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Berkeley Breathed Back in the Funnies
tetrad writes "Berkeley Breathed is creating a new Sunday comic strip, according to the Washington Post. The half-page comic strip will feature Opus the penguin from Breathed's Bloom County and Outland series, and will begin Nov. 23."
Pear pimples for hairy fishnuts
Opus flies again!
Insert witty sig here.
Ack! Thpppt!
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
This makes me very happy. Except what exactly does "'Opus' will run on Sundays only and will fill half a page in the comics section" mean?
A half a page? How likely will this be picked up by papers if it's half a freaking page? I'd love to see it, but that may be asking too much from papers.
The Blaster Master Fighting for Truth, Justice, and Evil Pie since 1979
Bill the Cat better be coming as well. "through the sewer slime and stinky, george bush is a twinkie" Originally written for the first George Bush, but should apply to this President as well. Horray!
no god is good
A nice start, but I want Calvin and Hobbes back. :-)
I remember the Breathed "retired" oh so many years ago, but I wonder if this comeback is like many 60's and 70's band "comeback tours"... that is to say he's found that he needs the money and there is still (somehow) enough interest out there to him to milk...?
Now the 10 dollar question: will it have just Opus, or will it have just about all the characters? As I recall, Outland started with just Opus and the other characters found their way in until it was basically a Sunday Bloom County with weirder backgrounds.
It's good to hear that a wry voice from the 80's will be back in the Sunday comics. Ever since Bill Watterson quit drawing/writing Calvin and Hobbes, and Bloom County disappeared, the comics haven't been the same IMO.
Now, if only Watterson would get inspired to further the adventures of Calvin, there would be some ubiquity in the "Intellectual Section" of the daily fishwrap!
We could really use some better comic strips (especially ones with penguins in them).
I really missed the days of the Far Side. Non-sequiter is pretty good. And I don't need to say anything about Dilbert. But the rest of the comics suck. Maybe I'm just getting old. But it seems like comics used to be much better. I hope this one helps with the comeback of good comics.
I've never seen this Opus before, but I think Tux could take him.
Slashdot Syndrome: the sudden, extreme urge to correct someone in order to validate one's self.
Outstanding news. I grew up with Bloom County, finding Doonesbury too off-topic for my young and yet geeky pursuits. BC had the same level of text, yet was a lot more accessible.
After all, what aspiring young hacker, typing BASIC programs into a TRS-80 at the local Radio Shack, wouldn't be inspired by Oliver Wendell Jones?
This is great news.
:)
I started collecting all of the Bloom County books just over 2 years ago. (Only 2 books left to go!)
It was amazing re-reading all of these again and how many topics written in the 80's are still topical today - especially the strips with political overtones.
And the timing couldn't be better - going into a presidential primary next year. Will Opus get sucked into running again?
Mr. Breathed's comment in the article about not having a public voice through the war - it will be great to have that voice back in the comics.
Of course, now they'll have to shrink the comic pages down another 30% to fit a new comic in.
I'm taking the rest of the day off to go romp through a dandelion patch!
you're all figments of my deranged imagination
I'm looking foreward to getting back in the know in regards to American politics. Everything I knew about 80's politics, I learned from Opus and Bill (hmm...a possible explanation for my leftist leanings). Can you blame me? I was 10 and it was more interesting than the news.
Besides his great sense of humor, Bloom County was also outstanding in that each an every strip was a masterpiece of art. I don't mean to knock Dilbert, but if you compare the quality of artwork, Dilbert could have been drawn by a 4-year-old kid (but I do love the humor of Scott Adams).
About the only other strip with comparable artwork is Doonesbury.
"-1 Troll" is the apparently the same as "-1 I disagree with you."
Harry Knowles, editor in chief of the Web's Ain't It Cool News and an avid fan of newspaper comics. "I think there's been three great strips that have gone away over the last five, 10 years that I really miss: 'Bloom County,' 'Calvin and Hobbes' and 'The Far Side.' Those are the three strips that never should have ceased."
These strips ended when they should have... ie... when their authors no longer felt inspired to write them and were growing bored with their work.
