51 comments on “It’s like STAR TREK III, if Spock was a penguin”
And the heavens sing!
That’ the problem with the world today: there just aren’t enough penguins.
– sniffle –
Awww… that’s just beautiful.
– DB Bennett
Huh?
*has no idea what this is*
Ditto here. Someone wanna fill me in? What does this have to do with Spock or STIII?
Anyone care to explain what this is about? Did a paragraph get left out of the blog entry?
For those who forgot, or were (sigh) born after the strip appeared, Opus & Co. used to play Star Trek on the U.S.S. Nincompoop, and Opus had the Spock position.
‘Twas great, though I love Carson the Muskrat as a Vulcan science officer at a Renaissance Fair. (If *this* reference eludes you, check out the “Renaissance Faire” issue of DORK TOWER. It should be required reading for all geeks.)
Not to be a total geek (HA!), but it was the USS Enterpoop.
However, I am glad to see the common drip-dry penquin is making a long-needed return to the comic pages.
Now, if we could get new Calvin and Hobbes……..
I’d hear about this before and was overjoyed. I just hope that breathed is up to it and it doesn’t fall flat on it’s face :(.
It does show there is a void (or the rest of us are just old) when someone says he has no idea who Opus is…*sigh*.
Fair enuff on the “Enterpoop” goof — I wrote from memory and didn’t consult the books.
Much as I loved it, I’m not sure I’d want CALVIN & HOBBES to return. When it was cancelled, some readers had commented on how the strip seemed to be getting mean-spirited, with Calvin just being more and more obnoxious each week. This strip also had a perfect ending — C&H looking at a fresh snow, seeing it as a blank slate full of possibilities, sailing into it on their sled — and I’d hate to have such a great ending weakened by an unnecessary follow-up. (Watch the last episode of M*A*S*H and then any episode of AFTERM*A*S*H to see what I mean.) That said, I do miss Calvin’s wonderful snowmen…
Hurrah! The thought of more Opus is enough to make my day. 🙂 I’m one of those who never read the comics when they originally ran- instead, I came across the book versions on my father’s bookshelf as a high school freshman, and I’ve never looked back. 🙂
Just a warning, Breathed says he’s staying away from politiccs.
Travis
OK this is great news. But why isn’t there any information on the Berke Breathed web site (or am I just looking in the wrong place)?
Posted by Joe Nazzaro
That’ the problem with the world today: there just aren’t enough penguins.
Well, according to this news, there are some folks in South Africa who’d probably disagree:
Penguins at Home in South African Town
Thousands of Avian Squatters Sieze Prime Seaside Real Estate
“Oct. 12, 2003 — Near the southern tip of Africa, penguins have taken over some of the most valuable real estate on the continent. The birds rarely roost on the mainland. But they’ve established a beachhead at Simon’s Town, a seaside village south of Cape Town….”
Huh. Never saw what others did in Opus. I always found the strip to be rather dull. I may be in the minority here, but all I can really say to his return is “meh.”
But why isn’t there any information on the Berke Breathed web site (or am I just looking in the wrong place)?
And for those of you who didn’t see it or forgot it, one of Peter’s Star Trek comics has a panel of Kirk hallucinating the Enterprise bridge crew as the Enterpoop crew, including Spock as Opus.
I’d be more enthusiastic about this if Bloom County hadn’t gone downhill sharply after the introduction of Bill the Cat. The ousting of Senator Bedfellow (one of the all-time great comics names!) and Bobbie Harlow from the strip and the change in focus from satirizing small-town America to satirizing big business America really killed the strip.
I think around the time the Basselope was introduced I realized the strip really wasn’t much good anymore.
And then, Outland – ugh! Unreadable!
I really do love the early strips, tho. I’ve often heard that many of them have never been reprinted, supposedly because Breathed didn’t think they were very well done. I’d love to see ’em someday, though.
Breathed’s demands of an entire half-page in the Sunday section, plus the high price, have prevented the paper I work for from adding “Opus,” even though myself and many other editors want to.
I always loved “Bloom County,” tho I’ll admit I much prefer the earlier strips and miss Milo and Binkley and Cutter John and Steve Dallas and….
I’ve never even heard of this.
