Bloom County C/D?

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Endlessly classic.

http://www.bloomcountystrips.com/thppft.gif

Got a new book every year for Easter, had a stuffed Opus, and I still wish I had that "Billy & The Boingers" flexi-disc.

― kingfish kuribo's shoe (kingfish 2.0), Friday, 20 January 2006 22:42 (twenty years ago)

Also, Portnoy always made me laugh, random violence and all.

http://img457.imageshack.us/img457/9803/moralssquad3ch.jpg

― kingfish kuribo's shoe (kingfish 2.0), Friday, 20 January 2006 22:44 (twenty years ago)

"A desperate choice for desperate times" has never sounded so apt.

― M. White (Miguelito), Friday, 20 January 2006 22:50 (twenty years ago)

As any fule no, I still have my stuffed Opus:

http://static.flickr.com/23/30769451_c0f9bb023e.jpg

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 20 January 2006 22:53 (twenty years ago)

"Feminine protection? What is that? A chartreuse flamethrower?"

― M. White (Miguelito), Friday, 20 January 2006 22:53 (twenty years ago)

is that the tip of the iceberg, ned?

― gear (gear), Friday, 20 January 2006 22:55 (twenty years ago)

Portnoy looks like Cliff from Cheers.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 20 January 2006 22:55 (twenty years ago)

x-post: All too accurate, I fear.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 20 January 2006 22:55 (twenty years ago)

I wonder at what it was in particular that brought Berkeley Breathed to the point where he said to himself, "fuck it, it's time to go to work again"...

xpost: i can't see that graphic for some reason, ned

― kingfish kuribo's shoe (kingfish 2.0), Friday, 20 January 2006 22:56 (twenty years ago)

oh wait, now it loads...

― kingfish kuribo's shoe (kingfish 2.0), Friday, 20 January 2006 22:56 (twenty years ago)

What's the series of orange and black CDs on that one shelf?

― Dan (Important) Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 20 January 2006 22:57 (twenty years ago)

My (comparatively miniscule amount overall of) John Coltrane reissues. At least I've got Ascension.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 20 January 2006 22:58 (twenty years ago)

"WHAT'S THIS?! MARXISTS AT OUR SOUTH GATE?! WHY IT MUST BE A COMMUNIST HORDE!"

― kingfish kuribo's shoe (kingfish 2.0), Friday, 20 January 2006 22:58 (twenty years ago)

those look they were impulse buys

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 20 January 2006 23:04 (twenty years ago)

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c163/wvferrell/centpic.gif

― Will (will), Friday, 20 January 2006 23:04 (twenty years ago)

http://www.mathies.com/blog/bloomcounty-oliver.gif

― kingfish kuribo's shoe (kingfish 2.0), Friday, 20 January 2006 23:05 (twenty years ago)

those look they were impulse buys

HUR HUR HUR

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 20 January 2006 23:08 (twenty years ago)

Who's this Jim Ferguson impressionist?

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Friday, 20 January 2006 23:18 (twenty years ago)

He needs to learn how to draw Portnoy.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Friday, 20 January 2006 23:18 (twenty years ago)

The fact is that Opus looks more like a puffin than a penguin.

CLASSIC

― Sparkle Motion's Rising Force, Friday, 20 January 2006 23:20 (twenty years ago)

obviously CLASSIC, tho it was even funnier before i knew anything about any of the people being made fun of - breathed might've made up that iacocca dude (and donald trump!) for all i knew when i was 10!

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Friday, 20 January 2006 23:21 (twenty years ago)

"You can lead a yak to water but you can't teach an old dog to make a silk purse out of a pig in a poke."

gobsmackingly classic; so much of my humor is BC-indebted.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 20 January 2006 23:27 (twenty years ago)

the one i quote the most is probably the one where milo and binkley argue over whether coke is better than pepsi, only to conclude that both taste like MALTED BATTERY ACID.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Friday, 20 January 2006 23:37 (twenty years ago)

The Steve Dallas trying to quit smoking sequence, culminating with Opus hiding in the toilet, brought young me to tears and still almost does.

― adam (adam), Friday, 20 January 2006 23:39 (twenty years ago)

so classic. i have the flexi!!