Was Calvin and Hobbes one of the best comics ever? Yes. Was is miserably repetitive near the end and growing more and more unfunny? Sadly, yes. If it had continued on, it would have been nothing but a constant rehash of the same jokes and concepts with no new content... like Peanuts and Garfield both became.
Outland was pretty miserable compared to Bloom County. I have high hopes for 'Opus', but I'm also a realist. It may be just as poor as Outland was, IMHO.
Oh, Mr. Breathed. Two words, 'Web Comic'.
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
Calvin returned in a film just a couple of years ago...
There have usually been a handful of decent comics, with a load of "dogs" as filler. Consider:
Beetle Bailey...
Marmaduke...
Hi & Lois...
Mary Worth...
etc.
These sucked when I was 5 years old, they suck now, and they will still be sucking when I turn 80.
Curb CO2 emissions: Kill yourself today!
Why, oh why, is Harry Knowles commenting on this? Are they just getting anybody who has a semi-popular POS website to comment in in the Washington Post now? Can I get in on the action too? I can create a fake news site, drum up some quotes and get quoted in the Post - woohoo.
To Clarify...
May I recommend Frazz to all Calvin & Hobbes fans? In my opinion, it has similar humor, wisdom and cuteness. It's my current favorite.
From where I stand -- they just haven't held up. There are taped-up Far Side cartoons that I've passed in the hallway every day for years that I still laugh at. Far Side collections, Calvin & Hobbes, old Dilberts all still make me laugh. Bloom County turned out to be just a bunch of tossed-out references to '80's pop culture. 20 years later, it's as dated and forced as, say, brand new Doonesbury strips.
We'll see, but I bet the best of today's strips (Zits, Foxtrot, Monty, Drabble) are going to look quite good by comparison.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
As depressing as losing Bloom County was, Outland never came close to replacing it for me. It had lots of eye candy, but just wasn't that great a strip, IMO. OTOH, the books have been *awesome*. I reread the "kids' books" almost as often as I reread the books of all the Bloom County strips.
I hope the time away from the comics has helped him get back to the place htat he should be, and the new strip will be as good as Bloom County.
Now, where can I get a life sized Opus?
Oh, wait. Wrong Berkeley.
At any rate, I, for one, welcome our new penguin overlord.
philcrissman.com.
You can actually subscribe to MyComicsPages.com linked of Breathed's site.
/. post.
The entire back catalog is reprinted there and presumably he gets a share of the profits.
This was mentioned a while back in a previous
Here in fact
To strive, to seek, but not to yield
Check out The Boondocks if your paper has it, or find it online.
It even had DMCA bashing in it at one point!
And it cunningly anticipated Berke Breathed's return.
Am I the only one who feels there's a little Bloom County inside of the Boondocks ? I think they both have the same political outlook, only instead of a penguin, the Boondocks has a militant black teenager.
C - A language that combines the speed of assembly with the ease of use of assembly.
Painful? They already had Doonesbury which covered the anti-war and Bush-bashing department quite adequately. Breathed's comics would also have an anti-war, anti-Bush slant but would have made it thought-provoking and actually funny.
I tried every decent and legal way I could think of to resolve the issue w/the business before I rented the chicken suit
It is about an inner city black family that moves to the suburbs. It is beautifully drawn and has a sharp, left leaning wit
Free cell phone tracking
Breathed retired because he ran out of things to say and rather than let the strip turn into Garfield or the Peanuts, he did the right thing. Recently he said in a interview that he didn't think that the strips had lasting value because many of the things that they poked fun at are no longer relavant to todays readers. For the same reason I think the time is right for him to return, considering how much of has changed, I'm sure that he will have a lot of fun to poke at things like reality television and George the moron Bush.
The difference between Canada and the USA is that in Canada healthcare is a right and gun ownership is a privilege.
Amazing, my impression was that Opus was a throw-away character but came into his own when the he was accosted somehow the term in the subject line came out of "Prayer Temples for Hare Krishnas".
In any case, I'm halfway between wetting my pants with joy and cursing that somebody I thought went out with dignity has sold out. The cynical side of me wonders how much of the new strip was required for the Opus movie.
