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And I Have Been A Fat Woman Named Frieda

By Brian Prisco | Posted Under Trade News | Comments (30)

storddady.jpg

Did you ever love something and think you were alone? I adore Bloom County. Sure, like everyone else I owned the comic collections for the Far Side, and Calvin and Hobbes, and even Garfield. But I also loved Opus and Bill the Cat and the rest of those crazy kids. So I was excited that Berkeley Breathed decided to show up to his first ever Comic-Con. And he delighted our packed hall with a hysterical slide show, explaining where he gets his ideas, poking fun at himself, and presenting materials that’s supposedly going to show up in his forthcoming collection from IDW: Bloom County: The Secret Sex Tapes.

All I care about is that the illustrations on his letters to and from Bill Watterson are in there. I don’t want to explain them to you, in case you never get to see them, but let’s just say I will never see Blondie the same again.

Breathed is still doing solid work these days. The Opus movie crashed and burned with the Weinsteins several times over. But, there are several cartoons in the works based on his cartoons. This March, Robert Zemeckis is going to be making Mars Needs Moms starring Seth Green and Joan Cusack. It’s a really dark and touching children’s story, as all of Breathed works tend to be.

He talked about his young adult novel, which I had never heard of but I can believe some of you will be snatching up, called Flawed Dogs. It deals with a show dog who gets manipulated by his owner’s evil dog and then joins a crew of abandoned rag tag animals. Only it takes a turn for the Dahl as the dog ends up going through lab experimentations and pit fights in order to gather his crew and to overthrow the Westminster Dog Show. Look it up and own it, you pet owning bastards you.

He’s also working on a twisted faerie tale that mocks fairies. It’s a little Brian Froud, only with dialogue and plot. It’s called Cranky Scary Sweaty Faeries. And from the pictures, it looks like a damn treat.









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Comments

******GEEKASM******

You FUCKING bastard.

I hate you like I hate my rat-shit ex-wife.

Posted by: idiosynchronic at July 23, 2010 8:45 PM

Thanks for this. After reading a very cynical piece elsewhere about the commercial worthlessness of Comic-Con a few minutes ago, it's good to follow that up with a reminder that there are some very cool things there as well. I've been a Bloom County fan since childhood. Back in '88 on Election Day I wore a Bill The Cat/Opus campaign button. I might have to check out that Flawed Dogs.

Posted by: DarthCorleone at July 23, 2010 8:47 PM

*ack*

Posted by: rabbi at July 23, 2010 8:59 PM

Berke Breathed and Bill Watterson are pen pals. Because of course they are. Pardon me while my head explodes.

Posted by: greer at July 23, 2010 9:51 PM

Everything everybody else said:

Yes.

Posted by: , at July 23, 2010 10:28 PM

I LOVE BLOOM COUNTY!!!!!!!!

Posted by: Cindy at July 23, 2010 11:56 PM

Remember those Non Sequitur strips that discouraged Breathed from returning to the comics page. Called him a has-been, basically. Jus' sayin'.

Posted by: Dur. at July 24, 2010 12:59 AM

I am 35 now, but I started reading Bloom County when I was only in the 5th grade. Every year I find time to reread the books, as I've bought, lost, and recollected them over the years.

Funny how my changing view of politics and history has been with each new rereading.

Berke, he shaped my humor and personality, and the way I draw. He is truly a hero to me.

Opus stole my heart, Bill made me laugh at the utter depravity of our humanity, Steve Dallas, well, the same as Bill, and the young boys Binkley and Milo helped me understand that being young did not equal being dumb. I could go on, but I hope there are still enough people out there who love Bloom County as I do to keep Berke fighting the good fight, being the cynical yet sentimental bastard that he is.

I will be buying Flawed Dogs. Thank you for mentioning one of my lifelong heroes in this post and on one of my favorite websites.

Posted by: Elle Ja at July 24, 2010 1:22 AM

Good timing. Last night while walking up the stairs my sandal slipped off and I almost tripped. Out loud I said, "Ack!" My wife heard and was hysterically laughing. I said, "I didn't know that was an actual exclamation except in 'Bloom County'."

