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Berkeley Breathed Revives Bloom County Comic Strip After 25 Years
cold fjord writes: Just as it was needed then, it is needed now (more than ever). NPR reports, "Fans of the well-loved comic strip Bloom County are celebrating ... cartoonist Berkeley Breathed issued the first panels of his satirical strip in decades. Breathed won a Pulitzer Prize for his work on Bloom County back in 1987; two years later, he quit producing it. ... It's unclear whether Breathed will syndicate his new work in newspapers; he recently recalled how an editorial dispute with a publisher had a direct role in his decision to quit cartooning in 2008. His Facebook postings, Breathed said earlier this month, are "nicely out of reach of nervous newspaper editors, the PC humor police now rampant across the web ... and ISIS." When Bloom County went idle in 1989, it was one of several clever and inventive comic strips, such as Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side, that were beloved by fans and yet were also comparatively short-lived. Today, devoted fans are treating its return as a small miracle." — The Washington Post adds, ""Honestly, I was unprepared for it," Breathed tells me of the public outpouring. "It calls for a bit of introspection about how characters can work with readers and how they're now absent as a unifying element with a society. "There is no media that will allow a Charlie Brown or a Snoopy to become a universal and shared joy each morning at the same moment across the country," Breathed continues. 'Maybe the rather marked response to my character's return is a reflection of that loss. A last gasp of a passing era.'"
I thought Breathed tended to be both more good natured and fairly even handed in poking fun at people. Doonesbury, not quite so much in either respect.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
I'll be sure to pass your comments to NPR and the Washington Post where the excerpts came from.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
I *loved* Bloom County and read it from when I first discovered it in 1982 while I was in university. It was funny, relevant and smart.
It continued to be right up until Mr. Breathed ended the strip. But it ended, I've (and I think most people have) moved on and, now that it's 25 years later, Mr. Breathed should be looking at new avenues for his considerable talents.
Now, having said that, the example panel is pretty vintage but I still think it's time for Mr. Breathed (and us) to move on.
It's traditional to include some sort of reason for your opinions so people can debate and discuss them. You've said what you think, but not why you think it, or even why you think you think it.
"Oh no... he found the
That's an amazing example of deliberate blindness. The current Greek tragedy is an exemplar of the problems of (modern) liberalism, and believing otherwise is as nutty on the left as denying evolution is on the right.
Maybe this time Bill the Cat will win the Presidency. It would be an improvement compared to all the current candidates.
Probably Bill the Cat with Donald Trump's brain in his head will win.
I figure the Trump campaign is the reason Bloom County is coming back. So much new material, for free.
Can't believe I'm replying to a downrated AC, but here we go. Chicago politics have nothing to do with 'liberalism'. Chicago politics are all about cronyism, and Chicago politicians just belong to the Democrat party because they need a national party to belong to. The Greek political mess is due to massive entitlement, which believe it or not has nothing to do with liberal politics. For better examples of liberalism at work, on the international stage look at the nordic countries, and how they somehow manage to stay at the top of the world quality-of-life indexes, and domestically, look at the policies of Minnesota, and specifically how Minnesota has fared economically since Dayton became governor, compared to how Wisconsin has done since Walker came. Wisconsin's economic numbers have improved since the recession, but a rising tide lifts all ships, and Minnesota's numbers and rankings on various economic lists are consistently significantly better than Wisconsin's, despite (or I would argue because of) Dayton's liberal policies vs. Walker's tea party approach.
"If you're not a liberal when you're 25, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative by the time you're 35, you have no brain."
Perhaps we should see who he lampoons first...
This saying has always felt like a selfish, vapid outlook on life. Should we push for progress and get what we want when young, then when we have what we want,, resist the progressiveness of the next generation? "I got what I want so shove off" ?