― maura (maura), Friday, 20 January 2006 23:43 (twenty years ago)

I have it too, unsurprisingly. Mucky Pup was the backing band, I think?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 20 January 2006 23:53 (twenty years ago)

J.D. -- ditto.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 20 January 2006 23:55 (twenty years ago)

George "Mr Sulu" Takei went on to marry Marie Osmond.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Saturday, 21 January 2006 00:18 (twenty years ago)

What made me think of this was the scene where Steve Dallas is sitting on the couch in the underwear, talking to the TV.

I can't find that strip online, tho. Something about the guy on tv asking, "Friend, do you suffer from a weak will and a lack of confidence?"

Steve laughingly agrees, and it goes from there, to the point where the guy on tv starts making hilariously pointed & specific attacks on Steve. Steve stands up and says "now wait just a second," to which the guy on TV replies, "oh LORD spare us, sit down"

― kingfish kuribo's shoe (kingfish 2.0), Saturday, 21 January 2006 00:28 (twenty years ago)

i have the flexi too. and a south american llama

― no bones, Saturday, 21 January 2006 00:59 (twenty years ago)

YSI?

― kingfish kuribo's shoe (kingfish 2.0), Saturday, 21 January 2006 01:48 (twenty years ago)

i loved bloom county as a kid, was so disappointed when it ended.

and then calvin & hobbes came around and i haven't thought of it since...

― Mitya (mitya), Saturday, 21 January 2006 02:19 (twenty years ago)

"Why, I MUST JUST TAKE A FIRE HOSE TO 'EM!!! THANK YOU FOR NOT SMOKING!!!"

Classic.

― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Saturday, 21 January 2006 02:30 (twenty years ago)

Hello.
I'm a Boinger:

http://s63.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0RO4L5SWJ6C5Q340TTH1PGM5EV

You Stink, but I Love You:

http://s63.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=23SWNILNV652N3JQD9ANAXWMEX

BTW, classic classic classic. The standard that all newspaper comic strips should be held to. Outland? Not so much.

By the way, I just managed to post these on the Cat Power/Fiona Apple/Beth Orton thread on ILM. Because I am dumb.

― John Justen (johnjusten), Saturday, 21 January 2006 02:49 (twenty years ago)

Steve Dallas (tied to chair): "How many minutes since my last smoke?"
Opus: "37."
Steve Dallas: "I'm feeling in control...mind over matter. I think I'm gonna ace this!"

.......

Opus: "38."
Steve Dallas: "Give me a fuckin' cigarette before I stick you in a blender."

― Joe (Joe), Saturday, 21 January 2006 03:02 (twenty years ago)

Two other favorite quotes:

"HERE'S BREAKFAST FROM AUNT OPUS!"

"It says in the Bible, 'Let he who is without sin cast the first stone'."
"So we CAST that first MUTHA!"

― Joe (Joe), Saturday, 21 January 2006 03:04 (twenty years ago)

john justen i kiss you a million billion times

― geoff (gcannon), Saturday, 21 January 2006 03:41 (twenty years ago)

Dud. The worst of Trudeau, a total misunderstanding of what made Herriman magic, some faux-Schulz, all blended and hochhhhed up by the only good character, Bill.

― truck-patch pixel farmer (my crop froze in the field) (Rock Hardy), Saturday, 21 January 2006 03:43 (twenty years ago)

See, I always thought that the worst of Trudeau was all of the times he FORGOT TO BE FUNNY AT ALL.

I love the early stuff, but at this point, Doonesbury is just a terrible reminder of what it used to be.

― John Justen (johnjusten), Saturday, 21 January 2006 03:55 (twenty years ago)

Bosh, Doonesbury just had a few stellar weeks of B.D. talking slantwise with the therapists.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 21 January 2006 04:20 (twenty years ago)

I actually haven't talked about the strip itself, have I? Megaclassic of course. First encountered it in 1981 or so and was deeply bemused, but for a long while in upstate New York I had to live by the books as they came out since when I moved there in 1982 no local paper carried it. Thankfully I returned to California and saw out its run there, and still have the final strip around somewhere.