Personally, I enjoyed "Outland" and thought it was a reasonable successor to "Bloom County" which had a stale feeling to it in its last year. So, maybe "Opus" is a logical evolution to the strip.
In any case, I'll buy whatever local paper its in (even if its the "National Post").
myke
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
I loved Bloom County, but I'm worried that Berke Breathed is a harbinger for what the Chinese call "Interesting Times." Sky High Defense spending, Moron in the White House, tax cuts for the rich, deficits a go-go. Yep time to trot out Berke! Take cover!
This is the best Democracy money can buy?!?!?
Milo: What big game are we stalking today, Major?
Major: Liberals. Check and see what the wildlife guide says about 'em.
Panel 2:
Milo: (reading form the guide) "The Vanishing Liberal: A beast which once thundered across the American Scene in mighty herds. Recently hunted to near extinction."
Major: Gotta be one left around here somewheres... Try the Liberal Call, boy.
Panel 3:
Milo: (shouting) Welfare, Solar Power, No Nukes! ( a nearby bush rustles)
Panel 4: A liberal with bushy hair and mustache, looking much like Reiner on "All in the Family", stands up from behind the bush.
Liberal: No Nukes! No Nukes!
Panel 5: The Major fires his gun at the liberal.
Major: Gotcha!
Liberal: Gun Control! Gun Control!
Panel 6: Liberal can't be seen in tall grass.
Milo: (to the reader) It's a shame.They're more fun than buffalo.
Major: I think I wounded him!
Liberal: Ow! Socialized Medicine! Socialized Medicine!
By the way, because a penguin is the symbol of Linux, this means that Darl is going require a $699 license for every Sunday's strip.
I miss the "Dysfunctional Family Circus" website. It allowed people to brutally abuse FC comics that were missing the dialog. Something I must admit my brother and I liked to do.
It was closed down when Bill Keane complained.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
My local paper here probably wouldn't touch this in a million years. It would take up too much of their ad space. Half of the comics on Sunday are filled with grocery coupons or other bullshit...
Not to mention that the REST of the comics are still filled with such dreck as "Garfield", "Hagar the Horrible", "Beetle Bailey", "Wizard of Id" and any number of other pieces of shit that have not had an original idea in about 20 years.
No... I'm not bitter
He's totally creeping out the Great One, eh...
As I recall, Bloom County started off with a rich cast of characters all centered around the seemingly normal world of a Boarding House. With the cynical young reporter Milo in charge, along with his war-mongering grandfather, the intelligent and supportive Cutter John, Steve Dalls, each was caracature of someone you might know in real life... Just as Bloom County itself was a small town representation of America itself. Back when Opus was merely the pet of wimpy Binkley, who in wanting to impress his father, bought it thinking he was a German Shepherd. Back when Opus was silent, and even resembled a penguine at one point, only uttering the occasional phrase usually having to do with herrings or walruses. As the strip progressed and characters and situations became more and more wild, the original premise was still there. It was still about characters from a small town dealing with current events, politics, science, religion, and pop culture in America. But by the time Bloom County morphed into Outland, at least in my opinion, the environment became too abstract, and the realism of having characters from a small town being thrust into strange and humorous adventures was not there anymore. Outland was based in a universe I couldn't relate to, resembling the 3D land Homer Simpson found himself in while hiding from Patty and Selma one Halloween. I am hoping another rehash of Outland will not be the basis of the new strip. Breathed's comic timing borders on genius, and the new strip needs a deceptively normal setting which made Bloom County and American culture seem all the more strange and twisted and fun.
It was the non-Sunday strips that made Bloom County--all the character interaction in those few panels a day. Breathed could set-up one situation and keep it going for days or weeks. That's much of what made Outland so stale. It tried to pack everything into a self-contained Sunday strip, and it didn't work. It wasn't cohesive, surviving solely on nostalgic Bloom County fans.
Speaking of Frazz, he's always looked to me how I'd envision Calvin to look at that age. The drawing is very similar.
Co-incidence?
First they burn books, then they burn people.
