Or so Breathed teased on his FB page today. I was a big fan back when this was fresh and new, but I’m not sure how easy it would be for him to get up to speed again.
That would be awesome. I was a big fan in the 80s, even though many of the jokes went over my childish head.
IIRC, he went on a hiatus when he halted the strip. I don’t recall it being said it was permanent. Of course, that was a long time ago and I could be completely wrong.
It’s already come back twice, and neither of the comebacks was anywhere near as good as the original.
Sort of. Both Outland and Opus started out as different strips with different concepts, but both quickly drifted back to being just Bloom County writ small–i.e., without the full ensemble–but drawn large.
Which ending are we talking about?
Breathed ended Bloom County in 1989. The ending for that was that Donald Trump had bought the comic strip and fired all the characters. There was a goodbye party where the characters talked about finding new jobs in other comic strips.
A month after Bloom County ended, Breathed started Outland. Opus joined that strip and eventually several other Bloom County characters appeared as well. Breathed ended Outland in 1995 with a resolution for several of the characters’ story arcs, including Opus going to Antarctica and being reunited with his mother.
Breathed started Opus in 2003. Once again, there were several returning characters from Bloom County. In 2008, Breathed decided to end the strip and the final storyline was that the characters were going to die and get to choose where they would spend eternity.
Technically, the original was The Academia Waltz, which was Breathed’s college comic strip. It ran from 1978 to 1979 and ended when Breathed graduated (he started Bloom County in 1980). But there is continuity because Steve Dallas was the main character of The Academia Waltz.
He’s produced some well-regarded children’s books and one of them became a really unfortunate movie. In the current publishing environment, I wonder how launching a new comic strip can be anything but throwing good money after bad?
I was thinking about Bloom County, but my memory of the ending of the strip was way off.
Sounds like he plans a Bloom County webcomic, where he doesn’t have to deal with publishers or censors.
Yes! One step closer to my dream of being able to buy a Bill/Opus 2016 T-shirt!
I bet if I looked hard enough, I could find my “This time, why not the worst?” t-shirt buried in some drawer.
And it’s back to the roots!!! Yay!
Time to go and look for a can of ‘Chicken and Trumplings’ soup.
I’m old enuf to have read Bloom County from its inception. I’ve never seen it as anything but a sad Doonesbury rip-off, with funny animal whimsy laid on. Yes, I’ve enjoyed many of the strips, but I have loathed many more, including anything with Bill the Cat in it.
I can live without a reboot.
Jeez. He’s doing it again?!
Having seen this exact scenario play out twice already, (Outland & Opus), I’ll give the new strip about a year before it dies quietly.
I loved Bloom County back in the day and it was my go-to for political and underpantsed animals in a meadow humor. I did see some of Outland and a bit of Opus but they came out when I wasn’t inclined or able to see them daily.
That was a nice restart of it today. I hope he’s keeping in online or using some other method of circumventing censors.
Nobody was able to see them daily. They were both weekly strips.
Bloom County: The Phantom Silliness!
I had “Ahead Warp Zillion!” (Dr. John and his animal friends barreling along in his wheelchair the “USS Enterpoop”).