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 (20) (Please sign in to comment)
Sillstaw
said, 3 months ago
I’m sure back in the 80s, the idea of a computer costing less than $100 was unthinkable. Now there’s a laptop for that price, and Raspberry Pi’s go for even less.
(I’m sure the flying noise I heard was the point of the comic going over my head.)
celecca
said, 3 months ago
sigh
vwdualnomand said, 3 months ago
or, congress slashing the budget so that 750k people will lose their jobs, because it is acceptable sacrifice for limited gov’t.
skeeterhawk said, 3 months ago
Cute, Sillstaw. Hmm, my C64 cost $200. But … I had to get a TV/monitor to hook it up to … and a disk drive … and a printer. I guess I spent $800-$900 after all. Aw. Now I spend less than $500 and get millions times more computing power, gaming, communications, graphics, storage, printing, etc.
25strings said, 3 months ago
I spent $100 just to add 16K of RAM to my Apple II Plus.
Burnside217 said, 3 months ago
My first computer was an Apple //e, it costs something like $2,200. If I would have waited 2 weeks, I could have gotten it with more features, duel 5.5" disk drives, for $600 bucks less.
Omnius said, 3 months ago
Yep Ronny Raygunz thought that millions of casualties were acceptable losses during the Cold War.
morosemoose said, 3 months ago
@Omnius
Not really, which is why nothing ever happened. Both sides realized the price was far too high.
Habogee said, 3 months ago
@skeeterhawk
True. Apple //c here. And yet it was an exciting time. A voyage of discovery. The same type of challenges today are just a pain in the butt.
nazzofoggenmach said, 3 months ago
hate buying electronics today, for tomorrow twill be less to pay.
Night-Gaunt49 said, 3 months ago
I never could afford a computer and still cant’. I am happy that my brothers help me.
Vic said, 3 months ago
$39.95 ??? That’s better than a Commodore 64!!
Where are my car keys!!!
mar22 said, 3 months ago
I bought a Commodore II for two sons to “Learn” with, and I was the one that learned the inherent lesson, namely any electronic thingamajig will be obsolete the minute it hits the shelves, no regrets though!
Redkaycei Repoc said, 3 months ago
@Vic
Heck that’s better then the Vic 22 which predated the 64
Sisyphos said, 3 months ago
@Sillstaw
A raspberry pie? They’re $6.95 at the local grocery…. Bananas? Apples? Raspberries? —Maybe I should trademark as many fruit names as I can and take over the future of computer marketing….