Bloom County and Calvin & Hobbes are the greatest comic strips of all time. Period. It may not be fair, but I have been known to judge people based entirely on their opinion of those 2 strips.

I hate you so much for being able to meet/listen to Breathed. One of my most prized possessions is an autographed copy by Watterson of "Something Under the Stairs is Drooling", a Calvin & Hobbes collection. One day I hope to get Breathed's autograph as well.

You bastard.

BTW, the only strips that come close to those 2 right now are "Get Fuzzy" and "Pearls Before Swine". Both are consistently excellent and one of the few strips that comes close to the greats. If you have avoided the comic wasteland in the paper they are worth picking up in collections.

Posted by: TylerDFC at July 24, 2010 8:43 AM

TylerDFC,

What, no love for Zippy the Pinhead?

Nobody mentions Trudeau much anymore but waaaaaaaaay back in the day he was The Shit.

I agree with you about the wasteland. I lobbied until I finally gave up to get the newspaper I work for to revamp its ancient comics page, and if I won the next editor election that's the first thing I'd do, and the four subscribers who still read Blondie can just go straight to burning hell.

We carry only about four strips I bother with (Dilbert, Non Sequitur, Garfield and ... um, well, perhaps it's because I like dumb puns, Frank & Ernest -- let ye who have no sin cast the first stone).

Damn you, Classic Peanuts. Damn you to hell. You're taking up space something new and fresh and funny could use.

And double damn you to Valhalla, Hagar the Horrible.

Posted by: , at July 24, 2010 10:06 AM

Berke Breathed writes illustrated letters to Bill Watterson!?!?! HA! That's awesome! Reminds me of the feud that Oliver Wendell Jones had with Stephen Hawking. "Do they write themselves notes in algebra?" "Stay calm, mother. It's an atomic bomb."

HA!

Posted by: Armando at July 24, 2010 10:36 AM

Breathed did a book reading years ago at the Chicago Art Institute and was really cool about signing everything I brought with me: several books, a stuffed Opus and a Bill coffee mug.

I loved what he did with Steve Dallas but I think my favorites were a toss-up between Binkley's Dad and the Star Trek strips on the wheelchair. My dad has been in a wheelchair since I was six (now 41) and it was the only time I could smile at what the chair symbolized.

Breathed was a great balance against everything MTV, Reagan and 80's hair.

Thanks for the report.

Posted by: richmac at July 24, 2010 11:35 AM

The only thing I wanted for Christmas when I was 17 was an Opus reindeer.
Santa brought it and told me I had asked for and mentioned it so many
times that it had been purchased early on and they enjoyed my incessant begging. I still have all my Bloom County books and have Breathed's
children's books lined up on Amazon for The Boy when he gets just a
skooch older. The Boy has one of my stuffed Opi his room and I keep a few handy just in case. I don't know what happened to the reindeer.

My love for Opus is the only thing that can come close to my deep and
abiding passion for Kermit the Frog. Kermie wil always be the Frog of My Heart, but Opus is the Penguin of My Corpus Callosum and was the starting point for my affection for all Penguins Madagascar and otherwise.

Like Prisco said, it is always nice when you find out other people love something as much as you. I haven't felt this much love for Pajiba
since many of you revealed that you would also like to nail
Cary Grant. Mwa!

Posted by: Mrs. Julien at July 24, 2010 12:25 PM

Okay - now that I've had a day to get over it, I can be calm.

Prisco, you are truly one of God's select. Do you know how goddamn rare one of Breathed's appearances are? And that he brought all these letters to Watterson? This is like winning the fucking Powerball when you've never bought a ticket before in your life and you did it because you didn't want to give your buddy the two bucks left over from filling your tank after he spotted you a Jackson.

It's Bloom County that shaped me into the ruthless cynical liberal I am today. When I was a child and I found out that Berke was stripping in Iowa City, I pleaded with my parents to let me take the bus by myself the 90 miles so I could camp out there and find him and worship him as the demigod of cartooning he is. My computer network workgroup is all named from Breathed's cast and strips. My first born was going to be named Milo (damn my ex-wife). I have religiously bought all of Breathed's books and have bored the crap out of my children reading them at bedtime.

