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 (11) (Please sign in to comment)
Sisyphos said, 8 months ago
And so Edith Dreck became a well-to-do soft drink endorser, whilst Bill the Cat sank back into much-deserved obscurity….
—Or did he?
SwimsWithSharks
said, 8 months ago
TWA. So retro.
Sir Osis of Liver said, 8 months ago
Shame on you, Bill the cat! Shame!
Vonne Anton said, 8 months ago
At least he is coming home to Bloom County where he belongs.
MagicFan said, 8 months ago
At least there’s one more name that can be added to the list of honest people.
MrSulusBrain said, 8 months ago
“The Lord works in mysterious ways”. Albeit, some much stranger than others isn’t that right Edith?
THEVIC IOUSDOUG MARTIG said, 8 months ago
Let’s start a campaign to “Expel Bill the Cat from Bloom country” and You wanna bet his ratings will shoot to the moon? who wants
in?
THEVIC IOUSDOUG MARTIG said, 8 months ago
We’ll show dear “Edith” who’s who in Bloom Country
Thirdguy said, 8 months ago
We love you Bill, no matter what. Who cares what nun you hooked up with, we all make mistakes!!
piloti said, 8 months ago
@SwimsWithSharks
Not retro at all. When this strip was published in June, ‘83, TWA was still a thriving airline. It didn’t go away until 2001.
Cardboard Cutout said, 8 months ago
@THEVIC IOUSDOUG MARTIG
NO NO NO Uncle Thevic, Bill is still a drug addled, brain dead, Rocker/Communist and former candidate for president. See he has redeeming qualities.