Outland was enjoyable enough, Opus I've barely seen.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 21 January 2006 04:27 (twenty years ago)

oh wow thanks for the songs

― kingfish kuribo's shoe (kingfish 2.0), Saturday, 21 January 2006 04:58 (twenty years ago)

this was the strip that got me reading, back in 1985/86 when I was in 3rd grade:

http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/1374/opustv3iu.th.jpg

Unlike Doonesbury, Breathed was always more inclined for actual slapstick and absurdity(e.g. TVs ran around a lot)

― kingfish kuribo's shoe (kingfish 2.0), Saturday, 21 January 2006 05:03 (twenty years ago)

holy shit, i haven't heard these songs in 20 years. "I'm a Boinger" sounds like Theater of Pain-era Vince Neil fronting the Plimsouls. This is far more punk than I ever remember.

"U Stink" seems more like pre-synth Van Halen, only with far more vocal sneering.

Your comments?

― kingfish kuribo's shoe (kingfish 2.0), Saturday, 21 January 2006 05:16 (twenty years ago)

http://www.berkeleybreathed.com/Images/fav_strip2_full.jpg

― kingfish kuribo's shoe (kingfish 2.0), Saturday, 21 January 2006 05:17 (twenty years ago)

(womp! womp! womp!)

― kingfish kuribo's shoe (kingfish 2.0), Saturday, 21 January 2006 05:17 (twenty years ago)

"brains behind the spandex"

― kingfish kuribo's shoe (kingfish 2.0), Saturday, 21 January 2006 05:20 (twenty years ago)

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/thefeenom/blm860502.gif

― Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (Plastic Gas Booby Trap), Saturday, 21 January 2006 05:39 (twenty years ago)

i actually went searching for that specific strip some months ago when i signed up for a membership to ucomics.com. i absolutely can't believe i wound up finding it in all the dailies from 5-plus years, yet there it is. steve's body movements make me lose it every single time.

― Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (Plastic Gas Booby Trap), Saturday, 21 January 2006 05:41 (twenty years ago)

I loved "Bloom County" as a kid. It really influenced some of my stuff when I still harbored the idea of becoming a cartoonist.

However, it has not aged well. I'm not just talking about the Reagan references either. When you read the books from start to finish, there's a lot of material that feels rushed and not quite well-thought out. When I read the Breathed interview where he talks about finishing the panels on the airplane flying the strips from Iowa to New York for publishing, I thought, "Yup. And it sure did show in spots."

It started out as a "Doonesbury" rip-off (complete with Duke imitation and forgery talking-to-the-mirror strip) and ended with the Outlandish adventures of a Basselope and Reagan Ann. But in the middle there, it was pure D classic.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Saturday, 21 January 2006 05:56 (twenty years ago)

Skipping 164 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Complete digital library of Bloom County / Outland for $16
https://www.humblebundle.com/books

― Maybe in 100 years someone will say damn Dawn was dope. (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 11 March 2015 18:56 (eleven years ago)

imho this aged incredibly poorly

― Maybe in 100 years someone will say damn Dawn was dope. (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 11 March 2015 18:58 (eleven years ago)

I like it but it's purely nostalgia, I can't see it appealing to anybody who didn't live through the 80s

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 11 March 2015 19:00 (eleven years ago)

^^^ yup

― DJP, Wednesday, 11 March 2015 19:00 (eleven years ago)

I'd've thought Donna Rice jokes would age like a fine wine.

― Eggnog On My Kangol (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 11 March 2015 19:04 (eleven years ago)

I mean, it's basically like watching almost any '80s SNL political sketch.

― Eggnog On My Kangol (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 11 March 2015 19:05 (eleven years ago)

"Well, I'd be the President's little dumplin' anyday!" Phyllis Schlafly said earlier.

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 11 March 2015 19:07 (eleven years ago)

reading this as a kid (having not really lived through the 80s) is largely responsible for nobody getting any of my jokes in elementary & middle school

― example (crüt), Wednesday, 11 March 2015 19:09 (eleven years ago)

I do wonder if it's kind of like Doonesbury, in that respect? As a lad I would read compendiums of the 70s Doonesbury and kind of laugh at different things (Zonker, primarily) and then wonder who Jeb Macgruder was. (tbf I gleaned a lot of info about recent American political history from these strips)

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 11 March 2015 19:11 (eleven years ago)

i generally do okay on Watergate jeopardy categories due to doonesbury paperbacks
"that's GUILTY, GUILTY GUILTY!"