When did it originally run?
Around the 80’s.
Ah niec to see an ol classic return…brings warmth into my cold, cold heart.
Posted by Michael C Lorah
I’ve never even heard of this. When did it originally run?
Man, this makes me feel so, so old…
The Bloom County comic strip ran from 1980 to 1989. If not the most popular comic strip of its time, it certainly was up there in the top few. In its time, there were something like a dozen collections published, and Berke Breathed won a Pulitzer for editorial cartooning during that time, too.
Don Markstein’s Toonopedia has a nice summary of Bloom County here:
Yeah, I was overjoyed at first as well when I read the story in Newsday… Who then followed-up by saying that they won’t be carrying the strip due to the size requirement. Teasing bášŧárdš!
Of course, Newsday also probably doesn’t get how they’re one of the worst offenders of shrinking Sunday comics to near illegibility, one of the reasons Breathed got fed up with doing comics in the first place.
Ack! One of my favorite strips from back in the day, I remember when the cancellation was coming up (and the characters knew it, I think) and Steve Dallas decided he’d switch over to super hero comics, because as he said, “Have you seen the babes over there? They’re all like Dolly Parton in zero gravity!” or words to that effect.
I loved Bloom County.
For those who missed this great strip or don’t remember it, the collections were entitled “Loose Tails” (1983); “Toons For Our Times” (1984); “Penguin Dreams and Stranger Things” (1985); “Bloom County Babylon: Five Years of Basic Naughtiness” (1986) (that’s “Bloom County Babylon: Five years…”, not “Bloom County Babylon 5”, though that would be one hëll of an interesting crossover.; “Billy and the Boingers Bootleg” (1987); “Tales Too Ticklish To Tell” (1988); “Night of the Mary Kay Commandos”, 1989; “Happy Trails” (1990); and “Classics of Western Literature” (1990).
“Bloom County Babylon” and “Classics” are, for lack of a better word, treasury editions which reprint a good portion of the strips in earlier books. “Babylon”, however, has some early strips that weren’t in any of the previous collections.
If your public library carries these books, you should definitely take a look. It might help to know a little bit about the culture and attitudes of the 1980s, but I don’t think it’s an absolute requirement.
New Opus? New Steve Dallas? Maybe a new Cutter John?
Maybe there is justice in the world.
I’ve heard of Bloom County, but know absolutely nothing beyond the name. I had actually assumed that Opus was something unrelated when I read the first few posts in this thread.
My error, apparently.
Hey, I was 13 in 1989. Cut me some slack.:)
Although I generally did read the comics section in the local (read: smalltown and borderline useless) newspaper, apparently they did not carry Bloom County, which is really that surprising. Nothing even slightly, vaguely, borderline controversial would ever see print in those pages.
I’ll try to look out for it this time around.
Even though a friend and I instituted a “Pear Pimples for Hairy Fishnuts” Day back in high school, I must confess I don’t great Breathed’s return with unalloyed joy, but rather with an angst-ridden sit-down in the dandelion patch. Nostalgia’s the strongest critic there is, and I have a hard time imagining how he’s going to make this worthwhile a third time around (though Outland was only arguably the 2nd, I know…),or why on Earth he’d want to try.
Perhaps it’s nothing more than this: I’m utterly astounded there are people on this particular blog (with the audiences it draws from) who haven’t heard of Bloom County. Could be Breathed caught wind of that, too, and decided to make himself known again. Who knows….I wish him the best, though.
Oh–and to those who think the strip wasn’t polticial from its earliest days: Phhht-Ack. Grandpa Bloom was hunting Commie Ducks and contending with revolutionary cocackroaches from almost day one, in a perfect parody of Reaganite Red-Baiters. (Comics.com has been rerunning the strip from the beginning in the past few months.) Bloom County certainly changed over time, and not all those changes were for the better (some were inspired, though)–but at least Breathed kept his talent sharp–unlike some more recent comic strip artists who came on strong at first but have since seemingly lost the spark.
Michael C Lorah said:
I’ve heard of Bloom County, but know absolutely nothing beyond the name. I had actually assumed that Opus was something unrelated when I read the first few posts in this thread.
My error, apparently.
