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Berkely Breathed Interview 141

Posted by Hemos from the the-man-the-myth-the-legend dept.
TrentC writes "Ever wonder what happened to Berke Breathed of Bloom County fame? Well, so did Scott Kurtz (creator of PvP) and Chris Jackson (creator of In2It). Kurtz put out a call for information as part of his 30th birthday wish list and managed to acquire a means of contacting Breathed. Breathed wasn't necessarily happy about being tracked down, but agreed to do the interview anyways. The first part of the interview is currently running on the front page of the PvP site, and the second half of the interview is currently running on the front page of the In2It site." Not to sound like the Bloom County fanboy that I really am but Breathed is, IMHO, an amazing artist.
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Berke Breathed Interview

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  • I'll post first and read later (surprise on /. huh?) but this is one thing that I was scouring the net for a while back, sure that someone had done an interview, but turning up with ziltch. As popular as he is, there have got to be other interviews, no?
  • ... But Berkeley Breathed will also forever be known in my home for writing quite possibly the best Christmas story ever published (and possibly also the best children's story):

    The Red Ranger Came Calling [barnesandnoble.com].

    This book belongs in every library children have access to.
  • Yes it certainly was.
  • at your local library on microfilm. Most libraries carry microfilm archives of local newspapers going back a hundred or so years.
  • Sorry, but user friendly isn't funny. Load [loadworldcomics.com] is very funny, but the artist is maybe just a tad schizo...


    If you love God, burn a church!
  • '...introduced by BC was what I now call the "comical one-two strip punch" -- in other words, a punchline at a frame in the middle of the "story", followed immediately by a SECOND punchline/retort in the last frame'

    You hit the nail on the head.. I always noticed this about his cartoons.. showing one frame of the "aftermath" of the subject or gag.. a glimpse of what happened immediately after most strips would have ended. Now of course, you're right.. it's everywhere.


  • I too was amazed that Mr. Breathed consented to the interview. Just goes to show what an amazingly froody guy he is. (Zero points for catching the reference.)

    And the first half of the interview was well presented...

    And then we're taken to the second website, which is so loaded with graphics and tables that after three minutes I'm slapping the Esc key begging it to stop loading so I can get the hell out. Eventually it rendered something, with the text of the interview in a two-inch column running down the side of the browser window. Plus a retelling of the same "how we cold-called Breathed and lived to tell about it" that we got in the first half, with the addition of crappy style.

    Ah well. Just had to rant. I can't stand online magazines.

  • Please, I just want to UNDERSTAND it all! I've done some searching, but I still can't find an email address for you. If you could email me back about the "all your base stuff", that'd be great.


    47.5% Slashdot Pure(52.5% Corrupt)
  • While we're discussing politically intelligent, well-drawn comics, I'd like to throw in a plug for Aaron McGruder's strip "The Boondocks". You can check out some of the strips here: http://www.boondocks.net/main.html [boondocks.net]

    It's a great strip, and one of the only ones worth reading in the paper anymore (along with Foxtrot, Dilbert, Curtis, and... I guess that's about it for my local rag). Sadly, it's also problematic, since it generates a lot of hate mail from all races, especially here in the south... The good thing is that McGruder has just recently published his first book collection of the strips.

    For a web comic, I'd have to say my hands-down favorite is Sinfest (http://www.sinfest.net [sinfest.net]). The art style is somewhere inbetween Bloom County and Calvin and Hobbes, though far more subversive and lewd than either. Enjoy!

    • Boondocks [boondocks.net]
      Has sort of the same feel as Bloom County (similar but farther-left politics, theme of "kids are far smarter than adults", etc) with some nice growth -- a hint of anime-esque drawing, nods to Calvin & Hobbes, etc. Easily my favorite "mainstream" comic strip now.
    • explodingdog [explodingdog.com]
      A 'net strip. Wonderfully weird. My favorite -- and one the Slashdot crowd might like -- is
      new media new arse [explodingdog.com]. I dunno, there's just something great about semi-sad stick figures. Really not like Bloom County at all, but since the thread is about comics I thought it was worth plugging it.




