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 (17) (Please sign in to comment)
simpsonfan2 said, 3 months ago
He’s not in this one, but just think what Oliver Wendall Jones could do with the computers of today.
Sisyphos said, 3 months ago
The Banana 9000 Jr. has a steep learning curve before it takes over the world. In its way stands one brave penguin….
Kosaka Jinnai said, 3 months ago
Nice to see a Sunday strip in color for once…
Redkaycei Repoc said, 3 months ago
An Iguana? Perhaps he should step over to Fox Trot?
alcors3 said, 3 months ago
Toes?
Quantum Leaper
said, 3 months ago
He looks more like an Operating System.
vwdualnomand said, 3 months ago
dot matrix printer….geez this is old.
Ottodesu said, 3 months ago
And we have all seen Silent Running, yes?
You can’t be an eco-person without seeing that movie.
Nor a fan of 2001: A Space Odyssey (same cameraman).
skeeterhawk said, 3 months ago
I immediately thought of HAL. Yeah, it’s ‘old,’ in the early ‘80s, the dot matrix printer was the printer to get. 9 pin printers were only $250-$500. I later got a 24 pin—pretty hi res for the late ’80s-early ’90s when the prices had come down.
Opus kind of set himself up, didn’t he?
hariseldon59 said, 3 months ago
Notice the picture over the couch depicts Opus in the exact same position.
Dunestrider said, 3 months ago
I remember this. The “Banana Jr.” was mocking both the Apple “Macintosh” and the “IBM PC Jr.”. Does anybody here remember the IBM PC Jr.’s commercials? They had Charlie Chaplain in the commercial.
Omnius said, 3 months ago
Hey where’s our self-portable computers at?
JoeCoolLives said, 3 months ago
Opus had a noble an’ eloquent statement of defiance going there – but he took it one step too far…
American1 said, 3 months ago
@simpsonfan2
With today’s computers, Oliver could probably rule the world via computer from his room (with his teddy bear at his side).
Teresa said, 3 months ago
@hariseldon59
Good catch! I usually see the little details, but I was distracted by the conversation.