Hey, I was 13 in 1989. Cut me some slack.:)
I was 13 in ’89, too, but I was a big-time Bloom County fan. My local paper didn’t carry it, so I was reading it from reprint books.
Hmm…
Opus to return on November 23rd, the same day that Doctor Who began airing in the UK. This year, Doctor Who was announced to return after a long hiatus, much like Bloom County.
Forget Spock. Opus is…THE DOCTOR!!! hehehe >:)
George Gratten– I just went to comics.com and couldn’t find the Bloom County strips.
Do you have to sign up with them or something like that?
Is it a bonus for members?
I always thought that Snoopy was the comic strip equivalent of The Doctor.
His doghouse is like a Tardis in that it is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside (otherwise how else could he have a pool table, an Andrew Wyeth collection, and other things in there), Woodstock is his assistant.
The Kite-Eating tree is a Vervoid.
The Cat Next Door must be a Yeti.
Heck, Lucy could be The Rani and her psychiatrist’s booth would be her Tardis.
Linus’ blanket could be an Auton since it seems to have a life of its own.
A Charles Schulz Treasury could be entitled “Who’s The Funny Looking Time Lord With The Big Nose?”
Too much time on my hands, apparently or else I’d go into how Charlie Brown’s descendant could be Krillin from Dragonball Z and why this other bald-headed character runs with his arms at his sides going… “AUUUGGGHHHH!”
Gee, does this make Android 18 the cute little red-haired girl, then?
Steve Chung
This is great news!!!! Last night, I was thinking about Opus and how much I missed seeing him in the funny pages. Maybe I’m psychic.
Bloom County was recently added to the archives at http://www.comics.com, so you do have to be a paying member to get the old strips.
My mom still has the outland strip where the boys are sitting on the couch getting lectured by a hot women for being sexist pigs. The last panel has the three of them looking down their underwear. I wish I could explain the strip better. Oh, and she has a Bill the Cat doll that she use to use with her drug/alcohol rehab patients! I had the Opus doll with him in a shower cap and towel, but one of my kittens decided that it was a great chew toy. I’ll have to dig out my old collections and take a stroll down memory lane…
Among my favorite Bloom County strips was one that revolved around Opus’ Spock deciding he was going to “step out.” I just love the line “Spock’s on drugs. Blast him with the phasers!” and that wasn’t even the punchline.
Until it was mentioned here, I had completely forgotten PAD’s tribute to the Bloom County crew in his Star Trek comic run (one of them) but I seem to recall Kirk saying, “Mr. Spock, are you a penguin?” I don’t remember the context for that at all.
I was 13 in ’89, too, but I was a big-time Bloom County fan. My local paper didn’t carry it, so I was reading it from reprint books.
Oh.
Um, would it help if I mentioned that I didn’t really think much of any newspaper strips at the time (and still don’t, really) and didn’t even start reading comic books until 1993 or so?
At 13, I’m pretty sure I had just thrown aside the Hardy Boys for a hardcore Stephen King phase.
I guess I must plead ignorance. Sorry.:/
A benefit of Time The Destroyer is that many of the Bloom County collections are available in the discount area of large chain bookstores. And while some of the references may be dated — I remember with joy several chocolate-drunk friends giggling oncontrollably and whispering “Psst! Dan Quayle!” to each other — it’s a very good read.
As for OUTLAND, let’s face it — it turned into Bloom County with a new name *very* quickly. Not that that’s a bad thing…
Italics gone now?
I’m sorry, I know this is off topic, but I just saw a headline on Yahoo! that said “Monkeys move robot arms with thoughts.”
I love living in the future.
The comment about Opus as the Doctor brought to mind a button I bought at a convention many years ago. It depicts Opus knocking on the TARDIS door while a voice inside asks, “Doctor, where are we this time.”
It’s like STAR TREK III, if Spock was a penguin
If you’re refering to STAR TREK III the movie, then having Opus replace Leonard Nemoy as Spock couldn’t be any worse than replacing Kyrstie Alley with Robin Curtis as Lt. Savik. Ywenty years later and I’m STILL not over that one…
dAN
Alas, poor Opus,,,I knew ye well…
or something. Here’s to radical nose deflation/Q-tip creation! And to quote Binkley’s father…I’m old, old, old…
“What exaclty does it mean, to wind a watch?”
