# Berke who? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 18, 2000, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/berke-who/22772 "2000-06-18T10:29:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![StompyGodzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@StompyGodzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StompyGodzilla)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2000, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/berke-who/22772/1 "2000-06-18T10:29:53Z")
Does anyone know whatever happened to Berke Breathed, undisputed genius who created Bloom County? Yeah, I know, he went on to do Outland for a while (odd little 'toon, all about frolicking about in yer y-fronts), but now what? More to the point, why should someone so brilliant be allowed to retreat into obscurity? I vote we go storm his house and chain him to his drawing board until Opus and Bill are back with us again. Stompy ---
**Author:** ![MrSleep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5ac83/32.png) [@MrSleep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrSleep)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2000, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/berke-who/22772/2 "2000-06-18T16:22:36Z")
I agree with you StompyGodzilla. Bloom County was a great strip. I think Breathed lives here in Colorado somewhere, so I’m in on the raid. If you can find out where he lives, how to deactivate his security systems, get some chloroform, sodium pentathol, a drafting table, assorted pens and pencils and four roles of duct tape we just might pull it off. I’ll bring the Cheetos. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2000, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/berke-who/22772/3 "2000-06-18T16:52:50Z")
I was a huge fan of “Bloom COunty” and a tepid fan of “Outland,” so part of me would be delighted to see Berke Breathed return. On the other hand… Remember the old show biz adage “always leave them wanting more”? I miss Breathed, just as I miss Gary “Far Side” Larson and Bill “Calvin & Hobbes” Watterston… but better that they leave the cartoon business while we still loved them, than stay forever and ever when they’re no longer funny, no longer funny, and have absolutely nothing interesting to say (like… Garry Trudeau and Charles Schultz since 1980 or so). ---
**Author:** ![JillGat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@JillGat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JillGat)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2000, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/berke-who/22772/4 "2000-06-18T17:57:23Z")
Breathed used to live here in Albuquerque. I sold him a jacket when I worked at a mountaineering store. He’d just injured his back in a glider accident. I don’t think he lives here anymore, though. ---
**Author:** ![StompyGodzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@StompyGodzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StompyGodzilla)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2000, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/berke-who/22772/5 "2000-06-18T19:54:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\* > I was a huge fan of “Bloom COunty” and a tepid fan of “Outland,” so part of me would be delighted to see Berke Breathed return. On the other hand… > > Remember the old show biz adage “always leave them wanting more”? I miss Breathed, just as I miss Gary “Far Side” Larson and Bill “Calvin & Hobbes” Watterston… but better that they leave the cartoon business while we still loved them, than stay forever and ever when they’re no longer funny, no longer funny, and have absolutely nothing interesting to say (like… Garry Trudeau and Charles Schultz since 1980 or so). > \*\* Yup, fair enough. Totally reasonable point of view, in fact. However. I fail to believe that someone of Breathed’s incredible imagination and creative talent is simply sitting in the Rockies twiddling his thumbs and staring at his navel. No, damnit – he’s up there writing and/or drawing something brilliant. And he’s not sharing it. Mr Sleep’s bringing the Cheetos. Are you with us? Stompy ---
**Author:** ![MrSleep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5ac83/32.png) [@MrSleep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrSleep)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2000, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/berke-who/22772/6 "2000-06-18T20:33:59Z")
And it’s not going to be one of those little single serving bags either. I’m going to get the big SUPER SIZED bag. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2000, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/berke-who/22772/7 "2000-06-18T21:09:42Z")
A bit tangential, but the reason, IIRC, that he switched from Bloom County to Outland was that the syndicate (don’t remember which one) had the rights to the strip “Bloom County”, but _not_ to the individual characters. Solution? End the strip, bring the characters back in a new one. And without trying to start a debate, astorian, there are those who would disagree with your opinion of Schultz’s later work. ---
**Author:** ![omni-not](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8dc957/32.png) [@omni-not](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/omni-not)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2000, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/berke-who/22772/8 "2000-06-18T23:32:10Z")
According to this, [http://www.calvinandhobbes.com/html/the\_end.html](http://www.calvinandhobbes.com/html/the_end.html) Breathed - who, like Larson, lives on an island off Seattle - seems interested in films and on-line projects. In this era of facile humour, those two are sorely missed. ---
**Author:** ![StompyGodzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@StompyGodzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StompyGodzilla)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2000, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/berke-who/22772/9 "2000-06-19T08:54:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\* > According to this, > > [http://www.calvinandhobbes.com/html/the\_end.html](http://www.calvinandhobbes.com/html/the_end.html) > > Breathed - who, like Larson, lives on an island off Seattle - seems interested in films and on-line projects. > > In this era of facile humour, those two are sorely missed. > \*\* So we’ve had three sightings – one in New Mexico, one in Colorado, and now he’s been spotted off in the Puget Sound. He’s really Elvis, isn’t he? 😃 Stompy ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2000, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/berke-who/22772/10 "2000-06-19T14:49:50Z")
Hah, screw you all. I frolicked on the front lawn of the house used as the model for the Bloom County boarding house in Iowa City, Iowa. Now if that ain’t a pilgrimage, I don’t know what is. 😃 I, too, would love to see Breathed back into print or film or TV or _something_. I often wonder how he’d have treated the late 90s and the turn of the century. I honestly think artists like Breathed and Watterson and Larson should come out once in a while with something new bearing their name on it; not necessarily a daily strip but something that’ll keep them in our collective memories. ---
**Author:** ![Joe\_Cool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecb155/32.png) [@Joe\_Cool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Cool)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2000, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/berke-who/22772/11 "2000-06-19T15:17:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\* > Hah, screw you all. I frolicked on the front lawn of the house used as the model for the Bloom County boarding house in Iowa City, Iowa. Now if that ain’t a pilgrimage, I don’t know what is. :D\*\* It wasn’t a _REAL_ pilgramage unless you snorted a dandelion. heh. 🙂