  • If you really miss Bloom County (and believe me, I *do*!), you might want to check out Gloom County ... a rather well written (IMHO), darker (read: Gothic) version of Bloom County ... but funny as all hell (again, IMHO).

    Ack! But enough of my accolades ... I'm not even part of the staff... :-)

    Check it out at: http://www.gloomcounty.com/ [gloomcounty.com]

    "Oh Bill the Cat, we hardly knew ye..."

  • He's still around a bit. I make it a habit of looking up old Renaissance folkses from time to time since I'm writing a Z66 clone that'll probably never get finished. [sandwich.net]

    Anyway, Tran aka Thomas Pytel's been kind of staying away from the public eye as code goes. I suppose the slow death of the demo scene got to him... Heh. Last thing I managed to dig up was that he did art for a 1998 game that looks an awful lot like souped up Z66: (Still need to try it myself) Axia [dddgames.com]

    Finding any more information is pretty difficult. Web searches tend to come up with bajillions of links to their pmode/w dos extender, along with "We use this!" from other demo groups or whatnot. Most likely thing was him listed as a runner in the cherry festival in '98. (Number 669, of course. I think that's just coincidence and probably isn't him.)

    As far as the rest of Renaissance goes CC Catch is the only other one I managed to dig up something on. (Some of his old mods can be found on Mod Archive [modarchive.com]. One even has his email address in the comments!) There's been a track of his called 'Ephemeral Wanderer'(I think?) that's been floating around.

  • What about Steve Bell? Maybe his humour doesn't cross the atlantic, but the guy is so wickedly funny it is untrue. Very political, and so far to the left that evryone hets it just as hard...

    regards
    treefrog
  • Irish. We are all made learn it in school, the whole way through. With (heh) varying degrees of success. "Mar" means because, "milis" means sweet, "do n'anam" means of your name, "agus" is and. And that, my friends, is the best I can manage from 13 years of learning Irish.
  • One of my favorite tributes to Breathed was this one [userfriendly.org] from Illiad.

    --

  • Irregardless, (a word depending on what dictionary you use)

    What dictionary would that be? There's no function in it being a word, as regardless means what "irregardless" does to those who say it. If anything, it should mean regarding, as the "ir" would cancel out the "less."

    Even setting all that aside, if you know better, why would you use it?

  • wtf (Score:1)

    by Knos ( 30446 )
    what? the scene is what? dead?

  • Check out Rudy Park [rudypark.com], it's gotta be *the* most breathed-inspired strip I've yet seen, art-wise.

    I thought the same thing about User Friendly [userfriendly.org] as well, and Iliad has heard it about a bazillion times by now.

    Breathed was just about the only thing keeping me going through the 80s....
  • Depends on how cynical you are. I can see two people who are good friends actually sharing something that is a golden nugget in their lives. But you'd have to have a really good friend.

    Perhaps. I used to be an optimist. Then I turned 4. Surely you can't think it's cynical to belive realism==cynicism? :-)

  • It was that 1/2 hour animated Bloom County show that aired on TV a loooong time ago.

    It wasn't very good, and I love BC

    Any idea where I can find a copy?

  • Bill explains how to pronounce [userfriendly.org] the name of the Apache Web server.

    --

  • If you ever read his strips as many times as I have, you will have noticed that his strips actually reflected his own life. He made several cracks about the size of strips shrinking. and the series where Opus becomes a "stripper", he has many problems with deadlines. It is actually funny how much of his own life he throws into the strip. Also, he describes Steve Dallas as his alter-ego in his last collection. I am not sure, but i think i own every single bloom county/outland collection there is.

  • I had nothing to do with the trolls on slashdot getting ahold of the "all your base" bit. even I'm annoyed by that.

    ________

  • Damn, I just wasted a whole hour reading UserFriendly. Hate my job........

    Here's [userfriendly.org] another comic that indirectly props Berke. The cat.