Trepidation. That’s the only word for it.
Bloom County was my favorite strip at the time (Doonesbury and Calvin & Hobbes the only other two in its class)… then it got cancelled. Then Outland came out and it was terrible, as if Breathed suddenly bought into his press releases.
With the page request and the price, I’m wondering if he still does.
Doonesbury is still pretty good (if somewhat mean-spirited on occassion these days).
For Better or For Worse is also very good but in a different league.
And I’m with Dan about Saavik. The ONLY role Alley did well and she dropped it (for a curly headed vulcan? Of course T’Pol is also as un-Vulcan as they come but for more curvaceous reasons – yes, I know in one of the movies there were Vulcan babes in diaphanous gowns but that didn’t work for me either. Women like T’Pol running around in 7of9 tights and they wait for 7 YEARS????)
I have never heard of Bloom County or Calvin and Hobbes. I did like The Far Side and Doonesbury and have recently begun to read The Boondocks.
Wait…
I can accept never having heard of Bloom County, despite the fact that I remember it almost as fondly as I do Calvin and Hobbes.
But, Calvin and Hobbes has always seemed to be everywhere to me. If you haven’t heard of it, go pick up a collection NOW. (I’d recommend Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Snow Goons, personally.) You’ll thank yourself later.
Michael C Lorah said:
Um, would it help if I mentioned that I didn’t really think much of any newspaper strips at the time (and still don’t, really) and didn’t even start reading comic books until 1993 or so?
At 13, I’m pretty sure I had just thrown aside the Hardy Boys for a hardcore Stephen King phase.
I guess I must plead ignorance. Sorry.:/
Don’t worry about it. I was just giving you a hard time, anyway.
Egads! Dare we hope!?! Fishheads & herring entrails for everyone!
• 
And the heavens sing!
That’ the problem with the world today: there just aren’t enough penguins.
– sniffle –
Awww… that’s just beautiful.
– DB Bennett
Huh?
*has no idea what this is*
Ditto here. Someone wanna fill me in? What does this have to do with Spock or STIII?
Anyone care to explain what this is about? Did a paragraph get left out of the blog entry?
For those who forgot, or were (sigh) born after the strip appeared, Opus & Co. used to play Star Trek on the U.S.S. Nincompoop, and Opus had the Spock position.
‘Twas great, though I love Carson the Muskrat as a Vulcan science officer at a Renaissance Fair. (If *this* reference eludes you, check out the “Renaissance Faire” issue of DORK TOWER. It should be required reading for all geeks.)
Not to be a total geek (HA!), but it was the USS Enterpoop.
However, I am glad to see the common drip-dry penquin is making a long-needed return to the comic pages.
Now, if we could get new Calvin and Hobbes……..
I’d hear about this before and was overjoyed. I just hope that breathed is up to it and it doesn’t fall flat on it’s face :(.
It does show there is a void (or the rest of us are just old) when someone says he has no idea who Opus is…*sigh*.
Fair enuff on the “Enterpoop” goof — I wrote from memory and didn’t consult the books.
Much as I loved it, I’m not sure I’d want CALVIN & HOBBES to return. When it was cancelled, some readers had commented on how the strip seemed to be getting mean-spirited, with Calvin just being more and more obnoxious each week. This strip also had a perfect ending — C&H looking at a fresh snow, seeing it as a blank slate full of possibilities, sailing into it on their sled — and I’d hate to have such a great ending weakened by an unnecessary follow-up. (Watch the last episode of M*A*S*H and then any episode of AFTERM*A*S*H to see what I mean.) That said, I do miss Calvin’s wonderful snowmen…
Hurrah! The thought of more Opus is enough to make my day. 🙂 I’m one of those who never read the comics when they originally ran- instead, I came across the book versions on my father’s bookshelf as a high school freshman, and I’ve never looked back. 🙂
Just a warning, Breathed says he’s staying away from politiccs.
Travis
OK this is great news. But why isn’t there any information on the Berke Breathed web site (or am I just looking in the wrong place)?
