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 (25) (Please sign in to comment)
Vonne Anton said, 7 months ago
I didn’t get it…it was too subliminal.
Pigman said, 7 months ago
Why are these two women even letting Opus hang around them? I guess they haven’t heard about his PENGUIN LUST.
stp1957 said, 7 months ago
Wow! This must be the very first Bloom County strip? Opus is drawn completely different?
Wenthral said, 7 months ago
Yeah the way back machine was set for…uh.. well, Way back..
Strod said, 7 months ago
Hmmm…. this strip is from Sunday, June 20, 1982.
As I said yesterday, the three strips of the 1987 “penguin lust” series following the one from yesterday are missing from the archives. Perhaps they are filling up the space with older strips?
Anyway, I think it’s awesome that they are showing at least some of the old Sunday strips, as those are not being re-run currently.
Sisyphos said, 7 months ago
Opus the Penguin, starring in PENGUIN LUST!, with Quiche Lorraine and Bobbi Harlow! It rocks! It subverts! It lusts for sardines!
damifino59 said, 7 months ago
Appears to be a 1982 date in panel 3. Could be wrong but that’s what it looks like without a microscope.
lkbonham said, 7 months ago
And it’s also a retread of an old “Academic Waltz” strip that Breathed did as a student at U (late 70’s).
dukedoug said, 7 months ago
Wow … it’s a Sunday strip … and that’s probably the most unusual feature of it. If the Sunday strips ARE available, why doesn’t GoComics publish them in sequence, on Sundays ?
vwdualnomand said, 7 months ago
see, girls say nice things to other girls, but in their minds, they hate each other guts.
Pigman said, 7 months ago
@stp1957
The first Opus has him sitting in a car with Binkley and dad, and his nose is even smaller than here — pretty much like a real penguin’s nose.
K.C. Fahel said, 7 months ago
@Pigman
“A boy and his penguin!”
“A penguin and his boy!”
“Two dips & a dad.”
elbeck said, 7 months ago
Opus wasn’t part of the strip when Bloom County first appeared. When he did, he didn’t speak verbally until later.
Darren Blair said, 7 months ago
@dukedoug
I recall hearing that there were some issues with the color strips not scanning properly, necessitating a lot of touch-up work.
Thirdguy said, 7 months ago
@vwdualnomand
It is probably a good thing that us guys do not know what the girls are thinking, when they are saying nice things to us.