Return Of Bloom County. Sorta

Slartibartfast writes "According to mycomicspage.com, the entirety of Bloom County will be re-published on their site, starting St. Paddy's day, and at a "highly accelerated" rate of one week every two days, until the entire strip is up. In addition -- an extra-special bonus for us Berke Breathed fans -- his college predecessor, Academic Waltz, will also be run. One caveat: it's subscription-based. However, for $10, I'd call it a huge bargain. I'm signing up."

Comments

Now that's worth paying for...

[TopShelf]

To get access to an entire run of a comic strip is indeed a value worth paying for. While I'm not much of a fan of this particular strip, I hope this works out - it could serve as a model for other strips as well.

Speaking of, what other strips would people like to see republished online?

Re:Target demographic: 28-38

[RLiegh]

Strictly IMHO, but I believe that it's probably aged a lot better than other 'classic' comics (doonesbury comes to mind).

It's more dated than, say, 'peanuts'; but the quality is also better too. (again, IMHO).

I completely agree, however, that Calvin and Hobbes would be an even better choice.

cool stuff

[larry bagina]

I did an interview with Berke a couple years ago (for the school's weekly newspaper that no one reads), and bloom county came up, natch.

I asked him how everyone would have ended up, and he said that Wendell (the nerdy computer geek that Urkel was based on) would have ended up as a Linux kernel developer.

Cool stuff.

Historical strips!

[Slartibartfast]

I'd pay -- through the nose -- to see original strips like Blondie (back when it was a social mores shattering strip), Krazy Kat, etc. Comics back in the 30's, during the heyday, etc. These things can be found, piecemeal, in various anthologies. To have 'em all in one place for reference, well... not only would it be a terrific glimpse into Americana, it would be great fun to read, too!

Re:Not sure how it aged

[Squideye]

They were lumped together in my mind too, but in the "infinitely re-readable" sense. While Calvin and Hobbes has aged somewhat better, you don't have to appreciate *who Ed Meese was* in order to be entertained by Opus' discussion of him. Often the Meadow Critters' understanding of the '80s politics was fairly superficial, which was okay.

It's a good recapitulation of history, especially to read about Cold-War era fears; "The Iron Giant" didn't lose any points from me for being about the '50s, nor "Cradle Will Rock" about the '30s.

But when I read Bloom County or Outland today, I find it even more compelling as a discussion of a political era that could shed some light on today's. With similar attitudes in the Bush Administration II and today's media about what it is to be God-Fearing and Rifle-Toting as in the 1980s, Opus and Milo and Binkley and Oliver... and even Bill... give us Berkeley Breathed's perspective as he was living through it, and we can get a sense of just how similar distant times can be.

I'd say it aged well.

Re:Why great comics blink out or fade to crap...

[Black Jack Hyde]

I wonder if there would still be a Bloom County or Outland if Breathed was allowed to publish once every two weeks or once a month...

So why can't he do that now? Couldn't BB get a deal with a monthly (Playboy, Popular Science, Ladies' Home Journal, whatever) and do four strips an issue?

It's too much to hope for Bloom County to return and snuff Cathy out of the dailies, yes?

Bloom County, Calvin and Hobbes, and The Far Side made the comics page a great place to visit every day. Nothing's come close to replacing them (sorry Zits and Bizarro).

Jack