  • You just made my morning! :-)

  • I would have to disagree in two respects. First, Charles Schulz once owned that airspace. Towards the end it was almost painful to read Peanuts, but when he was good, he was unbeatable. Second, I think that Trudeau is now rummaging around the tailings of the vein he once mined. (For that matter, considering Trudeau's ripping off of pop culture (and even Charles Schulz, come to think of it), it's not clear he has much standing to be perturbed with Breathed.)
  • Funny thing, just this weekend I was thinking about Eyebeam. That strip was still running in the Daily Texan when I transferred to UT in '84. I remember the uproar about Hank the H winning the election, too. (Just some context for those not familiar with UT at that time: Hank was nominated and won mainly because of how disconnected students had become from student government. That's hardly a surprise at a school the size of UT, where IIRC one dorm, Jester Center, had its own ZIP code and comprised two voting precincts in Travis County.) Spring semester of '85, there was a minor uproar that the DT's editorial staff wanted to move Doonesbury from the funnies to the op/ed page, which in retrospect makes perfect sense. I can't remember whether they even did it, but we actually had big arguments at Simkins dormitory about where the strip belonged. Amazing how important stuff like that seems when you're in school.
  • Did you see the Non-Standard tag, or read the usage note for the entry?
    Usage Note: The label Non-Standard does only approximate justice to the status of irregardless. More precisely, it is a form that many people mistakenly believe to be a correct usage in formal style but that in fact has no legitimate antecedents in either standard or nonstandard varieties.
    As far inflammable goes, using other words as examples in English is pretty much pointless. However, to answer your question, yes we should throw out inflammable, as there is the opportunity to misinterpert it as meaning fireproof, thanks to the "in" prefix, which generally negates the suffix.

  • According to my copy of the book, the actual musicians are as follows:

    The Harry Pitts Band ("I'm a Boinger"):
    by Richard LaClaire with Scott Freilich, Rich Kazmierczak, Mike Brydalski

    Mucky Pup ("U-Stink-But-I-Love[heart symbol]-U"
    by Bill Casler with Chris Milnes, John Milnes, Danny Nastasi, Scott Lepage

  • I was in Dublin a couple years back, and saw bilingual (English and Irish) on major roadsigns. Aren't "Irish" and "Gaelic" different names for the same language?

    --

  • I can't help but wonder... (Score:3)

    by pb ( 1020 ) on Monday February 19, 2001 @07:59AM (#420044)
    Is this merely an expression of Slashdot's bizarre Penguin fetish? :)
    ---
    pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate [ncsu.edu].
  • For the longest time I was sure that illiad was Berke Breathed. The artistic styles often matched far too well, the style of the humor and stories so close.
    Are you out of your fucking mind? illiad has never been funny. not even once.
  • This line in particular kinda bothered me:

    Being more friendly and cordial than he really needed to be, Berke agreed to do our interview in exchange for keeping his personal info confidential.

    Sounds an awful lot like "blackmail". But again, all said, it was pretty good of him to actually respond. Hopefully others won't take this as license to harass him further.

  • Five Words Sum it Up... (Score:5)

    by elbarsal ( 232181 ) on Monday February 19, 2001 @08:25AM (#420047)
    "Pear Pimples for Hairy Fishnuts"!

    By far the best comic quote ever uttered, especially out of the mouth of a penguin.

    Ed

  • and I haven't seen it in the stores.

    Next time I'll read the interviews first

  • If you had READ the interview, you'd know that Mr. Breathed ANSWERED this very question in his replies.
  • It's called PENGUIN LUST
  • Just yesterday, I was thinking of Bloom County, and suddenly, an article about it appears on Slashdot. That's disturbing.
  • Should we then throw out inflammable?

    Irregardless [dictionary.com]

    Vermifax

  • "Negative humor"? (Score:3)

    by jaffray ( 6665 ) on Monday February 19, 2001 @12:03PM (#420053)
    The strip encourage my cynicism (most humor is cynical by its very nature) and I wanted to - sorry I have to say this - find more positive storytelling. Negative humor is forgotten immediately. It's the stuff that makes us feel better about our lives that lives long. Much more satisfying. Enter children's books.
    Bloom County was negative? Negative humor is forgotten? It's obvious that Bloom County is anything but forgotten.

