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)
rayannina said, 4 months ago
You’re not alone in that, Opus …
vwdualnomand said, 4 months ago
twenty years later….he will be dead by prescrip drugs.
dukedoug said, 4 months ago
@vwdualnomand
… and whose toes is Brooke Shields nibbling these days ?
vwdualnomand said, 4 months ago
her husband, chris henchy. plus, her kids
Sisyphos said, 4 months ago
A strip with Opus and a semi-sane MJ seems too fantastical for me….
K.C. Fahel said, 4 months ago
I don’t remember this one. I remember a series where Opus and Michael Jackson do a “Prince & the Pauper” bit.
Jimmeh said, 4 months ago
I definitely remember the Brooke Shields part.
SwimsWithSharks
said, 4 months ago
20 years later, Brooke Shields nibbling on my toes still seems like a wonderful thing.
Clotty Peristalt said, 4 months ago
I don’t think Brooke Shields was the one MJ wanted his toes to be nibbled by…
Omnius said, 4 months ago
Yuck Michael Jerkoff, sadly a Bloom County not worth reading.
Vonne Anton said, 4 months ago
The conflict that wrote his life and death…RIP MJ. Brooke…sounds like you’ve been letting your toe-nibbling public down, get back to work!
Strod said, 4 months ago
@K.C. Fahel
This Sunday strip was originally published along with the Prince and the Pauper bit. (…)
Strod said, 4 months ago
@K.C. Fahel
(…) The story started on August 20, 1984 with Opus visiting M.J., although the actual switch doesn’t happen until August 27. Today’s strip was from the day before that.
Strod said, 4 months ago
Huh! It seems that GoComics is no longer accepting certain comments, like putting both of my two previous ones in one! Weird!
fishbulb239 said, 4 months ago
MJ definitely turned into a strange creature, but given his life it’s not too surprising – no childhood to speak of, gobs of money, one of the most famous and idolized people on the planet. It’s hard to imagine anybody NOT being messed up by all that. (Not that I wouldn’t want to give it a shot.)