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Bloom County returns!!!

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B

borghe

Loves the Greater Toronto Area
https://www.facebook.com/berkeleybr...793262484769/1004028256294594/?type=1&theater

After 25 years, and apparently prompted by Donald Trump running for president, Berkely Breathed is back with Bloom County 2015!

Nothing too political in the first strip, and no word on how this is going to be distributed beyond him posting the first strip to his Facebook page. But for kids like myself who grew up on the strip (and actually played a huge role toward me enjoying ALL comics), I couldn't be more excited for Bloom County properly returning after all these decades.

Enjoy!!!
 
M

mre

Golden Domers are chickenshit!!
borghe said:
https://www.facebook.com/berkeleybr...793262484769/1004028256294594/?type=1&theater

After 25 years, and apparently prompted by Donald Trump running for president, Berkely Breathed is back with Bloom County 2015!

Nothing too political in the first strip, and no word on how this is going to be distributed beyond him posting the first strip to his Facebook page. But for kids like myself who grew up on the strip (and actually played a huge role toward me enjoying ALL comics), I couldn't be more excited for Bloom County properly returning after all these decades.

Enjoy!!!
Click to expand...
Holy shit. Thank you for posting this!
 
Machine

Machine

Member
The short period of time when Bloom County, Calvin & Hobbes, and The Far Side were all running in newspapers was the golden age of newspaper comic strips.
 
B

borghe

Loves the Greater Toronto Area
Machine said:
The short period of time when Bloom County, Calvin & Hobbes, and The Far Side were all running in newspapers was the golden age of newspaper comic strips.
Click to expand...
We had Far Side and Bloom County in the evening paper, and Calvin & Hobbes in the morning. Sadly I only delivered the evening paper so the only time (as a kid) I got to enjoy Calvin and Hobbes was like once a week or so when I'd hang out at my friend's house and he happened to have copies of the morning paper left from his deliveries.
 
B

borghe

Loves the Greater Toronto Area
mclem said:
But I bought all of it from Humble Bundle a few years ago... and now there's more?
Click to expand...

as of yesterday (preview) and this morning, apparently yes. the only "news" out for it simply comments on Breathed's post yesterday and the strip this morning.
 
M

mclem

Member
Wonder if it's a long-term return, or just a few strips to nod towards Trump's essential, well, Trumpiness.
 
M

mclem

Member
ElectricBlanketFire said:
For those not in the know, what does Trump have to do with the strip?
Click to expand...

Well, I'm only a layperson, but towards the end Bill the Cat's brain was replaced by Donald Trump's.

5Q2bamZ.jpg
 
H

HerbertBirdsfoot

Member
So happy that it's back in some way. I had all the paperbacks and read the comic daily when I was in high school. I also had an "Ahead Warp Zillion" t-shirt with Cutter John and the gang. I didn't like Outland nearly as well.

Hope the new strip has some politics, current events and celebrities. I'm sure it will have Donald Trump. But why not some David Lee Roth and Gene Simmons like the old days? Jean Kirkpatrick and Caspar Weinberger are dead, so I guess the political figures would need to be more recent. :)
 
B

bishopcruz

Member
Happy to see this. Bloom County is imo the best political comic ever made. Never dug doonsbury, but I assure the hell out of this sales. Can't wait to see Steve again.
 
C

Currygan

at last, for christ's sake
Mighty Chin said:
I find the lack of posts in this thread disturbing. Lots of kids on here I'm guessing.
Click to expand...

I'm not that old, and stumbled on BC about 20 years ago while looking for some Andy Capp collection. Insta-love, also recently purchased those which are the gods' tits

bloom-county1.jpg
 
A

Azure Dream

Member
I feel like he's ended the series (and the spin-offs) so much already, it's strange to resurrect it again.

But Donald Trump actually having a shot of being the GOP nominee, it really is right there... The series had a fixation on Trump.
 
A

Agent Unknown

Member
YEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

I don't care how many times Breathed said he'd end it, he obviously still can't let go of how much he loves it, more power to him, one of the greatest strips EVER! Right up there with Calvin and Hobbes and the Far Side. Even as a kid I got a lot of the topical references thanks to casually watching news shows with my dad. The strip also had some of the best pop culture spoofing and riffing pre-MST3K. The ending of Opus in 2008 was beautifully done but I'm glad Breathed woke him out of that "Goodnight Moon" nap, we need his innocence and optimism (balanced by Milo and Steve) more than ever. This is a huge win for the comics page. To celebrate, here's a pic of my Bloom County Library collection, got all of then for only $100 back in March and Vol 2 is signed by Breathed! Now I just need to get the Outland Opus collection volumes:



 
P

parrotbeak

Member
Machine said:
The short period of time when Bloom County, Calvin & Hobbes, and The Far Side were all running in newspapers was the golden age of newspaper comic strips.
Click to expand...
Not sure how much I agree only because i was a kid at the time, but i'd also include Doonesbury with those three. Those four comics got me into comics, art, politics, philosophy, science--basically helped me develop as a person. Without those strips I would have grown up exclusively on GI Joe and Transformers.
 