    It's a shame that Breathed never grasped just how damn good he really was. I was entertained, and reassured, and inspired by Bloom County while I was growing up. So were my friends. So were countless others. It was a very positive thing. But I don't think he ever really believed that.

    Children's books? With a few notable exceptions, I've found most of them forgettable. But I'll never forget Bloom County.
  • The interviewers come accross as a couple of ass-kissing starstruck groupies. No wonder he was pissed off that they called him.

    Here's an example of the quality questions... "YEAH SO HOWS THAT DOG OF YOURS DOES IT SHED HAIR MINE SHEDS HAIR IT PEES ON THE CARPET TOO I BET YOURS DOESNT PEE THOUGH YOUR DOG IS COOL YESSIR OH YES."

    Next time get barbara walters to do the interview...

  • Re:Pity the website for the second half sucks... (Score:3)

    by devphil ( 51341 ) on Monday February 19, 2001 @12:15PM (#420055) Homepage
    Yeah, but you recognized it. :-)
  • "the artistic abilities of the two are night and day."

    Artistic ability is entirely subjective.

    That said, I was comparing style, not ability. Breathed has the ability to draw far more stunningly detailed work than the minimalistic Bloom County work. Given that UF is simply a webcomic, it could certainly be a cheesy side project.
  • I've got one. :) haven't gotten around to trying to hook up a turntable to my computer yet to encode it, but...
  • That is a great book! He has a new one called Edwurd Fudwupper Fibbed Big [barnesandnoble.com]. It is just as good.

    While I miss Bloom County, if Berkeley continues writing childrens books like these I'll be happy :)

  • Why Bloom County is like Open Source (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    They both like to steal from previous work without attribution.

    In addition to the Doonesbury theft Breathed copped to, how about the Charley Brown cloud thing he never fessed up to.

    Never read comics my ass.

  • Re:Pretty Blatant Invasion of Privacy. (Score:3)

    by TheMCP ( 121589 ) on Monday February 19, 2001 @08:37AM (#420060) Homepage
    I don't know that I agree with the authors' tactic of agreeing not to disclose his private contact information in exchange for an interview. It strikes me slightly as blackmail, and I hope it was just an unfortunate choice of wording to describe an innocent agreement, but...

    I think the interview revealed some fascinating hints about the creative processes of one of the great humorists of our time, and I think that in itself is of immense historical value. Frankly, it blew me away to hear that he found his humor hard to come by, his deadlines painful, and that he can't be happy about the quality of his previous work.

    It gives me some measure of assurance that I shouldn't feel so bad about my own work process, when I have to agonize over a bit of art when others' work seems so effortless.
  • Except Trudeau still has a problem with Breathed -- see the last answer at the bottom of this Doonesbury/Trudeau FAQ page [doonesbury.com]...
  • Owned it once, yes. But he had given it up by the 1970s, at which point Peanuts became little more than endlessly repeated gags, serving little purpose than to keep fueling the Peanuts advertising/merchandising machine that made Schulz rich by whoring out snoopy to everything from bedsheets to insurance.

  • is to track down Bill Watterson and get him to talk about his post-Calvin and Hobbes life.

    And why is it that comics like Bloom County and Calvin and Hobbes have such short lives while crapola like Beetle Bailey, Blondie, and Family Circus lives forever?
  • Bill's a tough cookie. His thing on merchandising borders on the religious. He feels that even to do an animated version of his strip is somehow cheapening it. Certainly, a toy line is not going to add mystique to a comic strip... but we're not talking Doonsebury here.... and Bill - as great a talent as he is - was never writing Hamlet. Taking anything too seriously is as big a threat as not taking it seriously enough. The world could have used a Calvin and Hobbes movie...

    You know, I just can't agree with this. Art is art - whether it's Shakespeare or a comic strip, and I hardly think Watterson is a fanatic because he wants to maintain the integrity of his message (even if that is 'don't you hate it when you boogers freeze?').