Posted by Joe Nazzaro
That’ the problem with the world today: there just aren’t enough penguins.
Well, according to this news, there are some folks in South Africa who’d probably disagree:
Penguins at Home in South African Town
Thousands of Avian Squatters Sieze Prime Seaside Real Estate
“Oct. 12, 2003 — Near the southern tip of Africa, penguins have taken over some of the most valuable real estate on the continent. The birds rarely roost on the mainland. But they’ve established a beachhead at Simon’s Town, a seaside village south of Cape Town….”
(More of the story here: http://www.npr.org/display_pages/features/feature_1463340.html )
But I’m glad to see Opus back, regardless!
Huh. Never saw what others did in Opus. I always found the strip to be rather dull. I may be in the minority here, but all I can really say to his return is “meh.”
But why isn’t there any information on the Berke Breathed web site (or am I just looking in the wrong place)?
Look no more:
http://www.berkebreathed.com/
And for those of you who didn’t see it or forgot it, one of Peter’s Star Trek comics has a panel of Kirk hallucinating the Enterprise bridge crew as the Enterpoop crew, including Spock as Opus.
I’d be more enthusiastic about this if Bloom County hadn’t gone downhill sharply after the introduction of Bill the Cat. The ousting of Senator Bedfellow (one of the all-time great comics names!) and Bobbie Harlow from the strip and the change in focus from satirizing small-town America to satirizing big business America really killed the strip.
I think around the time the Basselope was introduced I realized the strip really wasn’t much good anymore.
And then, Outland – ugh! Unreadable!
I really do love the early strips, tho. I’ve often heard that many of them have never been reprinted, supposedly because Breathed didn’t think they were very well done. I’d love to see ’em someday, though.
http://home.iprimus.com.au/pipnjim/questlines/bloomcounty.jpg
Breathed’s demands of an entire half-page in the Sunday section, plus the high price, have prevented the paper I work for from adding “Opus,” even though myself and many other editors want to.
I always loved “Bloom County,” tho I’ll admit I much prefer the earlier strips and miss Milo and Binkley and Cutter John and Steve Dallas and….
I’ve never even heard of this.
When did it originally run?
Around the 80’s.
Ah niec to see an ol classic return…brings warmth into my cold, cold heart.
Posted by Michael C Lorah
I’ve never even heard of this. When did it originally run?
Man, this makes me feel so, so old…
The Bloom County comic strip ran from 1980 to 1989. If not the most popular comic strip of its time, it certainly was up there in the top few. In its time, there were something like a dozen collections published, and Berke Breathed won a Pulitzer for editorial cartooning during that time, too.
Don Markstein’s Toonopedia has a nice summary of Bloom County here:
http://www.toonopedia.com/bloom.htm
Yeah, I was overjoyed at first as well when I read the story in Newsday… Who then followed-up by saying that they won’t be carrying the strip due to the size requirement. Teasing bášŧárdš!
Of course, Newsday also probably doesn’t get how they’re one of the worst offenders of shrinking Sunday comics to near illegibility, one of the reasons Breathed got fed up with doing comics in the first place.
Ack! One of my favorite strips from back in the day, I remember when the cancellation was coming up (and the characters knew it, I think) and Steve Dallas decided he’d switch over to super hero comics, because as he said, “Have you seen the babes over there? They’re all like Dolly Parton in zero gravity!” or words to that effect.
I loved Bloom County.
For those who missed this great strip or don’t remember it, the collections were entitled “Loose Tails” (1983); “Toons For Our Times” (1984); “Penguin Dreams and Stranger Things” (1985); “Bloom County Babylon: Five Years of Basic Naughtiness” (1986) (that’s “Bloom County Babylon: Five years…”, not “Bloom County Babylon 5”, though that would be one hëll of an interesting crossover.; “Billy and the Boingers Bootleg” (1987); “Tales Too Ticklish To Tell” (1988); “Night of the Mary Kay Commandos”, 1989; “Happy Trails” (1990); and “Classics of Western Literature” (1990).
“Bloom County Babylon” and “Classics” are, for lack of a better word, treasury editions which reprint a good portion of the strips in earlier books. “Babylon”, however, has some early strips that weren’t in any of the previous collections.
