Berkeley Breathed Back in the Funnies 350
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."
Opus! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Opus! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Opus! (Score:2)
Well, not as such. (Score:5, Funny)
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.
Re:Well, not as such. (Score:3, Funny)
(and me much less a jerk)
If only once, you might provide
Some Penguin wings that work
(more or less from memory)
Re:Opus! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Opus! (Score:3, Funny)
Breathed is back? (Score:5, Funny)
Ack! Thpppt!
Or... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Breathed is back? (Score:4, Interesting)
Joy is leaving Sun. Pic shows long hair.
Breathed is coming back, with a Penguin. Pic shows long hair.
Do I have to spell it out for you?
Re:Breathed is back? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Breathed is back? (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes, Opus is back. But Bill was the one who made that noise. Opus' sensitivity and trusting nature made him a great center to both Bloom County and Outland, but without the cool intellectuality of Milo Bloom and the brash, unfounded self-confidence of uberfratboy Steve Dallas, can Opus have the same soft-hearted appeal?
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. Things like Binkley's anxeity closet and Portnoy and Hodge's satirical reiterations of contentious political issues. 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, to the wheelchair-bound 'Nam vet Cutter John.
I'm just as psyched as anyone to see Opus back in the comic pages, but what I'm really hoping to see is the return of the foils that made his world so memorable.
Re:Breathed is back? (Score:5, Informative)
JONES... Oliver Wendell JONES...
Oliver Wendell Holmes was a famous poet.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. was a famous lawyer.
Oliver Wendell Jones was a famous young hacker with a Banana Jr. computer.
Re:Breathed is back? (Score:2)
Re:Breathed is back? (Score:2)
Re:Breathed is back? (Score:3, Funny)
an OFF switch!
Re:Breathed is back? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Breathed is back? (Score:2)
Will we see Billy and the Boingers!!!! make a comeback tour on the new strip? Opus bangin away on the tuba was most punk. Very cool.
Re:Breathed is back? (Score:2)
Right.. (Score:2)
Ack! Thpppt!
I don't really know what that means, but I think people who think he's a prick would agree.
Questionable (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re:Questionable (Score:2)
Re:Questionable (Score:5, Insightful)
Considering the dismal state of printed-page comics today, I'm not surprised that many would leap at the chance to put a Sure Thing back in, even at that space-cost. Breathed's bargaining from strength and he knows it.
Re:Questionable (Score:5, Insightful)
1) Bloom County was WILDLY popular, and I'm sure that a lot of people will pick it up again, unthinking
2) Bill Watterson (Calvin and Hobbes) pulled it off quite well, and he didn't loose too many papers when he went to half-page
3) Brethead says in the article that he missed having a public voice. He's not a quiet kind of guy, and I'm sure that he will get himself in a winder distribution than just a few papers
4) He's got a Bloom County website, and since he IS trying to reach a larger audience, I'll bet the strip will be online as well. I don't think he's doing this for money. He MUST have cleaned up in the eighties.
SHOOT THE #$^#@ LAWYERS! MORE SKIN ON HBO! L.H. PUTGRASS SIGNING OFF AND HEADING FOR THE TUB!
Re:Questionable (Score:5, Interesting)
In the middle of this, he also wanted to leave Bloom Country behind. He focus shifted from a white male adolescent to black female pre-adolescent. The animal shifted from a flightless motherless waterfowl and drugged garfield parody to a cynical mickey mouse parody and his pal. Unfortunately Breathed could not make the strip work, so he had to reintroduce opus and bill, which then became a product line of plush animals, greeting cards, and the like.
So the fact that the new strip concentrates on Opus and Bill is not surprising, though somewhat disappointing. Breathed drawing did become very good at the end, so I have high hopes for that. The only problem I see is that Bloom Country originated from a college paper, and the college crowd continued to be the core audience. I don't know how well his work will be received by the general audience or the current generation that grew up without exposure to his work. i hope that he will make the strip available to campus papers. Although most would not run it sunday, they could repeat it on Monday
Blech! (Score:2, Funny)
A start (Score:5, Interesting)
Opus Comeback! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Opus Comeback! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Opus Comeback! (Score:3, Funny)
My first thought, being a long-time Breathed fan, was to reply with "Milk me, Berkeley Breathed, milk me with everything you've got!"
Yet somehow, despite being a perfectly valid response on a syntactic level, I can't help thinking that I'd be violating at least half a dozen indecency laws... ;-)
Huzzah! (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Huzzah! (Score:2)
Re:Huzzah! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Huzzah! (Score:2)
- A.P.
Opus is Back! Now Bring Back Calvin!!!! (Score:5, Interesting)
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!
Don't forget ... (Score:2)
Harry Knowles is a big, fat, red-headed idiot (Score:5, Insightful)
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'.
Re:Opus is Back! Now Bring Back Calvin!!!! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Opus is Back! Now Bring Back Calvin!!!! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Opus is Back! Now Bring Back Calvin!!!! (Score:2, Interesting)
Co-incidence?
Re:Opus is Back! Now Bring Back Calvin!!!! (Score:2)
Watterson also complained about the ridiculous flexibility he had to provide to the syndicators. I.e. The title panel of the Sunday comic couldn't contain anything important because the newspapers had the option to remove it. Ditto for the first 2 frames, which usually contain a pithy joke.
