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 (28) (Please sign in to comment)
Kosaka Jinnai said, 4 months ago
Oh, god, I LOVED this one!
wdpeck said, 4 months ago
TINY nitpick! It’s “footless halls of air”, not “footloose”. Does this count as a Kevin Bacon connection?
gallar said, 4 months ago
Further nitpicking I’m afraid. “…topped the windswept heights with EASY grace…” and there is no “I” at the start of the final line. My favourite poem, and whereas not that many people still alive have experienced flying Spitfires like the doomed young MacGee of the Royal Canadian Air Force, something in this poem still does it for most pilots, no matter how mundane our own craft.
vwdualnomand said, 4 months ago
didn’t reagan use this for the challenger disaster?
Sisyphos said, 4 months ago
What a rush!
How good of Milo and Binkley to give Opus his chance to experience flight!
James
said, 4 months ago
Someone mentioned “God” in a comic strip after the 1960s. Call the ACLU or something. Someone might be offended. ;-)
James Swinford
said, 4 months ago
Curious about the date when this originally ran, as we marked the anniversary of the Challenger disaster just a week or two ago. If before Challenger exploded, this sets up an interesting sequence. If after that, if profanes a moment which remains hallowed for most of us who listened back them.
Strod said, 4 months ago
@James Swinford
The strip ran on July 8, 1984, a year and a half before the Challenger disaster.
Vonne Anton said, 4 months ago
Surprising that Opus isn’t ticklish.
mightaswellbe said, 4 months ago
Living next to a major AirForce base we had this poem run every day when the TV station closed for the night. If I remember right it was an F-104 featured in the clip. And wasn’t McGee an American serving in the Canadian Air Force?
jadoo823 said, 4 months ago
@mightaswellbe
…american father, british mother, born in china, educated in china, england & US, joined rcaf, died in britain. Truly a citizen of the world…
dramac333 said, 4 months ago
One of my favorite Bloom County strips ever.
cybergal29 said, 4 months ago
@James Swinford
Indeed. Every time I read these words, I am reminded of the services held for those who died when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded and these words were spoken there.
I have noticed a rather eerie connection to the letter “C” in the Space Shuttle fleet. The “Columbia” was also destroyed when it re-entered Earth’s atmosphere while the “Challenger” was destroyed leaving Earth’s atmosphere.
sandflea said, 4 months ago
Doing a face plant was sure to happen, Opus.
You’re trying to fly in a no-fly zone.
dbig 1oohh said, 4 months ago
I was stationed at McDill Air Force Base in Tampa,Fl.,standing outside watching the Challenger not make orbit.It still makes me wonder how my girlfriend had this one & a few others taped on the wall.She had a stuffed Opus,too.