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)
Bailey said, 4 months ago
Yay for “libelous piddlypoop”…!
Sisyphos said, 4 months ago
Whaddya got to say for yourself, Breathed? Saved, or put away?
gallar said, 4 months ago
What do you call a dead lawyer? A start.
How do you save a lawyer from drowning? You don’t.
Why do we have lawyers and the Congo basin has ebola? The Congo had first pick.
Labs have stopped testing on rats and now test on lawyers. A spokesman explained “sometimes we feel bad about harming rats”.
etc etc.
vwdualnomand said, 4 months ago
harvard law…school of chasing paper. the paper chase.
saywhatwhat said, 4 months ago
The slow zoom in today’s strip is great.
ajnotales said, 4 months ago
One of his best, artistically and conceptually … funny, too!
Vonne Anton said, 4 months ago
Wonder what he’s smoking in that pipe…
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“Gagged, strung up and vigorously SUED!” Love it.
neatslob said, 4 months ago
This was always one of my favorite Bloom County strips.
kittenpah said, 4 months ago
And the good news is that Bill didn’t eat this one.
Omnius said, 4 months ago
“Innocently expressed”? Pish Posh! Love how Berke gives lawyers so much deference.
Oh and thanks for giving us Bloom County for a few days in a row!
Sir Osis of Liver said, 4 months ago
Mr. Professor: are you telling us that yesterday’s conversation between Steve and Opus never occurred? that it was all invented by Berke Breathed?
If so, what personal knowledge do you have of this? Can you repeat your allegations under oath? Will you take the stand and be sworn a a witness, Sir?
I am ready to save Mr. Breathed’s little fanny, for a modest fee of course. Hee hee hee…
Gabryant said, 4 months ago
Years later…
Thankfully that never happened.
kaecispop said, 4 months ago
That might explain the abundance of missing strips lately. Bill didn’t eat them, the lawyers sued them out of existance.
Ionizer said, 4 months ago
Why do sharks never attack lawyers? Professional courtesy.
What does it mean when you see a lawyer half-buried at the beach? Someone got tired of carrying sand.
Lois Fisher said, 4 months ago
What is the difference between a dead lawyer and a dead skunk in the middle of the road??
There is skid marks before the dead skunk.