Of course even that wasn't really an issue in the end because his syndicator eventually
Good (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
The comics have always sucked (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:The comics have always sucked (Score:4, Informative)
The Phantom
Nancy
The sad thing is that if you can find books of those two from during their heyday, they were damn good comic strips. With every single comic that has been listed so far, the strip long outlasted the life of their creators, and new artists have come along to prop up their strips' corpses like some sick publishing equivalent of "Weekend at Bernie's." I'm worried that one day someone will try to pick up Peanuts (even though the strip was never as good during its last two decades as it was in the old 60's collections that I have). It's sad enough to see the old strips still being rerun in my local papers rather than let some newcomer take a stab at success.
I'm just glad that Pogo was allowed to retire gracefully and that Bill Watterson will never let Calvin and Hobbes be turned into the sort of undead shadow of itself that all the strips we've listed here have become.
Nancy (Score:2)
Re:Good (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Good (Score:2)
You could give mine [overcaffeinated.net] a try =)
There's an Oliver Wendell Jones in every geek (Score:3, Interesting)
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?
Re:There's an Oliver Wendell Jones in every geek (Score:2)
Do I spot a slight anachronism here? TRS-80's were way before Bloom County and Doonesbury were syndicated, IIRC.
My early days of programming were inspired by the Fabulous Furry Freak
Re:There's an Oliver Wendell Jones in every geek (Score:2)
Re:There's an Oliver Wendell Jones in every geek (Score:2, Interesting)
I think you are right, though TRS-80's were used in schools for a long time after they became obsolete. I recall taking a computer class in 1990-1991, and we used TRS-80's.
Though the poster was talking about Radio Shack, and not schools...
Boondocks! (Score:3, Insightful)
It even had DMCA bashing in it at one point!
And it cunningly anticipated Berke Breathed's return [ucomics.com].
Opus is Back! (Score:2, Interesting)
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
Re:Opus is Back! (Score:2)
Given the current state of comics, I'd give Breathed the entire comics section if he asked.
Re:Opus is Back! (Score:2)
especially the strips with political overtones
The Boondocks (another great strip) has remarked on just that [ucomics.com].
I'm so happy..... (Score:5, Funny)
Great. (Score:2)
Bloom County was my political primer (Score:2, Interesting)
Great art!! (Score:3, Interesting)
About the only other strip with comparable artwork is Doonesbury.
Re:Great art!! (Score:2, Insightful)
And then to tie this all together and make it a bit more on topic, here's a quote from The Onion AV
You could aim your sights a little higher, IMHO. (Score:3, Insightful)
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 a
Harry took the words out of my mouth (Score:2)
If it wasn't for Dilbert, I'd just discard the comics with the 'magazine' and 'style' sections.
Comics have gone the way of pop-music - only the acts who are blase' and 'easy to understand' are getting published.
But what about the banana pc 2000? (Score:2, Funny)
Harry Knowles commenting... (Score:5, Insightful)
From Harry Knowles (Score:2)
Re:From Harry Knowles (Score:2)
They also chose the right time to get out before their creative energies had been depleted. Though I really enjoyed _Peanuts_ as a kid, decades of really similar strips and so
Does this mean the Meadow Party runs (Score:2)
Re:Does this mean the Meadow Party runs (Score:2)
1/2 a page huh? (Score:2)
Dysfunctional Family Circus (Score:3, Funny)
It was closed down when Bill Keane complained.
Re:Dysfunctional Family Circus (Score:3, Informative)
Of course, DFC is some of the funniest black humor I've seen, nonetheless. Lucky for me I have some hardcopies and an old T-=shirt.
Re:Dysfunctional Family Circus (Score:3, Informative)
Less excited here... (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:Less excited here... (Score:5, Insightful)
Bloom County turned out to be just a bunch of tossed-out references to '80's pop culture.
Hmm, let's see here
-jdm
Satirizing current events (Score:2)
It was topical humor. Right now there's no comic strip artist of Breathed's stature doing for the 00s what he did for the 80s.
Satire is a sign of a healthy democracy. We need it right now more than ever.
As for longevity, my Bloom County collection does a better job of reminding me what the 80s were all about than any other media relics from that era.
Re: (Score:2)
I hope the rest has done him good (Score:2, Interesting)
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?
Ha! (Score:2, Funny)
Oh, wait. Wrong Berkeley.
At any rate, I, for one, welcome our new penguin overlord.
Now if only we could get (Score:2)
Boondocks (Score:3, Insightful)
Need more voices? (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Anyone read Boondocks? (Score:3, Insightful)
The time is right (Score:3, Insightful)
Some things never change (Score:2)
Prayer Pimples for Hairy Fishnuts (Score:3, Funny)
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
Opus is not far from Woodstock? (Score:2)
You see, I've always thought the "Opus" character bore a certain family resemblance to Charles M. Schulz's (please mod me up for spelling his name correctly) "Woodstock."
I can't help thinking that Breathed said to himself, "I
Bummer! (Score:2)
All right! (Score:2)
Oh Crap..... (Score:2, Funny)
The Vanishing Liberal (Score:5, Funny)
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!
Re:The Vanishing Liberal (Score:4, Funny)
Must be an old guide. They seem to be all over the place now. They propagate like rabbits and they're harder to stamp out than cockroaches. Maybe we need to extend the season
Great!... but... (Score:3, Interesting)
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
Will this be good? (Score:3, Insightful)
Daily strips made Bloom County (Score:5, Interesting)
No offense to the cartoonist, but... (Score:2)
Pretty cool guy. Glad he's back. (Score:4, Interesting)
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...
Re:fp (Score:2, Funny)
Re:This looks interesting (Score:2, Interesting)
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 [slashdot.org]
Re:Oliver (Score:2)
Re:They used The Onion as a source? (Score:5, Informative)
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