1123 Miles from Bloom County

January 2, 2018 7:58 PM

So, Steve Dallas got #metoo'd, but he worked to make amends. Frank (our superhero) demanded that Steve come see Lola. Frank And Lola.

Perhaps this is just another Hallmark Christmas Movie Plot. Regardless, Frank has plans for Steve. Lola is really not in a good place. [Ed. note: third panel] Enter Mrs. Dumont. And Steve needs to borrow Frank's ride. And give Mrs. Dumont her final wish.

posted by hippybear (18 comments total)

I have written something in here three times and erased it all because words are hard.

Berke Breathed is a fucking treasure and this story arc has made me well with tears so many times.

So shines a good deed in a weary world.
posted by deezil at 8:58 PM on January 2, 2018 [6 favorites]

I also had a lot of feelings about seeing Lola Granola again in that state, when I last saw her at age 10 (?), so happy and young, sweetly and quietly thinking, “God forgive me, you do look so much like a toadstool.”

Thanks for this.
posted by Countess Elena at 9:04 PM on January 2, 2018 [6 favorites]

The updating of the latest Bloom County revival has been irregular at best; the first publication on Facebook with an appearance at GoComics.com a week later is frustrating. But considering that a mere 14 years ago, Berkeley Breathed forgave me for impersonating Opus on a major media website, he can do no wrong by me. And bon voyage, Mrs. Dumont... when I recall how many times we've said goodbye to Opus, I suspect she'll be back.
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:10 PM on January 2, 2018 [3 favorites]

"Fire Mueller" - Wow, holy crap, BB never left us, did he? Unfortunately he's allowed himself to be penned in the "walled garden" of FB, where his genius will never reach where it must go due to algorithms dictating Tomi Riefenstahl videos are shown instead. The Watterson cartoon of him plungering Opus into the gas-tank of an expensive speedboat is kind of prescient, here.
posted by Slap*Happy at 9:17 PM on January 2, 2018 [3 favorites]

I just have a tab with the FB page and hit refresh every day. *shrug*
posted by hippybear at 9:20 PM on January 2, 2018 [3 favorites]

It's actually refreshing to see Lola Granola in any kind of state, because suffice to say, the end of her story in the original Bloom County run was pathetic, and out of the few things I disliked about Bloom County, shipping her off to be a Playboy Bimbo at the end always felt... wrong.

That shit should have been saved for Quiche Lorraine.
posted by deadaluspark at 9:20 PM on January 2, 2018 [1 favorite]

Non-Facebook Bloom County.
RSS feed.
posted by DataPacRat at 9:44 PM on January 2, 2018 [9 favorites]

It seems that Bloom County is located along a particular curved line in one of Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, the Dakotas, or Minnesota.
posted by DataPacRat at 9:49 PM on January 2, 2018 [2 favorites]

The guys who keep uploading the full, high-quality copies to Imgur are doing God's work.
posted by deadaluspark at 9:51 PM on January 2, 2018 [3 favorites]

> The guys who keep uploading the full, high-quality copies to Imgur are doing God's work.

I read every Bloom County strip when I was younger - and for someone in the UK, doing that was no mean feat. I have every book. You can imagine how thrilled I was to see the strip return decades later. And I still, still, could not bear to read them on Facebook with the tiny image and that huge fuck-off Facebook popup.
posted by giraffeneckbattle at 2:10 AM on January 3, 2018 [8 favorites]

"Tomi Riefenstahl?"
posted by petebest at 4:24 AM on January 3, 2018

"Tomi Riefenstahl?"

Forget it. He's rolling.
posted by JohnFromGR at 5:00 AM on January 3, 2018 [2 favorites]

For reference.
posted by Slap*Happy at 5:17 AM on January 3, 2018

I read every Bloom County strip when I was younger - and for someone in the UK, doing that was no mean feat. I have every book. You can imagine how thrilled I was to see the strip return decades later. And I still, still, could not bear to read them on Facebook with the tiny image and that huge fuck-off Facebook popup.

Same. I'm seriously considering picking up the first two collected editions of the new strip after hearing all the buzz, but since I typically read Facebook on my phone, I've given up on trying to read them as they come out. Considering Breathed's stance on the ongoing miniaturization of the American daily comics page, I'm not sure why he's gone with Facebook as a showcase for his work.
posted by Strange Interlude at 6:42 AM on January 3, 2018

It may not be immediately obvious, but you can actually get access to the huge, high quality originals though the Facebook page.

I have a 1920x1080 resolution monitor I look at them on, and they're far larger than that, I have to minimize them to make them fit on the screen.

You'll definitely not get top quality when looking on a phone, but he uploads very, very high quality originals, and you can get to them through a few clicks.
posted by deadaluspark at 6:49 AM on January 3, 2018 [2 favorites]

It seems that Bloom County is located along a particular curved line in one of Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, the Dakotas, or Minnesota.

close

i wonder what yaz pistachio is up to these days
posted by entropicamericana at 9:35 AM on January 3, 2018

I'm wondering if there's a little bit of a shout-out to Bill Mauldin's Willie and Joe (meaning Joe) in Frank's face?
posted by lagomorphius at 3:34 PM on January 3, 2018

I'm so glad Berke's back. I read Calvin and Hobbes classics on GoComics.com every day; I wish old Bloom County strips had aged as well as Calvin. So when BB brought Bloom County back, I was ecstatic. And still am. Who else is so incisive and so gentle?
posted by lhauser at 8:15 PM on January 3, 2018