If your public library carries these books, you should definitely take a look. It might help to know a little bit about the culture and attitudes of the 1980s, but I don’t think it’s an absolute requirement.
New Opus? New Steve Dallas? Maybe a new Cutter John?
Maybe there is justice in the world.
I’ve heard of Bloom County, but know absolutely nothing beyond the name. I had actually assumed that Opus was something unrelated when I read the first few posts in this thread.
My error, apparently.
Hey, I was 13 in 1989. Cut me some slack.:)
Although I generally did read the comics section in the local (read: smalltown and borderline useless) newspaper, apparently they did not carry Bloom County, which is really that surprising. Nothing even slightly, vaguely, borderline controversial would ever see print in those pages.
I’ll try to look out for it this time around.
Even though a friend and I instituted a “Pear Pimples for Hairy Fishnuts” Day back in high school, I must confess I don’t great Breathed’s return with unalloyed joy, but rather with an angst-ridden sit-down in the dandelion patch. Nostalgia’s the strongest critic there is, and I have a hard time imagining how he’s going to make this worthwhile a third time around (though Outland was only arguably the 2nd, I know…),or why on Earth he’d want to try.
Perhaps it’s nothing more than this: I’m utterly astounded there are people on this particular blog (with the audiences it draws from) who haven’t heard of Bloom County. Could be Breathed caught wind of that, too, and decided to make himself known again. Who knows….I wish him the best, though.
Oh–and to those who think the strip wasn’t polticial from its earliest days: Phhht-Ack. Grandpa Bloom was hunting Commie Ducks and contending with revolutionary cocackroaches from almost day one, in a perfect parody of Reaganite Red-Baiters. (Comics.com has been rerunning the strip from the beginning in the past few months.) Bloom County certainly changed over time, and not all those changes were for the better (some were inspired, though)–but at least Breathed kept his talent sharp–unlike some more recent comic strip artists who came on strong at first but have since seemingly lost the spark.
Michael C Lorah said:
I’ve heard of Bloom County, but know absolutely nothing beyond the name. I had actually assumed that Opus was something unrelated when I read the first few posts in this thread.
My error, apparently.
Hey, I was 13 in 1989. Cut me some slack.:)
I was 13 in ’89, too, but I was a big-time Bloom County fan. My local paper didn’t carry it, so I was reading it from reprint books.
Hmm…
Opus to return on November 23rd, the same day that Doctor Who began airing in the UK. This year, Doctor Who was announced to return after a long hiatus, much like Bloom County.
Forget Spock. Opus is…THE DOCTOR!!! hehehe >:)
George Gratten– I just went to comics.com and couldn’t find the Bloom County strips.
Do you have to sign up with them or something like that?
Is it a bonus for members?
I always thought that Snoopy was the comic strip equivalent of The Doctor.
His doghouse is like a Tardis in that it is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside (otherwise how else could he have a pool table, an Andrew Wyeth collection, and other things in there), Woodstock is his assistant.
The Kite-Eating tree is a Vervoid.
The Cat Next Door must be a Yeti.
Heck, Lucy could be The Rani and her psychiatrist’s booth would be her Tardis.
Linus’ blanket could be an Auton since it seems to have a life of its own.
A Charles Schulz Treasury could be entitled “Who’s The Funny Looking Time Lord With The Big Nose?”
Too much time on my hands, apparently or else I’d go into how Charlie Brown’s descendant could be Krillin from Dragonball Z and why this other bald-headed character runs with his arms at his sides going… “AUUUGGGHHHH!”
Gee, does this make Android 18 the cute little red-haired girl, then?
Steve Chung
This is great news!!!! Last night, I was thinking about Opus and how much I missed seeing him in the funny pages. Maybe I’m psychic.
http://www.berkebreathed.com/opus_returns.html
Bloom County was recently added to the archives at http://www.comics.com, so you do have to be a paying member to get the old strips.
My mom still has the outland strip where the boys are sitting on the couch getting lectured by a hot women for being sexist pigs. The last panel has the three of them looking down their underwear. I wish I could explain the strip better. Oh, and she has a Bill the Cat doll that she use to use with her drug/alcohol rehab patients! I had the Opus doll with him in a shower cap and towel, but one of my kittens decided that it was a great chew toy. I’ll have to dig out my old collections and take a stroll down memory lane…
I found the strip online:
http://www.berkebreathed.com/favorite_strips2.html
Scroll down to the last strip on the page.
