# Has Berkeley Breathed lost his gift? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 11, 2008, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-berkeley-breathed-lost-his-gift/456182 "2008-07-11T21:42:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2008, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-berkeley-breathed-lost-his-gift/456182/21 "2008-07-12T04:13:37Z")
[QUOTE=It’s Not Rocket Surgery!] I think part of the problem is that Berke’s daily strips were always better than the Sunday strips. Since he’s only doing Sunday strips, that doesn’t help. [/QUOTE] Thats exactly what I was going to say. To me the Sunday strips were always filler that wasn’t as good. The story lines in the weekly strips were what made BC. Opus may not be as good as the old Blooms but it is still better than anything I see in the paper. ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2008, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-berkeley-breathed-lost-his-gift/456182/22 "2008-07-12T04:25:37Z")
BrotherCadafel - you beat me to it. The strip died when Cutter John left, indeed. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2008, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-berkeley-breathed-lost-his-gift/456182/23 "2008-07-12T04:50:32Z")
If I may suggest, falling crime rates may have doomed _Outland_. It was supposed to be set in some kind of urban battleground, wasn’t it? With 90s prosperity, that became a less interesting and compelling venue. I’ll also entertain the possibility that it sucked. ---
**Author:** ![MrSquishy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9e5f3/32.png) [@MrSquishy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrSquishy)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2008, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-berkeley-breathed-lost-his-gift/456182/24 "2008-07-12T06:23:21Z")
This is weird. I was just thinking to myself the other day, after reading the latest _Opus_, “was _Bloom County_ actually as good as I remember, or did I just think it was good because I was a kid”? I’m 36. I have a whole bunch of _Bloom County_ books and I haven’t looked at any of them in probably 15 years. I thought _Garfield_ was hilarious too, when I was 10, so I was thinking maybe _Bloom County_ never was as good as I remember it being. Glad to know I’m not the only one who thinks _Opus_ sucks. Maybe I’ll have to dig out those _Bloom County_ books one of these days. ---
**Author:** ![susan\_foster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@susan\_foster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan_foster)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2008, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-berkeley-breathed-lost-his-gift/456182/25 "2008-07-12T14:08:20Z")
[QUOTE=Belrix] “Opus” is the weekly replacement for the old “Bloom County”. [Four weeks ago](http://www.comics.com/wash/opus/archive/opus-20080615.html) [Three](http://www.comics.com/wash/opus/archive/opus-20080622.html) [Two](http://www.comics.com/wash/opus/archive/opus-20080629.html) [One](http://www.comics.com/wash/opus/archive/opus-20080706.html) [/QUOTE] Wow - the punchline on every one of those strips is absolutely predictable. I loved Bloom County, kind of liked Outland. Susan ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2008, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-berkeley-breathed-lost-his-gift/456182/26 "2008-07-12T14:19:14Z")
I never thought he was particularly gifted. As one critic (R. Fiore of **The Comics Journal** ) put it, calling Berke Breathed a gifted stylist is like complimenting a shoplifter for being a snappy dresser. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2008, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-berkeley-breathed-lost-his-gift/456182/27 "2008-07-12T14:52:34Z")
[QUOTE=Ranchoth] Cynical? I read it as more crass and preachy, myself—whereas the older strips were at least creative and quirky. But overall, like he’s just going through the motions. [/QUOTE] > [@susan\_foster](#): > > Wow - the punchline on every one of those strips is absolutely predictable. Ditto both of these. Good lord, it’s Mallard Fillmore. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2008, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-berkeley-breathed-lost-his-gift/456182/28 "2008-07-12T15:00:39Z")
[QUOTE=Belrix] The early Outlands didn’t even have the same characters - maybe Opus but that’s all. They slowly wandered in since the new characters didn’t catch on at all. “Mortimer Mouse” was the only one I remember. Mickey’s cousin or brother or something. [/QUOTE] Opus was the first of the Bloom County characters to enter Outland. At first, all the characters were brand new. After Opus “immigrated” to Outland, the strip quickly turned into a rehash of Bloom County. It seems like Outland died pretty quickly. ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2008, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-berkeley-breathed-lost-his-gift/456182/29 "2008-07-12T15:56:48Z")