A

Agent Unknown

Member
Just a heads up that so far Breathed is posting a new strip daily on his FB page. Yesterday featured Binkly and today Oliver, looks like he is reintroducing everybody one at a time. Guess we'll see if we get a spiffy new Sunday strip this weekend.
 
A

Agent Unknown

Member
Really funny and very timely strip from last week, I hope Breathed keeps doing these for a long time, he's already hitting it out of the park (Pro-tip, TKaMB was Opus' fave book):

11731609_1005862456111174_4129291851947606405_o.jpg


And the first new Sunday format strip was posted today, really lovely art:

11722314_1009031162460970_554514689606681561_o.jpg
 
n64coder

n64coder

Member
I remember reading the strip when I was in college. It was great the first few years and then it sucked. Am I in the minority with this opinion? It had a lot of potential. I remember Calvin & Hobbes being consistently good.

I'll check out the new strips to see what they're like.
 
A

Agent Unknown

Member
n64coder said:
I remember reading the strip when I was in college. It was great the first few years and then it sucked. Am I in the minority with this opinion?
Click to expand...

Yes, you are. "First few years" as in 1980-81? That's when the strip was just finding it's footing. To each their own, but even the worst Bloom County/Outland/Opus strip is at least better crafted and more heartfelt than most other newspaper comic strips both then and now, especially awful legacy stuff like Garfield, Hagar the Horrible, Beetle Bailey, Funky Winkerbean or more recent crap like 9 Chickweed Lane and Luann.

The only truly high quality modern newspaper strips I can personally think of off the top of my head are Pearls Before Swine, Mutts and Get Fuzzy but many papers still don't carry them, I wouldn't be able to read them nor would I have caught on to how good newer strips like those are if it weren't for book collections and the internet. Newspapers have been for the Jay Leno generation for decades, it's no wonder Breathed is skipping the papers this time. Like he said in his statement, no deadlines, no more fights with editors and he can just have fun putting these out until he (one would assume) puts them all into a spiffy new collection.

Anyways, to me Calvin and Hobbes, Bloom County, the Far Side and Foxtrot together are the best strips to come out of the '80s, they've all stood the test of time and the Trump/Atticus Finch themed strip above proves BC can be just as relevant and sharp as ever.
 
K

kess

Member
I missed Milo Bloom.

I'm impressed how on point these new strips are, much more than his recent Opus strips were.

And thanks for saving Binkley from Tibetan exile too, Breathed
 
A

Agent Unknown

Member
kess said:
I missed Milo Bloom.

I'm impressed how on point these new strips are, much more than his recent Opus strips were.

And thanks for saving Binkley from Tibetan exile too, Breathed
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was glad about halfway through Opus that he just went ahead and retconned the depressing Binkley "Tibetan eunuch" fate and simply brought him back as a regular with no aging (Oliver randomly appeared in one Opus strip) but this is Milo's first regular appearance in 25 years, he only had a cameo in one of Outland's final strips.
 
A

Agent Unknown

Member
This is one of my favorites, first time I read it I almost had tears in my eyes. Opus and Bill
throw Steve under the bus after trashing a hotel room:

1401460_665583806805709_215497286_o.jpg
 
K

Kinvara

Member
Whoa. I need to tell my Dad about this.

I remember reading the old Bloom County collections as a kid. I grew to appreciate them even more once I got older and I learned more about the politics. haha

(Am I the youngest person in this thread? Just turned 22.)
 
A

Agent Unknown

Member
Kinvara said:
Whoa. I need to tell my Dad about this.

I remember reading the old Bloom County collections as a kid. I grew to appreciate them even more once I got older and I learned more about the politics. haha

(Am I the youngest person in this thread? Just turned 22.)
Click to expand...

I'm 36, I was young when it was in its prime but I still read the collections and stray newspaper strip whenever I had the chance. I actually got quite a few of the topical references because I was one of those weird kids who liked watching the nightly news with my dad and I got to watch the Tonight Show a lot.
 
A

Amneziak

aka The Hound
animlboogy said:
It ended up being the last gasp of greatness, sadly. Everything Bill Waterson feared about shrinking comics real estate came true. The remaining decent strips are basically struggling to maintain a dead artform.
Click to expand...
Not dead!! It just no longer belongs in the newspapers.
 
C

Currygan

at last, for christ's sake
Agent Unknown said:
This is one of my favorites, first time I read it I almost had tears in my eyes. Opus and Bill
throw Steve under the bus after trashing a hotel room:

1401460_665583806805709_215497286_o.jpg
Click to expand...

I remember that one, lol

my fave run ever gotta be Steve doing the Mister America contest. I was in tears

oh, and Milo getting the Rolling Stones for the school event
 
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