Berkely Breathed interview

[Bob Crotchet]

I miss Opus already.

http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2008/10/18/opus/index.html

A highlight (or maybe a lowlight):

"Bloom County" had five times the edge of the work I do now. In 1986 I had a cockroach scream, "Reagan sucks!" in print size that took up the entire cartoon box. Nobody blinked -- 1,000 newspapers, quiet as a mouse. Now I draw a woman wearing a Muslim scarf, and the frantic publisher of the Washington Post Co. is on the phone at 9 p.m. telling me -- I am not making this up -- to adjust my character's hair so she doesn't look too unkempt.

Fear doesn't so much rule the wood pulp news industry. More like pee-on-themselves existential terror.

I will miss the crinkly mass of pressed dead tree held aloft over my Caesar salad and iced tea at the corner cafe.

-------

(A minor point, but his memory fails him on the "Reagan sucks!" strip. Dave Barry wrote a column about how the Miami Herald didn't run that strip but wrote stories quoting it to explain why they didn't run it.)

 

[EStreetJoe]

Sure, it's been an unnaturally long run for a penguin. Opus, who started with a bit part in Breathed's Pulitzer-winning "Bloom County" (1980-89), starred in "Outland" (1989-95) and finally took center stage in "Opus" (2003-08).

Opus was a puffin, not a penguin!!
Is there a compilation of just the Opus cartoons out yet?
I've got the Bloom County and Outland books.

 

[Trey Beamon]

Oh. I thought this was about Elizabeth Berkley. [/mikey]

 

[Mystery_Meat]

I miss Opus already.

http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2008/10/18/opus/index.html

A highlight (or maybe a lowlight):

"Bloom County" had five times the edge of the work I do now. In 1986 I had a cockroach scream, "Reagan sucks!" in print size that took up the entire cartoon box. Nobody blinked -- 1,000 newspapers, quiet as a mouse. Now I draw a woman wearing a Muslim scarf, and the frantic publisher of the Washington Post Co. is on the phone at 9 p.m. telling me -- I am not making this up -- to adjust my character's hair so she doesn't look too unkempt.

Fear doesn't so much rule the wood pulp news industry. More like pee-on-themselves existential terror.

I will miss the crinkly mass of pressed dead tree held aloft over my Caesar salad and iced tea at the corner cafe.

-------

(A minor point, but his memory fails him on the "Reagan sucks!" strip. Dave Barry wrote a column about how the Miami Herald didn't run that strip but wrote stories quoting it to explain why they didn't run it.)

Actually, I want to say he mentioned a few papers dropping the strip outright, not running that day's or at least raising an issue about it. It was one of my favorite days -- the cockney-talking cockroach doing fill-in work for one of the main characters, being told to say something subtle and witty for the punchline, then firing off REAGAN SUCKS as the payoff. Pitch perfect and flawlessly timed.

Much as I loved Bloom County and liked Outland, Opus was a classic case of beating a dead penguin. I suspect in 2013 he'll debut the web comic O.

 

[HejiraHenry]

I like turtles.

 

[PCLoadLetter]

I absolutely loved "Bloom County." Hated "Outland." Saw "Opus" maybe twice.

So based on that interview, what are the odds it ends with Opus somehow climbing into "Peanuts"?

 

[Ben_Hecht]

I absolutely loved "Bloom County." Hated "Outland." Saw "Opus" maybe twice.

So based on that interview, what are the odds it ends with Opus somehow climbing into "Peanuts"?

Sorry, Opus. Snoopy has the whimsical animal character market cornered . . . forever.

 

[kokane_muthashed]

My paper dropped Bloom County after the "Reagan Sucks" strip.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Final strip -- huh?

 

[mike311gd]

Oh. I thought this was about Elizabeth Berkley. [/mikey]

I did. Screw you guys.

 

[Rough Mix]

Goodnight Opus

http://www.hsus.org/forms/the_opus_contest.html

 

[Mystery_Meat]

So was Opus the strip a dream? Was everything from the first Bloom County a dream? Is that Suzanne Pleshette in the bed with him?

 

[old_tony]

I absolutely loved "Bloom County." Hated "Outland." Saw "Opus" maybe twice.

So based on that interview, what are the odds it ends with Opus somehow climbing into "Peanuts"?

Sorry, Opus. Snoopy has the whimsical animal character market cornered . . . forever.

Hobbes and I disagree.

 

[BYH]

I absolutely loved "Bloom County." Hated "Outland." Saw "Opus" maybe twice.

So based on that interview, what are the odds it ends with Opus somehow climbing into "Peanuts"?

Sorry, Opus. Snoopy has the whimsical animal character market cornered . . . forever.

Hobbes and I disagree.

I would say Hobbes is less whimsical than Snoopy. but I see your general point.

I don't think Peanuts ever got as serious as C&H. That story arc where Calvin brings home the dying bird was something else. And I loved Watterson's random serious Sunday strips.

 

[Freelance Hack]

I think we all have a little Steve Dallas in us.

 

[Killick]

Long live Deathtongue!

 

[Norman Stansfield]

I just dug out all eight Bloom County books I have, and am going to start re-reading them.

Thanks for the reminder.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

I absolutely loved "Bloom County." Hated "Outland." Saw "Opus" maybe twice.

So based on that interview, what are the odds it ends with Opus somehow climbing into "Peanuts"?

Sorry, Opus. Snoopy has the whimsical animal character market cornered . . . forever.

Hobbes and I disagree.

I would say Hobbes is less whimsical than Snoopy. but I see your general point.

I don't think Peanuts ever got as serious as C&H. That story arc where Calvin brings home the dying bird was something else. And I loved Watterson's random serious Sunday strips.

The only strip in the picture with Peanuts for great sustained achievement in the last half of the 20th century is C&H. Everyone else is running for third.

And I'll be the first to admit: Peanuts fell off -- MARKEDLY -- after 1980.

Apples and oranges. High whimsical quotent? Snoopy. Occasional gut-wrenching bathos? Hobbes. Both part of remarkable wholes.

 

[I Digress]

I think we all have a little Bill the Cat in us.....the end of Opus was less than satisfying...the end of Bloom County made me teary-eyed.

 

[Mystery_Meat]

I absolutely loved "Bloom County." Hated "Outland." Saw "Opus" maybe twice.

So based on that interview, what are the odds it ends with Opus somehow climbing into "Peanuts"?

Sorry, Opus. Snoopy has the whimsical animal character market cornered . . . forever.

Hobbes and I disagree.

I would say Hobbes is less whimsical than Snoopy. but I see your general point.

I don't think Peanuts ever got as serious as C&H. That story arc where Calvin brings home the dying bird was something else. And I loved Watterson's random serious Sunday strips.

If Calvin and Hobbes came first, it would be more like Peanuts, and Peanuts more like C&H.

And Hi and Lois would be diseased excrement no matter what era it ran in.