Posted by: idiosynchronic at July 24, 2010 1:14 PM

When this title showed up on my blogroll I thought it must be a coincidence--no way there is someone else out there who remembers Bill the Cat's presidential campaigns as fondly as I do! I have loved Bloom County ever since I was little and thought it was named after my family (last name Bloom). To this day I can't hear Barry Manilow without thinking, "Yes, Bill is gross buckets! And he howls the songs."

Posted by: EB at July 24, 2010 5:53 PM

Berke Breathed and Bill Watterson are pen pals. Because of course they are. Pardon me while my head explodes.

Yes. This.

Posted by: twig at July 24, 2010 6:14 PM

"Ted Koppel is a waffle."

Posted by: TylerDFC at July 24, 2010 7:06 PM

@Mrs. Julien: I love that you pluralized "Opi".


"I found out that Berke was stripping in Iowa City"

He fell on hard times and was working at a Chippendales? Never mind...

Ah, how I loved Bloom County. "Ack!"

Posted by: MM at July 24, 2010 7:41 PM

I'm really low on sleep but I just wanted to chime in on how much I love B.B.'s work and how much I loved Bloom County. I was in high school when I discovered the strip and my close friends and I adored it.

Posted by: Viking at July 24, 2010 8:24 PM

I *loved* that comic when I was a kid. At ten years old I had a massive crush on Steve.

Posted by: Sapphiar at July 24, 2010 9:20 PM

Anybody remember Opus as the Olive Loaf Vigilante who pummeled mimes with deli meats?

"Just cough up some dough, Mac."
"That's when I whacked 'im with the olive loaf."

Posted by: Salieri2 at July 25, 2010 12:15 AM

argh. Mixed two of the greats: Olive Loaf with Hare Krishna.

The mime says "How 'bout a buck?" and gets pummeled.

The dough thing is a Hare Krishna's response to Opus's "Pear pimples for hairy fishnuts!"

Clearly it has been too long.

Posted by: Salieri2 at July 25, 2010 12:21 AM

The great LaRouche toad-frog massacre. Funniest thing ever.

"Something ... must be done!"

Posted by: BierceAmbrose at July 25, 2010 1:42 AM

I ADORE Bloom County! My favorite strip is laminated and hangs in my office. Opus doing his air guitar solo and getting busted.
The other storyline I loved was the one where Steve is turned black and he's looking for Rod Serling. I have the stuffed Opus in the Holiday Inn towel and a shower cap too.

Posted by: trixie at July 25, 2010 1:54 AM

One of my proudest accomplishments as a parent is that when my daughter was first talking, the phrase she would say most often was "oop-ack!"

Posted by: firedmyass at July 25, 2010 3:14 PM

I miss Bloom County so much! I still have my reindeer Opus, too! I think I'm going to re-read my BC books right now.

Posted by: natalie at July 25, 2010 10:53 PM

I knew I loved my soon-to-be-husband when he looked at his own legs with chagrin and muttered:

"Itty bitty thigh pimples. Minus 10 points."

VMG

Posted by: Notorious VMG at July 26, 2010 2:57 PM

I love love love Bloom County. Re-reading the collections remind me how little has changed about politics.

Posted by: anikitty at July 26, 2010 3:15 PM

Cutter John: Legs shaved?
Bobbi Harlow: Halfway.

Bloom County held my hand into adulthood. When Opus was told to invest in CDs, I would have done the same.

Posted by: lawnjart at July 26, 2010 9:08 PM

I've getting all misty eyed here reading everyone's reminisces. I grew up with Bloom County and was blessed to have a wonderful Dad who indulged me every time a new Opus stuffed animal would come out. At the ripe old age of (mumble, mumble), I still have that collection as well as all as the books and a few cherished tshirts. Opus will, to me, always represent the innocence, naivete, and yearning that exists in the heart of all good people. I still refer to my paycheck as diddly over squat, feminine protection as a chartreuse flame-thrower, and will pledge my undying love to the man who can quote steve dallas's poetry
In my dreams,
you're all I sees,
boobs, butt and knees
be my main squeeze"
sigh.

Posted by: blondefire at July 27, 2010 11:57 AM