    On second thought,I guess if you don't want to exploit your work for all possible $$$, you *are* a radical.

  • .......one more strip [userfriendly.org]

  • You can get at Amazon, if you're willing to sponsor them. My girlfriend got it for me for Christmas. She can stay.
  • One of BB's favourites: "Well, a space walrus. With photon flippers or something."

  • MORE INFO THAN A BANANA JR 6000 CAN PROCESS!! (Score:4)

    by zencode ( 234108 ) on Monday February 19, 2001 @01:30PM (#420068) Homepage
    i've recently begun a strip of my own (sorry, nothing to post and i wouldn't presume to utter the title in the same sentence as bloom county) and this sent me on a quest for bloom books. off to the harvard bookstore i trod.

    "what do you *mean*, 'out of print' you sniveling twinkee-eating cockroach?", i queried the weird-harold lookalike.

    i thought i was going to be sick. not for my lack of reading material but for some of the finest toon material ever to grace pulp, for a lost generation thinking that calvin had no peer. around the corner to the used bookstore. SEVEN OF NINE tomes for the obscenely low price of $35. i'm not sure what the cashier made of my wide-eyed dollar-waiving self.

    this has brought me to one, inescapable conclusion. we must find berke, strap him to a suitable table and make him bring back the crew.

    look, i'm completely cool with civility, but there comes a time when asking nice just isn't going to cut it. it's also clear that mr. breathed isn't exactly beyond using this tactic himself (see "toons for our times", pg. 59). no, i'm serious. i'm starting a website and an email campaign to petition the man to return to his sanity. he can ignore us at his own peril.

    that having been said, some of his original strips are for sale - he has apparently given two years worth of strips to his stepmom and his full blessing to sell them. they can be found at:

    http://www.neosoft.com/~bloom/avail1.htm [neosoft.com]

    you need to have the original books to determine which are which, but ...who is going to buy one of these who doesn't have the books?! it isn't very clear, but the cheapo ones are $250 (they're in red), the regular ones are $400 and the color sunday strips are $900. the page also isn't clear on who you need to contact - carolynbreathed@hotmail.com [mailto]. she seems like a very nice woman, but she does reply in ALL CAPS. be nice to her.

    if any of you came through halfway and don't really know the whole gang, an exhaustive rundown can be found at http://www.droops.cybermail.net/bchistory/bchist19 81.html [cybermail.net], covering the first appearance of limekiller to the ultimate, last toon.

    finally, for anyone who doubts that illiad (respects || rips off) bloom county, please see this userfriendly.org toon. [userfriendly.org].

    not for my sake, but please mod the everyloving hell out of this post. i'd really like to see some of his toons get into the hands of fans.

    My .02,

  • Not only was it the best. It was the only cartoon series that I went to the store and bought the books. ( I also boughtthree of the dolls and alot more ).

    I found the cartoon so funny that I made it a daily requirement in my travels to work to read.

    I would like to say to him thank you for adding a bit of cheer to my life.

    Onepoint

    spambait e-mail
    my web site artistcorner.tv hip-hop news
    please help me make it better
  • ...which, like his chin, were always less-than-adequate (in poor Opus' mind, anyway ;)
  • I bought Breathed's kid's book "Edward Fudwupper Fibbed Big" for my niece this christmas, and it has to be one of the funniest books I've ever read. It has all of the great political satire (many references to Bill Clinton) and absolutely beautiful illustrations.

    It's a shame I had to give it to the little two year old.

    Taos

  • Re:Berke OWNZ! (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Are you crazy? User Friendly is the dumbest shit I've ever seen, and the art is crap. Bloom County is totally different...
  • Hmm. now if only it came with a precompiled binary... I have no ASM compiler on windows.

    ---

  • Re:Minor tragedies of my life, #45215: (Score:4)

    by Mzilikazi ( 115009 ) on Monday February 19, 2001 @08:43AM (#420074) Homepage
    Both tracks are available via Napster... When I found my copies there were plenty of people out there sharing them. Pretty decent rips too, considering.

