Is Berke Breathed signalling the end of Opus?

BUP! I didn’t know you were a member here! I’ve been a fan of yours for a WHILE. I even sent you an email not too long ago, just to say you’ve been missed. :smiley:

Oh, and I agree with everyone who thinks it’s past time for Opus to fade away and leave us with pleasant memories of Bloom County.

I thought the strip had ended years ago!:eek:

Rather than start a new thread, thought I’d just bring this one up.

The final panel of Opus wasn’t in the paper; you had to go online: Goodnight Opus.

That made me sad.

When you view the final panel on the website it says you can get a final message from Berke at his website. I guess he forgot to up the capacity since his website has been crashed all day.

I agree. Even when not real good ,I love the artwork. I identify with the characters. Don’t kill off the penguin.

Here’s a text version (the misspelling of “Massachusetts” is Breathed’s):

Note that Breathed wrote “-30-” next to his signature on the final panel- in newspaper talk, that means “The End.”

I notice that the cartoon linked in my OP has a small picture of the setting for the final panel.

Funny thing, actually. I’m a gigantic fan of Doonesbury (my political disagreements with Trudeau notwithstanding), and I like Bloom County, but I seem to recall from doonesbury.com’s questions page that Trudeau absolutely detests Breathed and thinks he’s an arrogant jerk. Apparently, among other things, there was a to-do with plagiarizing Peanuts. I’ll see if I can find a link.

And here it is:

ETA, along the same lines and from the same place:

I thought it was a great ending. Made me cry like a baby, which amused my husband to no end. :rolleyes: :slight_smile:

It appears in all of the final strips, as a bit of foreshadowing, it seems.

I was just about to ask if I was the only one who got choked up when I saw the final panel. I think wife found my reaction just plain weird, rather than amusing!

I wasn’t really choked up by it, possibly because I have no experience with Goodnight Moon beyond Christopher Walken reading it to a group of terrified kids on The Simpsons. I was touched though and pleased. My guess had been that he would spend eternity in his dandelion patch.

I am sad to see Opus go and I hope Breathed starts up another strip, he is still only 51. I would love to see a Bloom County TV show or movie but I think the odds of that are very slim.

I had never heard of Goodnight Moon. Maybe I read it as a kid and don’t remember it.

I was annoyed by the Humane Society link. I’m sure they do good work, but I hate Mutts for littering my comics page with unfunny issue-advocacy, and now Breathed linked seeing the end of his cartoon to getting preached to as well.

That sounds utterly hilarious. Gotsta find a clip.

-FrL-

Really kind of funny, then, that Breathe’d signoff strip for Opus was, arguably, yet another “homage”/“appropriation”/“cribbing” from someone elses work!

-FrL-