― Maybe in 100 years someone will say damn Dawn was dope. (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 11 March 2015 19:13 (eleven years ago)

seeing an old bloom county here and there always makes me smile, haven't tried to sit down and actually reread an entire book tho. most of the references didn't mean much more to me than "random funny name" as a kid, and i think it might have been better that way.

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Wednesday, 11 March 2015 19:16 (eleven years ago)

Ha, I cut this one out of the newspaper. I may even still have the color version in some scrapbook in the attic.

Joke's not that funny, but it cracked me up that the "Doonesbury" of Bloom County was called "Those Darn Cats".

― pplains, Wednesday, 11 March 2015 19:19 (eleven years ago)

in many cases the funny names were the actual extent of the humor, e.g. Caspar Weinberger

― example (crüt), Wednesday, 11 March 2015 19:19 (eleven years ago)

Start over!

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 11 March 2015 19:20 (eleven years ago)

Joke's not that funny, but it cracked me up that the "Doonesbury" of Bloom County was called "Those Darn Cats".

― pplains, Wednesday, March 11, 2015 3:19 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's a reference to this:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_606w/WashingtonPost/Content/Blogs/comic-riffs/StandingArt/doones0685.gif?uuid=tu2tIt5SEeCEdSrrIfoXWw

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 11 March 2015 19:22 (eleven years ago)

Where in that does it say "Those Darn Cats" ?

― pplains, Wednesday, 11 March 2015 19:24 (eleven years ago)

It doesn't; it's just a reference to Trudeau's Sinatra-bashing strips (which went on for a week, got dropped from a couple of papers, and were actually big-ish news at the time).

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 11 March 2015 19:25 (eleven years ago)

lol at the jane pauley joke; she's married to garry trudeau.

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Wednesday, 11 March 2015 19:27 (eleven years ago)

lol @ "alleged human"

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 11 March 2015 19:28 (eleven years ago)

I like it but it's purely nostalgia, I can't see it appealing to anybody who didn't live through the 80s

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, March 11, 2015 12:00 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I didn't live through the 80s but it's the only way I know anything about the 80s

― stately, plump buck angel (silby), Thursday, 12 March 2015 01:44 (eleven years ago)

I reread several of my old books last year -- they've aged fine. The animals help.

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 12 March 2015 02:16 (eleven years ago)

i was like to die laughing when i was 9 and reading the steve dallas quitting smoking saga for the first time

― adam, Thursday, 12 March 2015 02:31 (eleven years ago)

luckily i survived

― adam, Thursday, 12 March 2015 02:32 (eleven years ago)

Excellent example of undated story ("WHERE'D YOU HIDE'EM????" *bouncing on toilet semi-nude while tied to chair*)

Also: Opus' nose job.

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 12 March 2015 02:43 (eleven years ago)

Maybe in 100 years someone will say damn Dawn was dope. (forksclovetofu)
Posted: March 11, 2015 at 8:58:27 AM
imho this aged incredibly poorly

Bullshit

― a strawman stuffed with their collection of 12 cds (jjjusten), Thursday, 12 March 2015 06:53 (eleven years ago)

yeah, it's always been terrible

― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Thursday, 12 March 2015 06:57 (eleven years ago)

I feel sad for you

― a strawman stuffed with their collection of 12 cds (jjjusten), Thursday, 12 March 2015 07:08 (eleven years ago)

Oh my God I bought this immediately.

One of Breathed's greatest gags I will love until I die are characters repearedly whapping another one on the head to emphasize some point.

A Basselope gap!

― Delbert Gravy (kingfish), Thursday, 12 March 2015 08:36 (eleven years ago)

http://www.thecomicstrips.com/store/add.php?iid=83465

http://www.thecomicstrips.com/store/add.php?iid=83927

http://www.gocomics.com/bloomcounty/2010/03/25

― Delbert Gravy (kingfish), Thursday, 12 March 2015 08:45 (eleven years ago)

two weeks pass...

