S T A T S

A B O U T

BLOOM COUNTY:

Adapted from Berkely Breathed's college comic strip "Acedamia Waltz" (Steve Dallas and Cutter John were concieved for it), Bloom County was originally developed as a replacement for Doonsbury, which had switched syndicators.

The original strip, which debuted in 1980, was very reflective of the Doonsbury mileau, which foccused on an odd small town and the citizens living within it. Animals and children talked like self-concious adults, roaches took old women hostage, and Senator Bedfellow accidentally subsidized the county's marijuana growers. The main foccus was on the Bloom boarding house, owned by the urbane Milo Bloom's grandfather, and the citizens living therein, such as lawyer Steve Dallas. Now-familiar characters were added over the years, such as pop culture nut and effeate Michael Binkley and wheelchair-bound Vietnam vet Cutter John. The first two years of the strip foccused on a love triangle between Bobbi Harlow (Milo and Binkley's teacher), Cutter John and Steve Dallas.

Gradually, the strip became more and more surreal with the introduction of mild-mannered penguin Opus. In 1983, Bobbi Harlow dissapeared. By 1984, the strip took a decidedly more adult turn as characters broke the fourth wall and were seen forming unions, working "backstage" and recovering from binges. Milo went from an exhuberent romantic and protagonist to a background character and voice of reason. Binkley became more and more entrenched in pop culture as his folks divorced and he discovered his anxiety closet. Oliver Wendell Jones was introduced: an african-american hacker and scientist. Steve Dallas became impossibly even more scuzzy. Lola Limekiller, introduced as a friend for Milo's grandfather, gradually went insane and shot a television set showing footage of Vannah White. From the pack of talking critters, two characters emerged to the forefront: Portnoy, a militant hedgehog, and Hodge-Podge, his rabbit compatriot.

The most important introduction was ironically meant as a parody. Bill The Cat was created as both a way to saterize drug addicted celebrities and a parody of the then-raging Garfield phenomena. Almost against the odds, the cat became insanely popular. Bill would go on to die, be reborn, be born again, become a rock star, and run for president numerous times.

Opus developed from the innocent pet of Binkley to an example of 80's singleton anxiety - all the while searching for his long-lost mom and remaining somehow hopelessly naieve. He got jobs as a movie critic, reporter, photographer, ombudsman and finally a cartoonist with the Bloom Picayune, was briefly a garbageman and was always the Vince Presidential Candidate for the Medowcrat Party.

It was even discovered that Bloom County the strip was owned by greedy, grubby W.A. Thornrump, who would do anything he could to make money off of the actors and characters within.

Introduced late in the strip's run were Rosebud, the Basselope - who was later outed as a female and gave birth to Hodge-Podge's babies -, Ronald-Ann Smith - who lived on the "wrong side of the tracks" of Bloom County, Milquetoast the Cockroach, who emerged from the literate cockroach majority to develop his own voice, and Lola Granola, Opus' only longterm girlfriend and momentary wife.

Among the strip's many long-term storylines revolved around the Medowcrat Party, Bloom County's own lobby, which ran Bill the Cat and Opus for the Oval Office in 1986 and 1988 - the beak and saliva ticket. In '86, Bill came back from the dead just in time to accept his nomination, but the campaign failed due to Bills' running off to become a Rajneesh cultist. In 1988, despite a national convention held in San Francisco (which was covered by MTV, which played Judas Priest over all of the speeches) the Medowcrats lost heavily to their competiton. Meanwhile, hundreds of "Opus N Bill For President" tee shirts were sold out in the real world, and Bill and Opus gained a small precentage of the actual presidental vote that year. There were all manner of stuffed Bill and Opus dolls marketed, and buttons, posters and teeshirts. A crowning glory was the animated special "A Wish For Wings That Work", an animated Christmas special which aired on CBS and was followed by a picture book. Bloom County strip collections in particular were known to have innovative packaging: "Billy and The Boingers Bootleg" contained live recordings of "The Boingers" at work (really, local bands who covered songs written by Breathed); "Tales Too Ticklish To Tell" includes a miniature issue of the Picayune.

After winning a Pulitzer Prize in cartooning (in 1987), Breathed pulled the plug on the daily strip in 1989. In storyline terms, Donald Trump - whose brain had been transplanted into the body of Bill The Cat - bought Bloom County, paved it over and turned the strip into Trump: The Strip, superimposing his (normal) head on Opus' body. The characters went on to get jobs at other comic strips - all except for Ronald Ann, who invited Opus to the magical world of "Outland", which existed through a doorway in Bloom County's ghetto, a door leading seemingly to nowhere in a blind alley. Opus rejected her offer to persue his still-lost mother.

Outland: In September of 1989, Outland, a Sunday-Only strip, debuted. It followed the adventures of Ronald-Ann in the magical world she had showed Opus, "Outland", which existed through a door only she could conjure. Breathed intended the strip to be a sort of experimental narritive, but within a few strips Opus reappeared, as did Bill the Cat.

Only two characters would survive the recontinuance of the norm: Mortimer Mouse, Mickey's ne're-do-well brother, and Truffles the Pig. Eventually, the strip came to revolve once more around Opus, Bill The Cat, Steve Dallas and Mileqtoast the Cockroach. The foursome created the Men's Kouch Klub, where they would sit in their underwear out in the woods and bask in their manliness.

After Mortimer the Mouse was shot, Bill married nuetered male Socks Clinton and Opus found his mom (who was working at Sea World), the strip ended in 1995, with Breathed announcing he was retiring from cartooning entirely to foccus on children's books. In the final installment, Steve Dallas came out of the closet and eloped to California with Mark Slackmeyer from Doonesbury, and Opus returned to Antartica to be with his mother (Sending Bill three simple postcards with photo illustrations, reading "Home. Mom. Goodbye.")

OPUS Breathed's retirement was rescinded in 2003 - after which he wrote three different childrens books using the Outland/Bloom County characters, another about a new character, and "Flawed Dogs", when he brought forth the new Sunday strip Opus. This one takes place in Bloom County once again, and a disilusioned Opus returns home after finding himself an odd penguin out in Antartica. Reemerging were the completely unchanged Bill The Cat, the slightly-changed Steve Dallas - now straight thanks to reprogramming but pronouncedly middle-aged, and even Senetor Bedfellows and Opus' old editor at the Picayune. New characters introduced for this strip are Pickles - a spunky little girl with a vivid imagination - and Auggie, a long-lost son of Steve's. Many of the strip's storylines revolve around Opus' anxiety about and inability to come to grips with America's change in attitude and behavior after 9/11. Though Breathed vowed none of the kid characters would show up again, Michael Binkley resurfaced (apparently no longer a teenage enuch), and - more surprisingly - Opus' old girlfriend, Lola Granola, returned - she's dating Steve and has coverted to the Muslim faith in an attempt at social rebellion.

Breathed had hoped the strip would be a revivial for comic strips in newspapers and it was originally verbotten from being reproduced online - but it since has been syndicated through this medium.

Breathed announced that "Opus" would conclude its run on Sunday, November 4th, 2008, allowing him to once again foccus on his children's books. The final story arc involves Opus being detained by the government, eventually being placed in an animal shelter, where he reminesces about his life to a stray dog. He's picked up by a group of lovely tropics-bound maidens, but ultimately gives his spot with them to the shelter dog, choosing to live eternally within the pages of Goodnight Moon.

R U L E S

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C O D E S

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J O I N

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F A N S

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L I N K S

Official Site
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A F F I L I A T E S