Opus started out with a much smaller nose, and looking a great deal more like an actual penguin. I imagine Berke Breathed made it so large and goofy looking because, well, it WAS a comic strip, and it was just funnier that way. He lampshaded how little Opus looked like an actual penguin a couple of times in the strip himself.
I had a lot of Bloom County books growing up, and I read them so much that they fell apart. Always loved the strip but never really knew why. Looking back at it now, I see that it has some really tight writing, great art, and No Fourth Wall (all in the later years). Even the more shaky early years have good things to offer.
Shatner is impressed.
Bloom County is honestly my favorite comic of all time. I love the strange storylines. One of my favorites is Oliver inventing a machine that turns people black, and this somehow leads into (at least I remember it leading into) Opus and Cutter John getting lost in the ocean. Shame the complete collection books cost so much.
edited 13th Nov '12 7:31:52 AM by DuckTwacy
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever."
This is one I used to clip out of the newspaper and paste into little stapled books myself, before I knew they printed collections (I was REALLY young).
Respect the Red Right Hand
There's going to be a one-shot, plain comic-size collection of Opus next year, explicitly for the purpose of a new Mars Attacks themed cover by Berke Breathed. I am interested to see how that turns out.
Great series. Love The Complete Library editions that've been coming out, and BB's increasing need to put comments in the margins despite claiming in the first one he'd only pop in occasionally.
Maybe you'd be less disappointed if you stopped expecting things to be Carmen Sandiego movies.
I love it how, going back and reading it now, it's all the same political shenannigans then as are going on today. He could just change a few names and incidental details around and most of those strips would still be timely.
And the 4 new strips are excellent. Breathed hasn't missed a step.
Wow, we a) finally find out exactly (sort of) how Cutter John got injured, and b) he got out of his wheelchair and is using leg braces to woo a new love interest.
I feel like when BD took off his helmet.
It's interesting how much focus Cutter John is getting. I always liked Cutter John, but he kind of vanished in the last couple of years of the strip's original run. Of the adults, you got a lot with Steve Dallas and Binkley's dad, and occasionally Oliver's parents, but Cutter John more or less disappeared, only to reappear sporadically. It's great to see him again, and I'm really liking this storyline (I believe he started dating Bobbi Harlow after nearly running her down, too).
Did anybody know how we almost had a computer-animated movie on Opus the Penguin, there was test footage made as a proof-of-concept, but said footage was lost?
Apparently an animator uploaded
it to his Vimeo account 14 years ago!
Word of advice: have some tissue ready...
This strip Bloom County is where Opus the penguin started. I don't know about you, but I find it weird that he has such a large nose. Come to think of it, penguins have beaks, not noses!
Oh, well.
Oh, Equestria, we stand on guard for thee!