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Berke Breathed Interview in The Onion

Posted by Hemos on from the talking-to-the-man dept.

Hobart writes "Berke Breathed, author of Bloom County has granted an interview to Tasha Robinson of the The Onion's AV Club. This is the second interview I've seen in six months (previous interview link) after the six years of silence since the end of Outland. He even calls for volunteers to help with his site! ;)"

8 of 188 comments (clear)

  1. The good old days... by Silver222 · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Bloom County was the reason I did so well in History class way back when. I remember reading strips about Ed Meese and Caspar Weinberger, and then having to go to the library and find a Time magazine or Newsweek to figure out who they were. I really miss those comic strips. I still pull out those books from time to time, have a couple of beers and stay up laughing until 4 in the morning. The closest thing I've found to replace it is The Boondocks

    However, YMMV

    --
    "It's not a war on drugs, it's a war on personal freedom. Keep that in mind at all times." Bill Hicks
  2. Irony and humour abound by TACD · · Score: 2, Interesting
    The only Outland I ever read was in the very last book; I already loved it by the time I got to the end (which were also the last strips, of course). Sensational stuff, of which I shall dig up more one day.

    Also, as I have aged (but not by much ;)) it's been nice to notice how I can relate more and more to Calvin and Hobbes; it was funny when I was younger, and now it's funny on a whole new level. I tells ya, that boy's got it sussed.

    (And kudos to Bill anyway, for never succumbing to the demands of the the syndicate to license C&H.)

    --
    Security through promiscuity is no better than security through obscurity.
  3. Re:Far Side by darkPHi3er · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "Talented people know when they are running out of good ideas and can do something else with their lives."

    once upon a time there was a mythical guy, mythically named "Seymour Cray",

    Seymour had a very tough day job as Big Designer Guy of a very BIGG computer company.

    Seymour designed a reasonably successful computer and then left to do his heart's desire....

    as a way of embracing change and rejecting orthodoxy...this Seymour guy used to design and build hi-performance sailboats, when he was finished building a boat, he would sail it for a while and then....

    ....SET IT ON FIRE, BURN IT TO THE GROUND (SEA, actually)....

    and START ALL OVER AGAIN...

    maybe Cray, Brethed and Watterson know something the rest of us don't????

    --
    Ten quid, she's so easy to blind. And not a word is spoken...
  4. Re:*sniff* the good ol' days by CaptainCarrot · · Score: 3, Interesting
    What the heck happened to Bill Watterson?!

    Most pundits describe Bill Watterson as "reclusive" when they have occasion to mention him at all. What they really mean is that he values his privacy in much the same way as any other person in the world who just wants to do his job and go home to his quiet life at the end of the day. As a corollary, he has absolutely no use for the sort of pundit who would describe him as "reclusive".

    He's still alive, still healthy, and looks a lot like Calvin's dad.

    ----

    --
    And the brethren went away edified.
  5. Berke Breathed _is_ cool by dugsteen · · Score: 2, Interesting

    For a while back in the mid-90's I was at Amaze!nc, which produced the Bloom County screensaver. We would occasionally have Mr. Breathed come by the offices to work on the project. Not only were the screensavers hilarious (we even got sued for the one where Opus shoots down the flying toasters =), but Berke himself was a very nice guy, perfectly willing to take suggestions and laugh out loud with animation interns, just out of college with no corporate power of their own.

    -Dug

  6. Bill Watterson by jezmund · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This got me thinking about my other favorite reclusive former comic strip writer. I looked around and found an interview (allegedly the only one he ever gave); and a shorter, more recent article. The second one is kind of sad . . . it's too bad that the fame of the strip brought him so much unhappiness.

    --

    "fist in the air in the land of hypocrisy"
  7. Why did we ever bother with Tux? by Dixie_Flatline · · Score: 2, Interesting

    We should have rallied around Opus. Marketing AND a penguin, rolled into one.
    Hell, the strip even has a real hacker/scientist in it. Tell me that you haven't be thinking this.

  8. Re:Ah yes, the fading days of newspaper comics. by srvivn21 · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Sluggy has had amazing story lines, and amazing use of space. Start here (sorry Pete) and check out the next two days. There is no way this would work in a syndicated format.

    Personally, I don't read the comics section of the newspaper any more. Tools like comics.pl just make it unnecessary.