“Berkeley Breathed, drawn back to ‘Bloom County’ but looking forward”
I hadn’t realized I was a “fanboy,” but evidently so because the LA Times blog Hero Complex: For Your Inner Fanboy” is one of my favorite entertainment sites. And yesterday they made my inner Opus swoon with this feature on Berkeley Breathed, creator of the comic strips “Bloom County,” “Outland,” and “Opus,” each starring some of my favorite characters of all time — Opus, Bill the Cat, Steve Dallas, Milquetoast the Cockroach, et al.
Per the Hero Complex piece, Breathed is moving into films:
Now, his children’s books are stirring interest in Hollywood, and one of his most successful titles, “Mars Needs Moms!,” is slated to hit theaters next year in a Robert Zemeckis production starring Seth Green and Joan Cusack.
For anyone interested in Breathed, it’s a great article. He is a very private person, rarely giving interviews, so it’s a most unusual glimpse into his life. And he has some most interesting confessions, I guess you can say, about Charles Schultz (“Peanuts”), Garry Trudeau (“Doonesbury”), and Bill Watterson (“Calvin and Hobbes”).
Reading the article reminded me that for years and years, a regular part of my daily morning routine was reading “Bloom County,” “Doonesbury,” and another fabulous comic strip “”The Far Side” by Gary Larson. I’ve been following “Doonesbury since the 70s and one of my favorite collectors items is a “Tanner ‘88” poster with an autographed note to me (fellow Yalie) from Trudeau (Trudeau produced and wrote “Tanner ‘88,” an 11-episode HBO political satire along with Robert Altman). I still read “Doonesbury” to this day.
And then there’s my Opus stuffed doll. I got that as a gift from my family many years ago, since they knew how much I love that character. Breathed wrote a wonderful book that was adapted into a 1/2-hour Christmas special starring Opus called “A Wish for Wings That Work”. In the story, Opus the Penguin struggles to achieve his seemingly impossible dream — to be able to fly. It’s currently online at YouTube:
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
It’s a funny and charming story and has been released on DVD which you can get here.
As the Hero Complex article points out, the five volume set “Bloom County, Complete Library” is being published. Volume 1 is available here.
And here is Berkeley Breathed’s website.
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