Berkeley Breathed, author of the classic Bloom County and Outland comics is returning to the funny pages at the end of November, 2003. The strip will be called “Opus” and will run in the Washington Post on Sundays only.
It will also run at a the size half a newspaper page, which is really cool. Breathed and other cartoonists have talked about the sad state of newspaper comics in terms of both size and content. Some of comments on Slashdot suggested that Breathed do a Web comic strip. I hope not. Computer screens have gotten less painful to look at in the last decade or so but they still can’t match the resolution, portability and affordability of newsprint.
I often thumb through a Bloom County collection late at night. I find it much more enjoyable than trying to absorb pages of prose before bedtime. Still – As much as I love the characters, worlds, and ideas that Breathed has brought to life in his work, I wonder if the new strip will be as fresh as Bloom County. I really enjoyed Outland but some of the jokes and the themes were recycled from older strips. But anyway that’s a small quibble. I’d take Berkeley Breathed’s recycled ideas over most cartoonist’s fresh ones.
Some of my favorite comics:
Too Much Coffee Man
Red Meat
P.S. Mueller
Zippy the Pinhead
The K Cronicles and (th)ink