  • Good lord man, I can't support that.

    Pathetic, eh?
    I was actually rereading my BC books a few weeks ago, and it's shocking how dated a lot of the material is. Not just current events, but that Reagan-era liberalism that just doesn't sound right anymore. Still you never know - 2 more years and it may fit like a glove again.
    -aiabx
  • Well, I could see if they asked the site first but just mirroring copyrighted content would get them in a boatload of trouble very quickly. Besides, maybe the sites LIKE to get slashdotted. Especially those with banner ads. That's the whole point of putting up a web site with ads isn't it?
  • Bill the Cat RULEZ!

    I personally loved that character - and his loss was the most disappointing part of Bloom County's end.

  • For the longest time I was sure that illiad was Berke Breathed. The artistic styles often matched far too well, the style of the humor and stories so close.

    You have got to be fucking kidding me. Artistic styles match? Excuse me, but call me when Illiad learns how to draw his characters in anything but 90-degree profile. And when he learns how to draw backgrounds to perspective. And when he learns how to shade. And don't forget...when he learns how to actually tell a joke.

  • Re:Berke OWNZ! (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    If you're going to list great cartoon artists, please don't forget Walt Kellly and his hilarious Pogo strips. If you're not used to '40's humour, it would be an acquired taste, albiet a well-acquired taste.

    Sorry, no links to give you - a google search turned up all kinds of stuff, but nothing good enough for /. :(

    see ya
  • No,

    That would be Calvin & Hobbes

  • a google search turned up all kinds of stuff, but nothing good enough for /.

    Now that's funny!

    --

  • I too was amazed that Mr. Breathed consented to the interview. Just goes to show what an amazingly froody guy he is. (Zero points for catching the reference.)

    I would have said "What a hoopy frood he is"...more gramattically correct...

  • The interview refers to what sounds like a pretty nasty spat between the two artists. Perhaps I'm just a couple years too young, but I never heard about this. Anyone have a fuller explanation?
  • Here's the "Outland/Bloom Country" inspired UF.org's. how to pronounce httpd [userfriendly.org] and of course, Crap, got to go, Boss is turning out the lights just becuse of the Blackouts, and we're in Minnesota.
  • I check the comic strips in the paper now and then and am APPALLED at how miserable they are. Poorly drawn and poorly written with no sense of timing or subtlety whatsoever. 'ZIGGY' looks like Citizen Kane next to the stuff you see in the papers nowadays.

    And why the 'classics' are still trotted about like giant stuffed corpse-puppets in the hands of uninspired artists and writers is beyond me. Then again, the new stuff they're trying to replace it with is, truly, that bad.

    Hopefull some of the good stuff on the Web will start edging it's way into print.

  • Al Capp had the cloud thing before Schultz. And Romeo and Juliet were taken from an Italian novel. Big deal.
  • Depends on how cynical you are. I can see two people who are good friends actually sharing something that is a golden nugget in their lives. But you'd have to have a really good friend.
    Perhaps. I used to be an optimist. Then I turned 4. Surely you can't think it's cynical to belive realism==cynicism? :-)
    Well, most people are mostly good most of the time, pending minor mishaps like a painful education process, or whatever.

    One of the tricks is to *not* be personally insulted just because the other guy is a jerk, a cheat, or a fraud, etc. You put a red tag on his ear labelling him dangerous, radioactive, or whatever; and take appropriate action to cover yourself. But after that it is just a waste of good emotion.

    an example of this is when you have given your two week notice at a place that sucks. Suddenly alot of BS does not matter anymore, and you have a bit more freedom, etc.

    You generally do not get cynical about potholes, etc. - So for me, being cynical has an edge of paranoia in that it is easy to view everyone with suspicion, when you merely need to label them appropriately and not get hung up on it or freak on it.

  • He was a frequent fixture around town. Two loval institutions have comics he drew in full size framed.

    One was for "The best library in the known universe - with the worst water" and the other was for the prairie lights bookstore.

