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)
rayannina said, 6 months ago
Myron Dickinson has his secretary sharpen the guillotine …
Sisyphos said, 6 months ago
Bill’s flop-sweat permeates the atmosphere even from afar, as far as the 1980s….
skeeterhawk said, 6 months ago
Of course I never conceived ET as being lovable.
Sir Osis of Liver said, 6 months ago
The Bruce Dickinson makes and sells gold records but his brother, Myron, obviously meets with considerably less success selling cat dolls…
Gafferjack said, 6 months ago
Wouldn’t it be etc……. etc. phone home, etc., etc., etc.
Vonne Anton said, 6 months ago
…thus ending the ET marketing trend at the same time…
el_flesh said, 6 months ago
I’d buy Bill merchandise over garfield any day
Colonel Claus
said, 6 months ago
Personally, I would have called him etc!
nz4m60
said, 6 months ago
Speaking of Bill the Cat Merchandise…I sent my request in for the Bill the cat Buyer’s Club membership to the Iowa City address listed in a cartoon (first published in 1983) about two weeks ago.
I was astonished to relieve the request back return to sender. No longer at this address! I bet tens of thousands B.T.C. fans had the same heartbreaking experience as I did.
lin4869
said, 6 months ago
@Sir Osis of Liver
I have an Oral Bill tee shirt. LOL
Pigman said, 6 months ago
I’ll be damned, i don’t think i have ever seen this particular strip before. And isn’t Bill talkative today!?!