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 (10) (Please sign in to comment)
Strod said, 9 months ago
OK, this strip originally ran on a Saturday (May 2, 1987).
The upcoming strips will make a little more sense if you first read the Sunday strip that ran on the next day:
Bloom County strip for Sunday, May 3, 1987
(I post this because only the weekday strips are being re-run.)
Sisyphos said, 9 months ago
@Strod
Thanks, Strod!
Today’s strip sets up the transition to “Bill in California” while popping popcult balloons. The Sunday strip posted by Strod asks the question, can a country cat from the innocent meadows of Bloom County find happiness as an incredibly wealthy rock star? With Bill’s shall-we-say diminished mental capacity, the answer could be yes.
D-squared said, 9 months ago
I say "Ack!!
bhinkle said, 9 months ago
The strip yesterday set this one up, Opus was carrying Bill to CA. I’m surprised that GoComics has May 3, 87 available; if they are only repeating dailies.
Vonne Anton said, 9 months ago
That Ellie Mae was hot!
Strod said, 9 months ago
@bhinkle
They have all the Sundays available. I really can’t imagine why they only repeat the dailies.
smiddlecn said, 9 months ago
I don’t recall ever seeing this particular one before—funny!
wroady said, 9 months ago
America needs to return to the greenbacks, the federal reserve and the gold standard is going to be the ruin of us all; but more importantly, ya gotta love them country pussies!
gmu328 said, 9 months ago
thanks stroud
rbiro said, 9 months ago
@Strod
Thanks!