Middle of the road, man, it stanks
Let's run over Lionel Richie with a tank

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 26 March 2015 15:09 (eleven years ago)

three months pass...

http://i.imgur.com/xIfFAZ9.png

― Johnny Fever, Sunday, 12 July 2015 18:41 (ten years ago)

― cat-haver (silby), Sunday, 12 July 2015 19:03 (ten years ago)

https://www.facebook.com/berkeleybreathed/photos/a.114529165244512.10815.108793262484769/1004028256294594

― example (crüt), Monday, 13 July 2015 14:30 (ten years ago)

Bloom County with computer lettering = gtfo

― let no-one live rent free in your butt (sic), Tuesday, 14 July 2015 00:11 (ten years ago)

hopefully he hires some kid to put these on a real website

― cat-haver (silby), Tuesday, 14 July 2015 02:17 (ten years ago)

Binkley?

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 14 July 2015 02:20 (ten years ago)

one year passes...

dud: the Big Bang/cosmology/theoretical physics skepticism, the preponderance of new strips that are just "we're living in a nightmare world but ya know it's the little things that make life worth living!!"
classic: most everything else

― esempiu (crüt), Wednesday, 24 August 2016 23:32 (nine years ago)

two years pass...

I recently started a new job... in a meeting of my workgroup, everyone went around the table, introduced themselves, and announced what they had “wanted to do when they grew up,” as kids. (Yeah, I know.)

When it was my turn, I said that I had wanted to be a lawyer — entirely because of Steve Dallas from “Bloom County.”

It landed with a thud. Not a single face in the room, whether Gen-Xer or Millennial, showed even a glimmer of recognition, comprehension, or interest.

― stan by me (morrisp), Saturday, 6 July 2019 17:13 (six years ago)

I do know some kids who like reading the comic pages in the paper, what's left of them. And to be fair, I have no idea what comics they are reading.

― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 6 July 2019 17:15 (six years ago)

I guess I was expecting a chorus of appreciation from at least others around my age.

― stan by me (morrisp), Saturday, 6 July 2019 18:08 (six years ago)

tough room, eh?

― A is for (Aimless), Saturday, 6 July 2019 18:11 (six years ago)

ten months pass...

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/0e/45/6f/0e456f75fe3d4df42aa1f7c2b438d41f.gif

― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 6 May 2020 18:42 (six years ago)

itt: penguins that can't tell an adage from a metaphor. and can't tell an adage, either.

― A is for (Aimless), Wednesday, 6 May 2020 18:48 (six years ago)

one year passes...

I’m on vacation this week but this was uploaded to FB on the 11th. I hope you’re enjoying these as much as me! pic.twitter.com/ZoUiD5TitN
— Bloom County (@bloomcounty) July 13, 2021

Is it weird that he's drawing Calvin & Hobbes? (not really Calvin so far)

I find it weird because he's doing them Watterson-style, and because they're so beloved and missed, it feels like forbidden wish fulfillment.

― lukas, Tuesday, 13 July 2021 19:58 (four years ago)

one year passes...

Figures I can’t find a clean online scan or a Bloom County strip that references Ivana Trump today

― The Triumphant Return of Bernard & Stubbs (Raymond Cummings), Thursday, 14 July 2022 21:29 (three years ago)

one year passes...

feel like there was an expansive sunday-type comic in which opus and milo careened through crazy dimensions until opus made it crash to a halt with milo accusing him of being a literalist

cannot find it online; have i imagined this?

― mookieproof, Sunday, 14 January 2024 05:04 (two years ago)

don’t remember but sounds like a calvin & hobbes strip too

― sknybrg, Sunday, 14 January 2024 08:06 (two years ago)

Yep! It's in one of my BC books

― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 14 January 2024 12:26 (two years ago)

one year passes...

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/65/d0/ee/65d0ee42eaf8dfa0e4e300b5ce2948df.jpg

― birdistheword, Friday, 25 July 2025 00:31 (ten months ago)

https://i.imgur.com/E41K0XT.jpeg

― hungover beet poo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 25 July 2025 00:35 (ten months ago)

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