Berke Breathed is at best a competent artist, though I'll give him points for having his own style.
As for Doonesbury, Trudeau hasn't drawn the strip in years (probably more than a decade). He hires assistants to draw in his style, which is why the strip is so bland.
Artistically, neither of them are any great shakes. They get the job done, that's about it.
Now Bill Watterston, OTOH, can freaking DRAW. When he would cut loose and do a full-page Sunday spread, it was amazing. Frank Cho (Liberty Meadows) is another amazing artist who's still working, though his writing is kind of ordinary. To say nothing of the long-time greats, like Hal Foster (Prince Valiant) or Alex Toth (Flash Gordon).
All opinions expressed herein are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled.
I'm guessing you're not aware that the Onion is a real, serious publication, and only the first several pages are humor news. After you get past the first three pages or so, it's all real news (plus some good comics). Their interviews are among the best I've ever read, and their reviews of music are usually better than the typical "it's good, kinda like so-and-so". It's well worth the subscription price - I used to keep it on the back of the toilet, a mark of high regard for a newspaper indeed.
--
Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
Years ago, I was disgusted by a nearby U's handicapped van which looked not so much as anything but a prison wagon, navy blue, mesh in the windows and all...
I had a brainstorm. Why not liven it up - light colors, some cool graphics - what better graphic than Cutter John loaded down with all the critters from the meadow, zooming off at warp factor 9...
I called an old friend with a vehicle graphics biz. Got the labor ponied up. Called a distant relative in the paint biz. Paint would be mine. Called the Washington Post Writers Group and told them what I had in mind. They told me to hold on for a minute, then lots of phone noises, then Berke came on the line and asked me what I wanted to do. IIRC...
-Will you make any money on this?
-No, it's just something to do gratis.
-Is it for a company?
-No it's for a college.
-OK, here's the deal: you have to use an existing drawing, you can't do your own version, or get something done new.
-OK
-You have to include the original signature,
-OK
-You have to add "copyright 19-- Washington Post Writers; Group, All Rights Reserved"
-OK (long silence) - and how much for the rights? _
-Nothing. You're not making anything on this?
-No
-No one else will profit, right?
-No.
-That's it.
-Thanks!
-Send us a picure.
-OK.
I contacted the handicapped student group on campus - they thought it would be much cooler - then I started talking to the powers that be at the university to get all the clearances, etc. Big mistake. More than a year later, we still hadn't gotten so much as any written response from anywone who had to OK it - sheesh. Maybe I gave up too easily, but it was enlightneing to see the attitude of an artist vs the attitude of a few campus honchi...
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
I was really digging how you were reminding me of some of the characters of one of my favorite strips from days past, and then you said this piece of stinky flamebait:
The diversity of characters in the strip was also unprecendented, from African-Americans (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Rosalinda) who, unlike black characters in other strips, namely Peanuts, were actually of their own ethnicity
What's more astonishing is that you started with this:
I found that the strength of Bloom County was its in the way each member of its cast provided their own unique intimacy to the strip
Damn, it's almost like you never even read Peanuts.
Although Franklin was not a major player in the later years, it is interesting to note that even though he was introduced in 1968 (a torrential year to be black in America, I would imagine) his appearance was not considered to be politically motivated.
Franklin was a solid individual in that strip, not succumbing to personal foibles like every other character around him. He was written to be as theologically smart as Linus, and (quirk of all quirks), he actually LIKED playing hockey. Franklin was a smart, strong black kid that had his s**t together.
Franklin DID bring his own unique intimacy to Peanuts by just being himself, and not making light of his ethnicity ad nauseum.
On that note, I think that the strips Boondocks and newcomer La Cucaracha are well-drawn and contain edgy humor, but their strips' commentaries as a whole underscores a larger point:
Strip writers Aaron MacGruder and Lalo Alcaraz are bitter leftists who think that blacks and hispanics have no chance at advancement in America, even though they themselves are probably earning more money than myself.
I would imagine that Franklin, on the other hand, would have done just fine just by being himself, regardless of his ethnicity.
Work is the crabgrass in the lawn of life.-Schulz
Chalupa