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)
Sisyphos said, 5 months ago
Yes, Hodge-Podge, whatever you say! —And, no, obviously the ACLU doesn’t know about this nativity scene, or it wouldn’t be here.
exoticdoc2 said, 5 months ago
@Sisyphos
Yep, they’d be having a conniption, no doubt about it. How dare anyone point out the reason for Christmas!
old1953 said, 5 months ago
How dare anyone say a nativity is more appropriate in front of a church than a post office. The idea!
specinss said, 5 months ago
Where is Opus?
Eric Klein said, 5 months ago
This is a few days early, Christmas isn’t until January 7th
Burnside217 said, 5 months ago
@specinss
Opus is taking the picture…
MrSulusBrain said, 5 months ago
@specinss
C’mon, a penguin in a christmas scene. Why that would be just plain sacreligous!
jonesb said, 5 months ago
Christmas, New Years: they’re both Solstice celebrations.
Sir Osis of Liver said, 5 months ago
@specinss
Opus has taken Bill into custody and keeps him there. Otherwise, like all cats he would make short work of the Christmas tree’s ornaments.
goprendek said, 5 months ago
bill climbed up into the tree as all cats do. but he is probably drinking spiked egg nog as other cats dont.
Vonne Anton said, 5 months ago
Love Steve Dallas as a reindeer…..LOL
skeeterhawk said, 5 months ago
Yes, we’re again reminded that so many things and issues remain the same. I recall now that the “war on Christmas” had been moseying around back then too. Must be a 2000 year old battle now. That’s all I’ll say about it.
CountAnton said, 5 months ago
@skeeterhawk
Damn Christians and their ‘War on Saturnalia’… ;)
sarah413 said, 5 months ago
And to think that I thought that Portnoy complained way too much!
Alvin Anderson
said, 5 months ago
I use to love this strip but Berkeley began to get too morbid and depressing. I’ve always wondered what his problem was. Sad, too, because I really did enjoy his cast of characters and humore but he started being just too depressing. I wrote him once over a particullarly nasty strip before a holiday one year. He was not open to input.