call me when “Calvin and Hobbes” comes back.
CC
I think that Berke was personally liberal but he often made fun of the Left.
Watterson did some “guest” work last year, you know. I wonder if he’s toying with the idea of making a comeback?
I imagine you have seen the Opus Christmas special; “A Wish for Wings that Work”. It’s a GREAT one. Was only on for one year and we got it on video. It’s on youtube now. We would watch it with the kids every year. Didn’t seem to disturb them too much.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLccxrDgi5U
Dear Santa:
I have wings that don’t work - I prefer to blame Congress.
See my post 53 about the movie from the book.
Stephan Pastis, author of PBS reached out to Bill W. and asked him if he would contribute.
Bill did a guest appearance on the PBS strip, and you can totally tell by the artistry.
Not much, but it's a taste, and very coolly done.
Berkley belittled him unmercifully in his strips.
Ok, so let me get this straight:
We’ve got an election where Cliton is running against Bush
We’ve got warnings about an ice age coming
Russia is saber rattling again
And now Bloom County?
Tell me time travel is not possible.
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