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NEW YORK -- "Bloom County" creator Berkeley Breathed is returning to newspapers Nov. 23 with "Opus," a weekly comic starring his famous cartoon penguin.

Breathed had hinted he might do a Sunday-only comic again during a speech at the National Cartoonists Society meeting this spring (Syndicate World, June 5).

"Opus" will be in a half-page format at a time when many newspapers run five strips on a Sunday page. But Washington Post Writers Group Editorial Director/General Manager Alan Shearer told E&P Online that most of the 30 or so newspapers WPWG has already approached plan to buy Breathed's comic. "If you ran it before, you're going to want it again," said Shearer.

"Bloom County," which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1987, appeared in nearly 1,300 newspapers via WPWG before ending in 1989. Its successor strip, the Sunday-only "Outland," ran in about 225 papers before ending in 1995.

Ideally, papers would expand their comics sections to make room for the large-format "Opus." But when Bill Watterson's "Calvin and Hobbes" went half page more than a decade ago, a number of newsprint-cost-conscious papers responded by shrinking or dropping some other comics.

Shearer said Breathed has made great artistic use of the half page. "It's absolutely breathtaking," he said.

Newspaper editors are being shown "Opus," but are not alllowed to keep copies of it. "We're trying to keep it off the Internet," explained Shearer. "The one place and the only place to see 'Opus' will be in newspapers. This is a tremendous opportunity to increase circulation."

Shearer said "Opus" will be topical and -- unsurprisingly given the comic's name -- spotlight the penguin even more than "Bloom County" and "Outland" did. The WPWG executive wouldn't say whether or not other "Bloom County" characters besides Opus would appear.

The story about Breathed's Nov. 23 return to newspapers was broken in Tuesday's Washington Post.

Breathed is currently working on a film featuring Opus, and has done a number of children's books since ending "Bloom County."

Source: Editor & Publisher Online

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Gotta dig through my old clothes and see if I still have my "Penguin Lust" classic tshirt somewhere.

The first place I saw this was in the Chicago Tribune - I hope that means they intend to carry it!

[ November 23, 2003, 02:13 PM: Message edited by: sndrake ]
 

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Posted by Ralphie (Member # 1565) on :
 
Oh, we KNOW.

But it RAWKS enough for a second mention, baby.
 

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Posted by sndrake (Member # 4941) on :
 


Thanks for breaking it to me gently, Ralphie.

I'm not a prolific writer here, but I lurk a lot and am utterly at a loss as to how I missed that thread. I could have known about it a week sooner!
 

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Posted by Papa Moose (Member # 1992) on :
 
Which would just mean you'd have to wait a week longer for the cartoon to begin. C'mon, dude... half full, half full.
 

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Posted by Ralphie (Member # 1565) on :
 
sndrake - Yes. You should be very embarrassed that you have a life.

One week. That rocks the kasbah.
 

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Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
 
Do you guys really think that a weekly, character driven strip will be able to achieve much momentum? I think that it would probably have to be a daily for it to really catch fire for me. I know that I never really warmed up to Outland, and I think that that was why.

The weekly format works fine for This Modern World or Tom the Dancing Bug, but those are overtly political, topical strips that don't have continuing story lines (although Tom the Dancing Bug does have reoccuring character, such as God Man).
 

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Posted by Ralphie (Member # 1565) on :
 
I read somewhere that Breathed won't write a daily strip anymore because the panels are too small, and it pisses him off to have to draw such microscopic pics.

In fact, that's why most of the greats quit.

I'll take Breathedy Goodness in whatever package I can. And Noemen, how can you not warm up to this?
 

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Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
 
Yeah Ralphie, that's a good one. There are a number of good individual Outland strips; it's just that it never really...quickened for me, if you know what I mean. I do agree that I'll take weekly Breathed over no Breathed at all, but I really wish he'd do another daily strip. I can sympathize with his complaints about the small panels; I know that Watterson complained bitterly about that.
 

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Posted by sndrake (Member # 4941) on :
 

quote:

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Which would just mean you'd have to wait a week longer for the cartoon to begin. C'mon, dude... half full, half full.

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quote:

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sndrake - Yes. You should be very embarrassed that you have a life.

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Ralphie, thanks for the thought, but what I actually have - for the most part - is work. My partner and I struggle to have a life - she's in the same work and in the same boat.

And it's no use whining, because we both worked very hard to be in positions to do the types of work we're doing.

We did get to take our first vacation in two years this summer, though. Spent a nice week in Tennessee with friends. No pictures - we seem to have mislaid the camera.
 

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Posted by Taalcon (Member # 839) on :
 
And who can forget the classic sequel to "To Kill A Mockingbird" that was filmed in Outland: "Kill Mo' Mockingbird: Boo Radley Loose In The Hood", a collaboration between Oliver Stone and Quentin Tarentino.

<--- gets his daily Breathed fix emailed from Ucomics' digital reprinting of every Bloom County -and then Outland, and THEN The Academia Waltz!- through their My Comics Page service. 6 daily strips one day, a sunday the next, and so forth until every strip has been reprinted - including MANY that were never collected in book form - of which I own all of them, They're only on 1982 now in the digital reprinting, and there's still tons ahead! Joy!

<--- also owns a VHS of A Wish For Wings That Work.

-Taal

[ September 10, 2003, 04:58 PM: Message edited by: Taalcon ]
 

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Posted by Heffaji (Member # 3669) on :
 
Its always fun to raise topics that have sunken deep into the depths, but its only a few more hours now till Opus makes his grand and exalted return. I'm hoping for a posting on http://www.bloomcounty.com/ at the stroke of midnight, but after all these years I can afford to wait a couple of hours.
 

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Posted by Ralphie (Member # 1565) on :
 

 

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Posted by JonnyNotSoBravo (Member # 5715) on :
 
Opus rocks. Bill the Cat is awesome. I miss Binkley and Milo and Cutter John, though. And Lola Granola!

PS Ralphie - stop liking the cool stuff! You're making the anti-Ralphie campaign difficult!
 

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Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
 
I know, Noemon. Outland just never managed to hook me, although the content/style wasn't all that different than BC.
 

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Posted by sndrake (Member # 4941) on :
 
I don't care that my gas tank has a leak. I don't care that it's getting colder and raining right now.

The Chicago Tribune is carrying OPUS!!!!


'Course they probably did it just to make sure I'd start buying the Sunday edition of the Trib.

They're right.
 

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Posted by Ophelia (Member # 653) on :
 
http://www.ucomics.com/heartofthecity/2003/11/23/
 

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Posted by sndrake (Member # 4941) on :
 


Out of the Gene Pool had a nice little "welcome back" in the last panel of the strip today - not as nice as "Heart of the City," of course. "Heart of the City" isn't carried in the Trib. Hope it didn't get bumped to make room for OPUS.
 

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Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
 
It would have been nice if the first Opus strip had actually been any good.
 

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Posted by sndrake (Member # 4941) on :
 
It was on the lame side, but I'm going to hang in there for a few months to give the Breathed and the bird a chance. It's awful to think that maybe Gary Larson had the right of it.

"regurgitated squid" was worth a smile, anyway. But, yeah, nostalgia won't keep me reading and making a special effort to buy the Sunday Trib.

(Still haven't found my vintage "Penguin Lust" tshirt.)
 

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Posted by Paul Goldner (Member # 1910) on :
 
Sadly, the boston globe does not carry the sunday version of Heart.
 

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