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Berkely Breathed Interview
TrentC writes "Ever wonder what happened to Berke Breathed of Bloom County fame? Well, so did Scott Kurtz (creator of PvP) and Chris Jackson (creator of In2It). Kurtz put out a call for information as part of his 30th birthday wish list and managed to acquire a means of contacting Breathed. Breathed wasn't necessarily happy about being tracked down, but agreed to do the interview anyways.
The first part of the interview is currently running on the front page of the PvP site, and the second half of the interview is currently running on the front page of the In2It site." Not to sound like the Bloom County fanboy that I really am but Breathed is, IMHO, an amazing artist.
Is this merely an expression of Slashdot's bizarre Penguin fetish? :)
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
By far the best comic quote ever uttered, especially out of the mouth of a penguin.
Ed
It's a shame that Breathed never grasped just how damn good he really was. I was entertained, and reassured, and inspired by Bloom County while I was growing up. So were my friends. So were countless others. It was a very positive thing. But I don't think he ever really believed that.
Children's books? With a few notable exceptions, I've found most of them forgettable. But I'll never forget Bloom County.
Yeah, but you recognized it. :-)
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
I don't know that I agree with the authors' tactic of agreeing not to disclose his private contact information in exchange for an interview. It strikes me slightly as blackmail, and I hope it was just an unfortunate choice of wording to describe an innocent agreement, but...
I think the interview revealed some fascinating hints about the creative processes of one of the great humorists of our time, and I think that in itself is of immense historical value. Frankly, it blew me away to hear that he found his humor hard to come by, his deadlines painful, and that he can't be happy about the quality of his previous work.
It gives me some measure of assurance that I shouldn't feel so bad about my own work process, when I have to agonize over a bit of art when others' work seems so effortless.
Except Trudeau still has a problem with Breathed -- see the last answer at the bottom of this Doonesbury/Trudeau FAQ page...
"But remember, most lynch mobs aren't this nice." (H.Simpson)
-- Joe
"what do you *mean*, 'out of print' you sniveling twinkee-eating cockroach?", i queried the weird-harold lookalike.
i thought i was going to be sick. not for my lack of reading material but for some of the finest toon material ever to grace pulp, for a lost generation thinking that calvin had no peer. around the corner to the used bookstore. SEVEN OF NINE tomes for the obscenely low price of $35. i'm not sure what the cashier made of my wide-eyed dollar-waiving self.
this has brought me to one, inescapable conclusion. we must find berke, strap him to a suitable table and make him bring back the crew.
look, i'm completely cool with civility, but there comes a time when asking nice just isn't going to cut it. it's also clear that mr. breathed isn't exactly beyond using this tactic himself (see "toons for our times", pg. 59). no, i'm serious. i'm starting a website and an email campaign to petition the man to return to his sanity. he can ignore us at his own peril.
that having been said, some of his original strips are for sale - he has apparently given two years worth of strips to his stepmom and his full blessing to sell them. they can be found at:
http://www.neosoft.com/~bloom/avail1.htm
you need to have the original books to determine which are which, but ...who is going to buy one of these who doesn't have the books?! it isn't very clear, but the cheapo ones are $250 (they're in red), the regular ones are $400 and the color sunday strips are $900. the page also isn't clear on who you need to contact - carolynbreathed@hotmail.com. she seems like a very nice woman, but she does reply in ALL CAPS. be nice to her.
if any of you came through halfway and don't really know the whole gang, an exhaustive rundown can be found at http://www.droops.cybermail.net/bchistory/bchist19 81.html, covering the first appearance of limekiller to the ultimate, last toon.
finally, for anyone who doubts that illiad (respects || rips off) bloom county, please see this userfriendly.org toon..
not for my sake, but please mod the everyloving hell out of this post. i'd really like to see some of his toons get into the hands of fans.
My .02,
My .02,
zencode
iactivist.org/jason
Random Musings at Rum Smuggler
I am thumbing through my copy of Academia Waltz now and noticing how tied it was to the University of Texas in the late 70s. Lots of timely comments about football, Vietnam Vets, Nuclear power, Frats & Sororities, sex, football (this is texas of course), and making fun of aggies (those folks from Texas A&M).
Brings back good memories.
UT also was the beginning another amazing comic strip called Eyebeam by Sam Hurt. http://www.samhurt.com I think that eyebeam is a cross between Bloom County and Gary Larson's the Far Side. Eyebeam was amazingly popular at UT. Eyebeam has time machines, robots, and Hank the Hullicination (who *actually* won the election for UT class president). Comment from the back of the Eyebeam book "Virtuosic....The best college generated comic strip since Doonesbury or Bloom County."
