# Opus is back!!! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 9, 2003, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opus-is-back/200483 "2003-09-09T09:50:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mycroft\_Holmes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a5b964/32.png) [@Mycroft\_Holmes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mycroft_Holmes)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opus-is-back/200483/1 "2003-09-09T09:50:49Z")
According to the following article in the Washington Post: [“Opus the Penguin Back in the Funny Business”](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45450-2003Sep8.html) Berke Breathed will return to the Sunday Comics with a new comic strip called “Opus”. Oh please don’t let it be a disappointment, because I for one am really excited about this. ---
**Author:** ![Algernon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a183cd/32.png) [@Algernon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algernon)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opus-is-back/200483/2 "2003-09-09T13:12:29Z")
Excellent!! I too hope it doesn’t suck. And from the linked article, truer words were never spoken. > [@](#): > > “It’s one of those strips that, when it left the comic pages, the comic pages were quite a bit lesser for its absence,” says Harry Knowles, editor in chief of the Web’s Ain’t It Cool News and an avid fan of newspaper comics. “I think there’s been three great strips that have gone away over the last five, 10 years that I really miss: ‘Bloom County,’ ‘Calvin and Hobbes’ and ‘The Far Side.’ Those are the three strips that never should have ceased.” ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opus-is-back/200483/3 "2003-09-09T13:20:18Z")
Bah. Opus, outside of Bloom County, is not funny. It was the whole cast that made “Bloom County” funny. Taking Opus out of Bloom County is like taking Jerry out of Seinfeld or Frasier out of, uh, Frasier. Without the rest of the guys (and Lola Granola) it won’t work. You need Steve Dallas and Binkley and Oliver and all the rest. And Bill, of course. There was a series of strips where Opus was mistakenly allocated hundreds of millions of dollars by Congress for Star Wars reserch. In one strip he’s literally swimming in a box of money while Milo and Portnoy look on. They have this exchange: MILO What’s going on? PORTNOY Congress has sent Opus $700 million to the name of “Mr. Spock” to continue “Star Wars” research. MILO You jest. PORTNOY Sir, I do not. That line still cracks me up for some reason. It was the whole feel of Bloom County and its topical humour. “Outland,” IMHO, sucked donkey butts. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opus-is-back/200483/4 "2003-09-09T13:47:53Z")
Thank you Mycroft Holmes, you have made my day! But let’s see how the strip is. Bloom County was, I believe, the finest comic ever. Outland was one of the worst. If Opus is half as good as Bloom County ever was, I will be one happy comic reader. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opus-is-back/200483/5 "2003-09-09T13:57:03Z")
I agree Bloom County was the finest strip ever, but didn’t Outland just sort of become Bloom County revisited after a while? I don’t recall it being all _that_ bad. Happy ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opus-is-back/200483/6 "2003-09-09T14:05:18Z")
Bloom County started great, but then went downhill as the focus became more and more on Opus. Whatever happened to Cutter John? ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opus-is-back/200483/7 "2003-09-09T14:07:50Z")
The phenomenon of a strip going downhill as it focuses more and more on a single character is not unique to Bloom County, by the way…Peanuts was great up to about 1975, when Snoopy (and to a lesser extent, Pepermint Patty) just plain took over the strip. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opus-is-back/200483/8 "2003-09-09T14:23:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RickJay \* > \*\*Bah. Opus, outside of Bloom County, is not funny. It was the whole cast that made “Bloom County” funny. Taking Opus out of Bloom County is like taking Jerry out of Seinfeld or Frasier out of, uh, Frasier. \*\* Frasier was pretty funny on _Cheers_, dontcha think? And Seinfeld was pretty funny in his standup, dontcha think? When Outland began, Opus was the only ex-Bloom County-er to regularly appear (I’m not counting Ronald-Ann and Milquetoast the Cockroach). But after a while, a lot of the old gang showed up. So perhaps that’ll happen here. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Ketch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/43a26b/32.png) [@Jack\_Ketch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Ketch)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opus-is-back/200483/9 "2003-09-09T14:25:21Z")
Next you’ll tell us Calvin is coming back. Without Bloom County and Calvin & Hobbes the comics are almost unbearable. I’m barely hanging on with Dilbert. Please, let’s go back to the days when the funny pages were funny. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opus-is-back/200483/10 "2003-09-09T16:20:07Z")
I miss the _Bloom County_ of 1981 and 1982, when the characters had a great deal of energy to them. By 1987-88, they were all kinda listless. I don’t miss _Bloom County_’s later years one bit, nor do I miss _Outland_. In retrospect, you gotta wonder whether Berke Breathed had problems with depression in the late 1980s. His characters sure seemed to. I can’t say I have great expectations for his return. Once you’ve lost your fastball, it generally doesn’t come back. And that’s true for creative types as well as ballplayers. > [@](#): > > “It’s one of those strips that, when it left the comic pages, the comic pages were quite a bit lesser for its absence,” says Harry Knowles, editor in chief of the Web’s Ain’t It Cool News and an avid fan of newspaper comics. “I think there’s been three great strips that have gone away over the last five, 10 years that I really miss: ‘Bloom County,’ ‘Calvin and Hobbes’ and ‘The Far Side.’ Those are the three strips that never should have ceased.” Comic strips _should_ die when they descend into suckitude. At least Breathed was decent enough to step aside when he’d lost it. (Larson had slipped a couple notches over the years, but was still better than most of the funny-pages stuff when he quit, but probably got out at the right time. Watterson, OTOH, was one of those rare sorts who retired while at the top of his game.) The comic pages are crowded with strips that used to be funny, and haven’t been funny in eons, but some old farts still want to read them, and the cartoonist isn’t gonna give up the soft racket. So there’s only very occasionally room for the _next_ possibly great strip. For this reason it bothers me that the _Post_ is bringing back Opus. In doing this, they’re like a baseball team that would rather trade for some aging ballplayer than take a chance on a rookie. They’ve only got so much space on the comics page, and if Opus is there, it’s instead of something else, rather than in addition to. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opus-is-back/200483/11 "2003-09-09T16:22:19Z")
But we don’t know what that something else is going to be. The Post has **three** pages of comics, some of them ancient. ---
**Author:** ![Algernon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a183cd/32.png) [@Algernon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algernon)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opus-is-back/200483/12 "2003-09-09T16:28:36Z")
Well **Rufus** aka **RTFirefly** , you make a hellofa argument. Let’s hope that Breathed has had a breath of fresh air and regained his fastball. I think **RickJay** has a good point too about Opus being best as part of the ensemble cast of _Bloom County_. Perhaps this Opus reincarnation is subject to the First Rule of Frisbee Throwing: “Say nothing more predictive than ‘watch this’”. ---
**Author:** ![Opus1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/858c86/32.png) [@Opus1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Opus1)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opus-is-back/200483/13 "2003-09-09T17:08:10Z")
I never left. Needless to say, I’m a huge Bloom County fan and am looking forward to this eagerly. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opus-is-back/200483/14 "2003-09-09T17:30:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by BrotherCadfael \* > \*\*Whatever happened to Cutter John? \*\* Before or after the Russkies captured him as a spy? ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opus-is-back/200483/15 "2003-09-09T17:41:35Z")
\*\*Bloom County Calvin and Hobbes Far Side\*\* nothing even comes close now ---
**Author:** ![Algernon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a183cd/32.png) [@Algernon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algernon)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opus-is-back/200483/16 "2003-09-09T17:56:17Z")
You know how the [Calvin and Hobbes strip is published at ucomics.com each day, 11 years after the original appeared?](http://www.ucomics.com/calvinandhobbes/index.phtml) I wish whoever owns the rights to Bloom County would do the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opus-is-back/200483/17 "2003-09-09T18:22:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Algernon \* > \*\*You know how the [Calvin and Hobbes strip is published at ucomics.com each day, 11 years after the original appeared?](http://www.ucomics.com/calvinandhobbes/index.phtml) I wish whoever owns the rights to Bloom County would do the same thing. \*\* They **are** republishing [Bloom County](http://www.ucomics.com/bloomcounty/), and at the UCOMICs website, to boot. If you subscribe to their My Comics page, you can read it from the very beginning. I want it _so **bad** _, and for $10/year I may just join, despite not having a job or income right now. Hell, I paid for a LJ account . . . . ---
**Author:** ![seriousart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@seriousart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seriousart)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opus-is-back/200483/18 "2003-09-09T18:27:19Z")
I loved Bloom County back in it’s day, but it’s time has passed. The comics business is in pretty sad shape. No new blood because old strips like Shoe, BC, Beetle Baily, Garfield, etc are either Not done by the original creator (Be he dead, retired, or just farming out the work) but the comic patrons still want to see them out of nostalgia and familiarity. Imagine if radio only played 30 bands (not that big a leap). The only time a new band got played was when one of the 30 bands broke up or the members died. Some people got wise to this and decided that even if the band went away they could just form a cover band, retain the name, and keep making gobs of money. Other, long existing bands are in a 30+ year decline, but refuse to give up as long as the money keeps coming in. Consequently, no new bands get to be heard and we’re all stuck listening to The Romantics for another 20 years. As for Opus, I liken Bloom C’s success to it being an ensemble performance. Paul may have been your favorite Beatle, but he wasn’t half as good without the other 3. Who knows? Maybe Opus will feature a new cast with hilarious results. I remain skeptical, however. ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opus-is-back/200483/19 "2003-09-09T18:27:47Z")
I’m fairly indifferent to this news but I do have a question: if he can do an ‘Opus’ comic strip, why the hell not just bring back ‘Bloom County’ entirely? ---
**Author:** ![Algernon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a183cd/32.png) [@Algernon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algernon)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opus-is-back/200483/20 "2003-09-09T18:34:39Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Morgyn_ > They **are** republishing Bloom County, and at the UCOMICs website, to boot. I notice in the link that it’s a strip from 11-21. Do they update this daily like they do Calvin and Hobbes? That way I can get my daily fix without paying for the archives. (I have all of Bloom County in book form anyway). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/opus-is-back/200483.md?page=2)