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 (15) (Please sign in to comment)
Sisyphos said, 6 months ago
Don’t you just hate those annoying commercials? Wish you could fast-forward to the naughty bits of the strip?
Stregone said, 6 months ago
Wait….I want to know more about Steve’s fantasy & the quiche (LOL)
A SAINT said, 6 months ago
Funny…I wanted to know if the PO Box is still good!
elbeck said, 6 months ago
Bendix was swallowed up in 1983 (this strip may have been a rip on how Bendix was acquired, a convoluted story).
Bill the Cat still survives (on the net).
I guess this tells us who had the most staying power.
SwimsWithSharks
said, 6 months ago
I might send in that coupon.
Maybe that was Steve’s fantasy: getting knocked around by Quiche.
Vonne Anton said, 6 months ago
Dang! I broke my monitor with the scissors trying to cut out that coupon!!!!
Bargrove said, 6 months ago
Vonne: YOU WIN.
comicnut4636 said, 6 months ago
@A SAINT
The ZIP code is valid…go ahead take a chance!!!
Somebody in Iowa City is going to be getting a lot of mail???
Brian K
said, 6 months ago
Milo… Get off the set and let the strip be.
Vic said, 6 months ago
I signed up, the only stuffed plush toy I have ever received that had fleas.
basicallystupid15 said, 6 months ago
I wonder if the fantasy involved a stripper pole?
Redkaycei Repoc said, 6 months ago
@Stregone
Quiche is the Lady’s name in case you didn’t know….
Sir Osis of Liver said, 6 months ago
I don’t know what Steve said, but he deserved it, if only for all the other times that he deserved it and didn’t get it.
MagicFan said, 6 months ago
This strip is often a good prediction of the shocking state of morals today…
Horst Hrubbisch said, 6 months ago
“DOWN GOES DALLAS! DOWN GOES DALLAS!”