Slashdot Mirror
The Opus Interview
Brad1138 writes "MSNBC has an interview with Opus re: his return to Sunday comics. Some interesting/funny bits of info. It was also nice to see how many people loved Bloom County/Opus, they are running a poll and currently 94% 'loved Bloom County & will read "OPUS"'." Here's another article talking about Opus's Return to the Sunday Funnies.
Some of the old cast for sure, but I hear the negotiations with Bill are not going well. He got a raw deal the first time around: he was paid per word, and all he usually said was "Ack!" and "Thppt!" And Berke's trying to bring in some of the mutts from his new book, "Flawed Dogs", but apparently they're in a different union than the meadow animals. I just don't get all of this legal mumbo-gumbo-rambo.
Oh, man! Bill the cat has got to make a return. Aaaaack Thppppt!
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
A Calvin & Hobbes announcement similar to this would have made me much more happier.
Pthbbbt.
I regularly report MSN spam to the Hotmail admins.
Breathed was also interviewed in Salon last week, and in The Onion's A.V. Club in 2001. He gets to swear in these interviews, too.
Perhaps Outland didn't last in your local paper, but the strip itself was in business from the end of Bloom County (1989? Maybe 1991...) until 1995. There were three Outland collections, although the third book did not have enough cartoons for a full book and included some of Burke's "outtakes" from the strip.
figure about 100 strips per book, (and 50 for the last one) and only 52 strips per year, you get about 5 years worth of strips.
Opus will probably last as long as Burke wants it to... given the current state of politics that needs mocking, I think Opus will be around for awhile.
The Austin American-Statesman also has a story about the return, recounting the incident with the Daily Texan which helped lead to the start of Bloom County.
...and this one is with the man himself... ;-)
Who are you? The new #2 Who is #1? You are #617565. I am not a number, I am a free man! Muhahaha.
Interesting that Breathed said he'd taken Bloom County about as far as it would go. I suppose if one looks at the comic as a linear narrative, that could be true--but it was also a running commentary on the politics of the time. Politics are always changing, new names and faces, new events, new history to be ridiculed. I see it as a tad unfortunate that he didn't consider keeping up a continuous semi-political cartoon; that part of Bloom County, having direct relevance to my world, was always my favorite. Perhaps he didn't want himself or the comic to be typecast.
;)
Still, a pity. I can only imagine what he could do with our current administration.
The coolest voice ever.
Al Qaeda has ninjas!
I for one would like to offer a 34 armpit fart salute. Man the dandelions!
I regularly report MSN spam to the Hotmail admins.
I was like "those bastards, they finally cancelled it!" Then I found it on another page, read Opus and was slightly confused and amused.
This message is encrypted with Quad ROT-13 to protect the author's copyright under the DMCA.
Source
It's not available online.
And what really sucks is that it's printed in DRM ink, which will prevent people from scanning it and putting it on the net.
Several months back I spoke with a friend, Suzie, that works in the comics section at the Washington Post. She ran into Breathed at a conference. Since they were both new parents, they talked about their kids. Suzie suggested that a new strip might be a great way to express his views about this new phase in his life. He agreed. Thus Opus
The half page format allows Breathed to squeeze in more panels (nine this time, rather than the usual four to six.) It's well painted, but as I'm sure Frank Cho will attest, there's more to a successful newspaper comic strip than great visuals.
... was the best character, and the hacking storylines the only ones I still find funny.
Banana Junior 6000 4ever!!!
Apple Open Firmware Home Page
http://bananajr6000.apple.com/
The latest Slashdot meme.
Shouldn't that be "America's Second-favorite Penguin?"
Opus is a leading character from a 1980s comic-strip called "Bloom County". The author of Bloom County is Berkeley Breathed. Opus is a penguin, a naive innocent in a crazy world. Arguably he has himself to blame for this, having been a tuba player in a heavy metal band called Deathtongue (later renamed to Billy and the Boingers) and twice run as a candidate for Vice President of the United States. On both occasions, his co-runner was a dead cat called Bill (he of the Boingers, and indeed the tongue).
Hope that's cleared it up for you!
Reality is defined by the maddest person in the room
Personally, I think that Opus is coming back to remind us of penguins before Tux. Opus thought that he was the "be all" and "End all" of penguin mascots. That all changed right after Opus Retired.
At that point in time, hardly anyone knew who Tux was, let alone that he was a Penguin. Fast forward 7 years or so, and all of a sudden (HA) Tux is the penguin mascot of the day.
Opus realizing that Tux has overtaken him has "America's favorite penguin", and now seeks to be reinstated.
Which leads us to the grudge match of the century. Geeks everywhere are going to have to pick their favorite penguin in the next Slashpoll.
Opus vs Tux in "Mascot wars"
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
He was - occasionally.
He first died when his Ferrari crashed into a cactus at high speed, but thanks to the wonders of modern science he was cloned from his own tongue. Whereupon he embarked on a successful career as a Soviet spy before being jailed, executed and then exchanged for Cutter John who had landed in the USSR after his wheelchair - no, this is getting too weird...
Welcome back Opus, now when do we get to see it in the UK? Come on America! You sent us your President last week (honestly, you really didn't have to), now send us the penguin!
Best wishes,
Mike.