I always thought BB created Outland to indulge his penchant for Krazy Kat-style surrealism. Character was of secondary importance at best. I’m not sure what motivated him to start Opus. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2008, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-berkeley-breathed-lost-his-gift/456182/30 "2008-07-12T16:08:54Z")
[I found this strip to be prescient.](http://partiallyclips.com/index.php?id=1186) ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2008, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-berkeley-breathed-lost-his-gift/456182/31 "2008-07-12T17:23:57Z")
[QUOTE=Nonsuch] I’m not sure what motivated him to start Opus. [/QUOTE] Is being independently wealthy as nice as I imagine it being? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2008, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-berkeley-breathed-lost-his-gift/456182/32 "2008-07-12T17:27:34Z")
Outland was the most bizarre exercise in psychological self-detection ever witnessed on the comics page. Apparently nobody remembers now, from the comments here, but Outland was supposed to star Ronald Ann, the little black girl named for Ronald Reagan in the dystopian world after Reaganism had destroyed America, in a Sundays-only strip. This from an artist who never created a successful female character in his life. From an artist who had no connection to urban America. From an artist who could work only in the mode of surrealism. From an artist whose Sunday strips were crap and who needed continuity to make his characters alive. It was the dumbest idea ever put on paper. It is living proof of the old axiom that brand name writers can sell junk that would never make it out of the slush pile if their name wasn’t on it. And everybody should have known it at the time because as \*\*Chuck \*\* correctly says, BB had been writing strips for a year that were basically a cry for help saying how much he hated doing comic strips. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2008, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-berkeley-breathed-lost-his-gift/456182/33 "2008-07-12T19:43:49Z")
[QUOTE=Ferret Herder] Not sure, but I think more of them need to talk to Bill Watterson of Calvin & Hobbes fame. He stopped while the strip was still strong and beloved by many. [/QUOTE] My cats are named Calvin & Hobbes. This seems to be a pattern among cartoonists. Doonesburry was hilarious back in the days of Nixon. It didn’t matter what party you belonged to because the zingers were upbeat. Since I don’t get the Berkeley Breathed cartoons in my paper anymore it was sad to see what they’ve become. He’s lost his edginess and I agree with the op that it is now more cynical. Maybe that is what he was going for but I don’t like it. ---
**Author:** ![DKW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dkw/32/3118_2.png) [@DKW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DKW)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2008, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-berkeley-breathed-lost-his-gift/456182/34 "2008-07-14T08:26:57Z")
Dang…does Get Fuzzy get this kind of scrutiny? I have pretty much the complete Bloom County collection. I think what really made it work was that it had topical, cutting-edge sociopolitical analysis _and_ plain 'ol goofy silliness. It wasn’t all about Congress and scandals and celebrity gossip. I found Outland pretty funny most of the time…I think some of you are overanalyzing it just a wee bit (I tend to shun words like “dystopian” in anything involving talking flightless waterfowl). Opus, I admit, isn’t very good. The thing is, though, I’m not sure what could replace it that’d be accepted by the newspapers that’d be better. (Let’s be realistic here; This Modern World isn’t even making the first cut.) I don’t like it that BB has completely lost his edge, but it’s nothing I can get too concerned about. BTW, those strips where he rags on his profession, the message _I_ got was that he always knew that cartoonists, in the grand scheme of things, weren’t that important, and he always wanted to remember this. Just a bit of good-natured self-depreciation. How was this a “cry for help”? As for Doonesbury…geez, Magiver, you have any idea what’s been going on for the past 8 years? The Republicans have had an iron grip on the White House, and they’ve screwed things up colossally. _Colossally_. Gary Trudeau doesn’t like gross abuses of power, and it just so happens this has been the Repubs’ beat for a freakin’ long time now. You want equal-opportunity trashing…well, there’s always Ted Rall. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-berkeley-breathed-lost-his-gift/456182.md?page=1)