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 (21) (Please sign in to comment)
win said, 8 months ago
“I’m not drunk, I’m just drinkin’”.
Pigman said, 8 months ago
“I did not have bible study with that woman Ms. Dreck”
dukedoug said, 8 months ago
@Pigman
Yes, I think this may refer to THAT incident …
Must check the dates on the strip and the original statement.
dukedoug said, 8 months ago
Hmmm … inconclusive …
Any help here from US historians and / or Bloom County subject matter experts ?
dukedoug said, 8 months ago
Interesting … President “Bubba’s” statement was made on January 26 1998 … Australia Day and also the day Compaq Computer announced the acquisition of Digital Equipment Corp (DEC), for whom I was working at the time. I had just arrived home from the Pacific Telecoms Conference in Hawaii and would have been MUCH more preoccupied with the Compaq-DEC thing than President Bubba … seeing as how my job was on the line. (Couldn’t care less about his …).
piloti said, 8 months ago
@win
Heard that song yesterday!
Sisyphos said, 8 months ago
Edith Dreck! Bill needs you now, before the Wicked Spawn of Satan (his PR man) destroys his unique talent!
MrSulusBrain said, 8 months ago
“fibs….lies…vicious, slanderous half-truths”…..wait a minute, is this a celebrity scandal or a political campaign?
masterskrain said, 8 months ago
@MrSulusBrain
What’s the difference??
Sir Osis of Liver said, 8 months ago
Half-truths… so there IS some truth in the reports? Bill, please ack us it ain’t so!
Doctor Why said, 8 months ago
No, Mr. PR Agent, I think he was pickled long ago. Last night had nothing to do with it.
MrSulusBrain said, 8 months ago
@masterskrain
Celebrity scandal they are usually screwing each other….Political campaign we are the ones getting screwed!
morosemoose said, 8 months ago
Must have been one of the ubermoral religious leader’s scandals. Breathed stopped writing Bloom County 3 1/2 years before Bubba got elected. Now which preacher was it…there were so many at the time…
Pigman said, 8 months ago
@dukedoug
The Lewinsky thing happened in the nineties, Bloom County ended in 1989
brewwitch said, 8 months ago
…it was like Willie pulled his script right out of this strip. Fact following fiction.