October 27, 2001

11:08 AM

The Official Berkely Breathed Website.remember Bloom County? Outland? when I was younger, Breathed and Waterson were definitely my favorite "strippers" (I even had the Bloom County screen saver pack!) although I was only about 12 at the time, I do recall being pretty put-out when Outland was retired. does anyone else feel the pleasant tingle of familiarity when you see Bill the Cat or Opus on a greeting card? (if you're not too familiar with Berke's works, check out some of his favorite strips.
posted by mcsweetie (20 comments total)

Thpppt.... Oops Excuse me,... Yeah that was truly my favorite comic strip ever,.. I've since Thhppt! Boycotted the paper since Berkely stopped....
posted by danger at 11:15 AM on October 27, 2001

Pear pimples for hairy fishnuts!

(Just wanted to be the first to say it.)
posted by girlhacker at 11:31 AM on October 27, 2001

really great interview with him here.
posted by atom128 at 11:33 AM on October 27, 2001

"Do I kiss like a gagging goldfish?"
"We've never kissed."
"Would you suspect that I kiss like a gagging goldfish?"
posted by dhartung at 11:48 AM on October 27, 2001

Outland just never did it for me like Bloom County. I always felt it was Breathed's way of retiring Bloom County without actually retiring it.
posted by jpoulos at 11:50 AM on October 27, 2001

Bloom County was the greatest strip ever.

As for Outland, well, it started off strangely, then later it pretty much became Bloom County Redux.

I miss Opus and Bill. Ronald-Ann, I can live without.

Now I'm going out to lie nekkid in the periwinkles.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 11:53 AM on October 27, 2001

God I loved Bloom County. Not many people over here (the UK) know about it and I've been on a major evangelism tip for about 8 years.

I kind of dug the insane anti-Disney of Outland, but it did become Bloom County II. Still enjoyed it though.
I have my stuffed Opus sitting on a hockey puck on my desk and I still have my flexi-disc of "U Stink But I Love U" by Billy and the Boingers.

"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"
posted by jackiemcghee at 12:33 PM on October 27, 2001

"Just the usual formality before the chaos begins. Like playing the national anthem before a Cubs game."

"L.H. Puttgrass is here to finally give his treasonous body exactly what it so richly deserves.. Let us start off this culinary orgy with a tantalizing appetizer.. Greasy french fries.. always good for hopelessly clogging miles of arteries with yummy fatty deposits.. Moving quickly now to the piece de resistance: A 'Double Mustard Maxi-Burger'... flame-kissed with carcinogenic charcoal broiling... Yes! Dripping with fatty red meat, it shall be brimming with heavily salted pickles and nitrate-laden smoked bacon.. Indeed, a veritable feast of doom for my entire cardiovascular system!!..."

"We've gone where no newspaper has gone before!"
"Okay. Dan Rather is a god.. but everybody else is not!"
"Hey.. If the police can't even protect us from the muggers and rapists, how the hell can they protect us from the street mimes?!"
"And I'm very, very sorry I ever called you Lard Butt."
"Excuse me. I have to go towel off my extremities."
"Ack." "Ack yerself!"
"I deserve a little respect, even if I DO like listening to 'Menudo' records!!"
"RUN! It's the attack of the over-used media acronyms!"
"Did Adam and Eve have navels?"
"Here it comes. Brace yourself.." RRUMMBLE!! "Yep. The country just moved to the right again."
"Legs shaved?" "Halfway."
"And take those *@#*?! elves with you!"
"..resulting in the presumed death of Cutter John and a local tuba player."
"Boo! We changed 'Coke' again! Bleah! Bleah!"
"That's when I whacked him with the olive-loaf."
"It's in case the fishes tear-gas me." "Fascists, dear."
"The Right Guard is a wee bit chilly this morning."
"Sweaty snugglebunnies."
"I said does anyone have a @*#?! cigarette?"
"Or even 'I feel like sticking cucumbers in my nose and spam on my head'?"
"It's the Peterson kid dressed as an iguana!"
"Mister Rogers has gone bananas!"
"Shorty, there's no such thing as a shy water buffalo."
"Somehow, it sounded more fashionable than 'Eaten By Squid'."
"Now if there are those who doubt the wordly significance of The Great Snake Massacre, there are also those who know that life's greatest joys are its minor triumphs. It is to this latter group that we dedicate that day in which the all-volunteer group of fearless snake slaughterers succeeded in beating senseless a battery cable from a '73 Pinto."
"The freedom of the highway and the rush of the wind often makes me a little giddy." "Good. You can back out of the garage now."

"...L.H. Puttgrass and his arteries thank you.. If I should expire before I finish, be so kind as to alert the local medical school for the expeditious disposal of my carcass! GOOD DAY!"

