Bloom County, a 1980s cartoon-comic strip that dealt with socio-political issues as seen through the eyes of highly exaggerated characters (e.g. Bill the Cat and Opus the Penguin) and humorous analogies.
Creator Berkeley Breathed's first regularly published strip, Academia Waltz, appeared in the Daily Texan in 1978. The strip attracted notice from the editors of the Washington Post who recruited him to do a nationally syndicated strip. On December 8, 1980, Bloom County made its debut and featured some of the characters from Academia Waltz, including former frat-boy Steve Dallas and the paraplegic Vietnam War veteran Cutter John.
Bloom County earned Berkeley the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning in 1987. The strip eventually appeared in over 1,200 newspapers around the world until he retired the daily strip in 1989, stating, "A good comic strip is no more eternal than a ripe melon. The ugly truth is that in most cases, comics age less gracefully than their creators". The comic continues in recirculation on GoComics!
© Berkeley Breathed - All Rights Reserved.
Bliss by Harry Bliss
Bo Nanas by John Kovaleski
Comments (19) (Please sign in to comment)
wcorvi said, about 1 year ago
Poor KITTIE!
Sisyphos said, about 1 year ago
Bill! Come back, Bill! (With apologies to that highly regarded cowboy movie of 1953.)
Thirdguy said, about 1 year ago
No Problem, he still has a few lives left!
xsintrix said, about 1 year ago
Bill will still land on his feet.
Raygun said, about 1 year ago
The incident with Bill the cat on TWA airlines is well known and the main reason they went bankrupt.
MrSulusBrain said, about 1 year ago
Any publicity is good publicity, right Steve?
kittenpah said, about 1 year ago
Don’t flush on the airplane sitting down.
Vonne Anton said, about 1 year ago
Call me a fool, but I was unaware airplanes toilets flushed into the atmosphere…I thought it went into a tank on board that was emptied on landing. Now I’m a bit grossed out about living in the flight path.
Shooter918 said, about 1 year ago
@Vonne Anton
They flush into a tank & are emptied on the ground.
Sometimes chunks of ice get dislodged in flight if the cap isn’t secured….so don’t eat blue ice.
MrSulusBrain said, about 1 year ago
@Shooter918
Wow, so many restrictions these days…..blue ice, yellow snow…what’s next, pink slime?
Ionizer said, about 1 year ago
@Vonne Anton
“Call me a fool, but I was unaware airplanes toilets flushed into the atmosphere…”
If you can suspend belief for the rest of the stuff in Bloom County (talking penguin?), this one shouldn’t be a problem. Besides, if this one “error” isn’t allowed, there’s no joke, and I’m sure the next few strips would suffer.
barefootanarchist said, about 1 year ago
You mean to tell me that, after all these years, this comic strip isn’t real life? That it’s just made up and may contain a bit of artistic license? I feel so used.
Vonne Anton said, about 1 year ago
It was a joke, folks. Smile.
MrSulusBrain said, about 1 year ago
@Vonne Anton
A joke? This is hardly the proper forum for jokes! We are trying to have a deep and meaningful discussion concerning neo-political issues facing our world today. Bill getting flushed out an airplane is pretty funny though! :P
Sir Osis of Liver said, about 1 year ago
@Thirdguy
Yes, but how many exactly?