Mark
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"You owe me a case of beer. Sucka'."
For the longest time I was sure that illiad was Berke Breathed. The artistic styles often matched far too well, the style of the humor and stories so close.
Then I noticed the same thing with some other web comics. After a while I started picking up the same (Albeit same in a Calvin-knock-off-way) vibe from all the Bill Watterson-esque webcomics out there.
So I went back, reread my Bloom Country/Outland collected editons, and realized something.
Berke Breathed is one of the greatest daily comic creators ever. Far beyond of the tepid humor of Peanuts, flying up there in the glorious airspace shared by Gary Treadau, Billl Watterson, and Gary Larson. His work influenced comic creators in the best ways possible, and now he is honored with imitation.
It had all these great programs like OPUS and BINKLEYterm
Before TUX, there was OPUS!
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"A WISH FOR WINGS THAT WORK" ---
My all-time favorite Christmas show [which isn't played anymore], and not because I was a die-hard Opus/BC fan.
BC was LIKE Saturday Night Live for me, in that it provided me some great catch phrases ["PWWWTTT", "Closet of Anxieties", "Dandelions in October", et. al) ...
Now, for me, the REVOLUTION introduced by BC was what I now call the "comical one-two strip punch" -- in other words, a punchline at a frame in the middle of the "story", followed immediately by a SECOND punchline/retort in the last frame .... two dry moments for the price of one ....
At the time [for the first few times we all read it], we didn't really know what to think, except to acknowledge that we've never seen someone do that before. But Calvin and Hobbes basically mastered this technique, and now virtually every hot comic being published plays on some variation of this now-called "rule" ....
"He who questions training trains himself at asking questions." - The Sphinx, Mystery Men (1999)
There are some great cartoonists publishing primarily or exclusively for the Web. (Aside from User Friendly, I'm a big fan of Kevin and Kell and a lot of the Keenspot comics.)
Could we please have some Slashdot interviews with some of the folks behind these comics?
Stupid job ads, weird spam, occasional insight at
"Chris: Do you have any regrets about not drawing Bloom County any more? Do you miss it?
Breathed: If the world still read the comic page... and if they weren't the size of 2 stamps... I would still do it. But their days as a topic of national conversation are over I fear. There are a great many more distractions of a more visceral nature to compete with. Too small, too quiet."
This comment brought tears to my eyes. Berke used to make cracks about comics as a dying phenomenon in his strips. I remember a "Star Trek" parody involving the endlessy shrinking size of comics in particular. Another distinct memory is of the time Opus spent working as a cartoonist, calling himself a "stripper," and being treated as a wage slave to editors demanding gag-a-day humor slapped together in time for a deadline.
He is so right that people no longer read and discuss comics. I remember discussing Bloom County and Doonesbury as a child with friends and family, now the only way it comes up is when a buddy and I discuss a webcomic, or I have to explain all the perverse/obscense/obscure webcomics I stick up at work. I truly miss having conversations about politcal candidates who wear "Frederick's of Holywood peek-a-boo panties" (From Breathed's 1988 election coverage) or little Ronald-ann sticking it to Rotney Washington the crack dealer.
Now I bask in the glory of webcomics, creations of the purist love. Bound only by themselves, webcomics fill a void created by the American newspaper editors' misunderstanding of what may be the most important art form since mankind learned to write.
Hopefully Berke will see this, and maybe get stimulated to do work online.
The interviewers were pretty damn lucky that Berke Breathed is apparently such a nice guy. Despite Mr. Breathed's influence on modern comices, the tone of the interview and the fact that he was upset that they got his phone number more or less points to the fact that Breathed is not interested in drawing comic strips anymore and shouldn't be bothered about his old work, which he is clearly uncomfortable discussing.
Now, all that aside, it was neat to hear from him again.
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
The quotes show his witty humour at work - pretty useful if you want to see what he is like when he is being light hearted, unlike in the serious interview.
I only wish I was the sort of geek who could draw well.
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Clarity does not require the absence of impurities,
/* And you'll never guess what the dog had */
/* in its mouth... */
--Larry Wall in stab.c from perl
You can tell Illiad is a fan. There have been several homages to Berke in the past. It's always nice to see someone you admire and who's work you enjoy tip their hat to someone that they admire.
"Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality." -- Dalai Lama
Depends on how cynical you are.
I can see two people who are good friends actually sharing something that is a golden nugget in their lives.
But you'd have to have a really good friend.
I think this interview actually qualifies as a golden nugget.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"