"Ladies! Attention ladies! Please disperse! Mr. Iglesias has left the auditorium!"
posted by ZachsMind at 2:55 PM on October 27, 2001

Sweaty snugglebunnies.....how could I have forgotten that. My S.O. and I used that phrase to death when we first started seeing each other. God I'm going to have to break out the books tomorrow....Sundays reading Bloom County scarfing down coffee and pastries...

You know, there very well may be a god.

I reckon my fave is the one where Opus and Steve Dallas take photos of Sean Penn and the resultant headline in the Picayune reads "Short man found with nose rammed down own throat: Physical impossibility say scientists".
posted by jackiemcghee at 3:25 PM on October 27, 2001

Jackiemcghee, I'll go you one better I still have my Billy & the Boingers World Tour t-shirt(granted I can read a newspaper thru it at this point-but still) I even used to have a "Don't Blame Me, I Voted for Bill & Opus" Shirt but I must've lost it in the laundry. Anyway, It's good to know old berke is still alive and well, even though I miss the strip.
posted by jonmc at 3:54 PM on October 27, 2001

News reporter: "Witnesses described the Olve-Loaf vigilante as being three feet tall, with a huge nose and wearing what appeared to be a tuxedo"

Bloom County Crew: "Uh-oh"

I could never ever get into Outland, and I gave it every chance. Some of my favorite BC strips were when Steve Dallas put himself in a wheelchair to woo Bobby away from Cutter John, and Cutter John as Santa Claus telling kids about Vietnam.

"A boy and his penguin"
"A penguin and his boy"
"Two dips and a dad"
posted by vito90 at 4:29 PM on October 27, 2001

The best, ever:
"MEADOW ROCK!"
Binkley: Ooo baby baby! You tear me to pieces! Would you love me any more if my tush was like Ed Meese's? TAKE IT, MILO!"

Milo: Take it WHERE?
posted by metrocake at 6:25 PM on October 27, 2001

If you loved Bloom County as fervently as I did (and do) then click here and order an autographed copy of Breathed's "Red Ranger Came Calling: A Guaranteed True Christmas Story". It's ostensibly for the kiddies, but grown ups will find themselves blinking away happy tears at this tale of a precocious kid who regains just a little bit of faith in the world through his encounter with a crotchety old man named Sander Clauz.

If there is a more magical book in existence, I know not of it.
posted by Optamystic at 6:30 PM on October 27, 2001

Bill the Cat's "Ack!" defined somethng ineffable for me at a very young age. I've never been the same since. I'm also known for writing "Pbbbtttttt!" a lot, and I have no doubt how I developed that habit.
posted by nyomi at 9:54 PM on October 27, 2001

I went on a Bloom County fit when the Breathed interview ran in the Onion earlier this year. It reminded me of Opus and Milo, and Binkely. I wanted my band to call a cd "Dear Santa, I squash snails with ecstasy", sadly both that, and the song I named after a line from Calvin and Hobbes were shot down...

I did get two stuffed opuses (one with straight tie, from when he ran for vice president)... Bloom County rocks, and Opuses role as ethics boy made Outland great.

My day had been all higgedly-piggedly until I saw this link!
posted by drezdn at 10:17 PM on October 27, 2001

I first encountered Bloom County in the late lamented Rainbow's End comic book shop on the Cowley Road in Oxford. The proprietress Alison (if I've got the name wrong after all these years, I'm sorry, but I've been convinced for many of them that her name was Alison, and it may be a bit late to change) had a supply of Toons for our Times in.

1983? 1984?

Anyway, she instructed me to read the first three pages.

i bought two copies, there and then (Christmas was coming) and that evening lay on my bed laughing so hard I was in danger of losing the ability to breathe (the other occasion this happened that I immediately recall was seeing Eddie Izzard for the first time).
posted by Grangousier at 11:50 PM on October 27, 2001

His latest project, the animated short, "Edward Fudwupper Fibbed Big," is hitting the rounds at film festivals. Failing some kind of theatrical release, hopefully it will make either a televised appearance or hit DVD.
posted by ed at 12:38 AM on October 28, 2001

"I could pimp..."
posted by Cyrano at 8:55 AM on October 29, 2001

"Gorbachev sings tractors! Turnips! Buttocks!"
posted by straight at 9:12 AM on October 29, 2001

For the past 5-6 years, Carton Cards stores has been offering a different Bloom County Christmas ornament each season. Check out this year's ornament.

The three cartoons that have replaced my Bloom County fix:
Get Fuzzy
Boondocks
and
Liberty Meadows
posted by lheiskell at 11:34 AM on October 29, 2001