Among my favorite Bloom County strips was one that revolved around Opus’ Spock deciding he was going to “step out.” I just love the line “Spock’s on drugs. Blast him with the phasers!” and that wasn’t even the punchline.
Until it was mentioned here, I had completely forgotten PAD’s tribute to the Bloom County crew in his Star Trek comic run (one of them) but I seem to recall Kirk saying, “Mr. Spock, are you a penguin?” I don’t remember the context for that at all.
I was 13 in ’89, too, but I was a big-time Bloom County fan. My local paper didn’t carry it, so I was reading it from reprint books.
Oh.
Um, would it help if I mentioned that I didn’t really think much of any newspaper strips at the time (and still don’t, really) and didn’t even start reading comic books until 1993 or so?
At 13, I’m pretty sure I had just thrown aside the Hardy Boys for a hardcore Stephen King phase.
I guess I must plead ignorance. Sorry.:/
A benefit of Time The Destroyer is that many of the Bloom County collections are available in the discount area of large chain bookstores. And while some of the references may be dated — I remember with joy several chocolate-drunk friends giggling oncontrollably and whispering “Psst! Dan Quayle!” to each other — it’s a very good read.
As for OUTLAND, let’s face it — it turned into Bloom County with a new name *very* quickly. Not that that’s a bad thing…
Italics gone now?
I’m sorry, I know this is off topic, but I just saw a headline on Yahoo! that said “Monkeys move robot arms with thoughts.”
I love living in the future.
The comment about Opus as the Doctor brought to mind a button I bought at a convention many years ago. It depicts Opus knocking on the TARDIS door while a voice inside asks, “Doctor, where are we this time.”
It’s like STAR TREK III, if Spock was a penguin
If you’re refering to STAR TREK III the movie, then having Opus replace Leonard Nemoy as Spock couldn’t be any worse than replacing Kyrstie Alley with Robin Curtis as Lt. Savik. Ywenty years later and I’m STILL not over that one…
dAN
Alas, poor Opus,,,I knew ye well…
or something. Here’s to radical nose deflation/Q-tip creation! And to quote Binkley’s father…I’m old, old, old…
“What exaclty does it mean, to wind a watch?”
Trepidation. That’s the only word for it.
Bloom County was my favorite strip at the time (Doonesbury and Calvin & Hobbes the only other two in its class)… then it got cancelled. Then Outland came out and it was terrible, as if Breathed suddenly bought into his press releases.
With the page request and the price, I’m wondering if he still does.
Doonesbury is still pretty good (if somewhat mean-spirited on occassion these days).
For Better or For Worse is also very good but in a different league.
And I’m with Dan about Saavik. The ONLY role Alley did well and she dropped it (for a curly headed vulcan? Of course T’Pol is also as un-Vulcan as they come but for more curvaceous reasons – yes, I know in one of the movies there were Vulcan babes in diaphanous gowns but that didn’t work for me either. Women like T’Pol running around in 7of9 tights and they wait for 7 YEARS????)
I have never heard of Bloom County or Calvin and Hobbes. I did like The Far Side and Doonesbury and have recently begun to read The Boondocks.
Wait…
I can accept never having heard of Bloom County, despite the fact that I remember it almost as fondly as I do Calvin and Hobbes.
But, Calvin and Hobbes has always seemed to be everywhere to me. If you haven’t heard of it, go pick up a collection NOW. (I’d recommend Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Snow Goons, personally.) You’ll thank yourself later.
Michael C Lorah said:
Um, would it help if I mentioned that I didn’t really think much of any newspaper strips at the time (and still don’t, really) and didn’t even start reading comic books until 1993 or so?
At 13, I’m pretty sure I had just thrown aside the Hardy Boys for a hardcore Stephen King phase.
I guess I must plead ignorance. Sorry.:/
Don’t worry about it. I was just giving you a hard time, anyway.
Egads! Dare we hope!?! Fishheads & herring entrails for everyone!