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 (18) (Please sign in to comment)
Pigman said, 4 months ago
Given how many times a missing strip is blamed on Bill’s eating habits, he should be at least as fat as Garfield by now.
exoticdoc2 said, 4 months ago
@Pigman
Paper and ink are pretty low cal.
capnLaz
said, 4 months ago
And they promote gas.
Sisyphos said, 4 months ago
Four strikes. You’re way out, cat!
Manhunter808 said, 4 months ago
“A few of the original proofs….” Seems like quite a few recently. And so “the gap” continues to widen …
Claude Badley said, 4 months ago
Again?
morosemoose said, 4 months ago
@Pigman
All t he tender vittles he snorts keeps the weight down
Omnius said, 4 months ago
Must be negotiating a new contract, only reason why we’re not seeing anything in the way of funny old strips. I hope we can resume our regular programming soon.
Janet
said, 4 months ago
Enough already. They’re repeats, dammit.
echoraven said, 4 months ago
Aren’t these reruns?
Gailed said, 4 months ago
Getting Tired #%&*
Ronc2 said, 4 months ago
@Janet
For those of us who haven’t seen them before, it doesn’t matter if they’re repeats.
GreggW
said, 4 months ago
Just run some strip that’s now in public domain while Mr. Breathed’s in negotiation. Any suggestions?
dbig 1oohh said, 4 months ago
@GreggW
Yes.Tell Berkeley to make new ones.I’ve ready almost(if not all) of them & I still laugh. But putting out new ones would be a winner!
Michael Berger said, 4 months ago
This is outrageous! Now I’m going to have t go down in the basement and read them from my old Bloom County boks. What an inconvenience!