    Come by and see them sometime. Like all true comic art, they are still funny.

  • Mr Breathed- you scarred me for life. I remember that hilarious episode poking fun at Michael Jackson's famous hair-on-fire accident. That was where that guy... um, what's his name?... used mousse and hairspray on his chest hair to make it appeal to the ladies and of course it caught on fire.
    I thought- geez, I hope I have alot of chest hair and appeal to ladies!
    That was right before puberty... now I have so much chest hair my wife hates it!!

    Shaving is not an option!

  • no kidding. even sites like KDE or GNOME are killed by the slashdot effect, and you know they'd have no problem allowing mirrors if anyone from here asked.

    they have come up with a list of reasons why they won't bother, but the truth is, with very little effort they could easily mirror these sites, sure some exceptions, but overall, if they wanted to fix this problem, they could.... it's just a matter of working instead of listing excuses.

    ________

  • oh my GOD I love pokey. whenever i'm sitting at my desk, totally mired in logical crap, pokey can YANK me out of the box in a matter of minutes.

  • Academia Waltz and Eyebeam (Score:3)

    by interrante ( 307920 ) on Monday February 19, 2001 @09:47AM (#420100)
    As a student at UT, I was first introduced to Berke Breathed through his strip which later morphed into Bloom County. Steve Dallas was the main character that existed in both strips, and he was the stereotype UT frat boy. Everyone thought Steve Dallas was the Frat down the hall in their dorm. The character in the wheel chair first appeared as "Saigon" in Academia Waltz where he tells Kitzi how he was drafted, got his long hair cut off and learned how to make an M16 into a bong. I always thought the Steve Dallas's dog morphed into Opus (they have the similar attitudes).

    I am thumbing through my copy of Academia Waltz now and noticing how tied it was to the University of Texas in the late 70s. Lots of timely comments about football, Vietnam Vets, Nuclear power, Frats & Sororities, sex, football (this is texas of course), and making fun of aggies (those folks from Texas A&M).

    Brings back good memories.

    UT also was the beginning another amazing comic strip called Eyebeam by Sam Hurt. http://www.samhurt.com I think that eyebeam is a cross between Bloom County and Gary Larson's the Far Side. Eyebeam was amazingly popular at UT. Eyebeam has time machines, robots, and Hank the Hullicination (who *actually* won the election for UT class president). Comment from the back of the Eyebeam book "Virtuosic....The best college generated comic strip since Doonesbury or Bloom County."

    Mark

  • Minor tragedies of my life, #45215: (Score:4)

    by sammy baby ( 14909 ) on Monday February 19, 2001 @08:03AM (#420104) Journal
    I can't find the LP flexi-single of Billy and the Boingers doing "I'm a Boinger" and "You Really Stink (But I Love You)".

    -----
    "You owe me a case of beer. Sucka'."

  • Both the article and this discussion are full of hero-worship for this guy. I don't get it. I think he is utterly talentless and unfunny. I remember seeing 'Bloom County' in the college newspaper, and thinking 'why the hell do they publish this?' Of course this will get modded down for swimming against the current - such are the workings of fanboy-ism.
    I notice that elsewhere in this discussion someone voiced similar dislike of Bloom Country and was told, 'fine - go back to your crappy Garfield' or words to that effect. So just for the record, all 'newspaper comics' are amazingly stupid, unfunny, and untalented. Dilbert is the only exception. But Bloom County is actually worse than the others.
    In the interview, Breathed talks about how he was influenced by Trudeau. It's funny, I never fully realized that they are two different people until I read that interview - I'd always assumed one was a pseudonym for the other.
    So maybe my impression was formed during the 'bad period near the end' that all the Bloomatics are referring to. Maybe I was just turned off by the clumsy political satire. Political satire takes great acuity and subtlety - Breathed did not have these gifts.
    To me, the current-day Berk Breathed is Tom Tomorrow, whose strip appears in 'alternative' newspapers. Tomorrow seems to use clip art as a framework for political mini-rants and sarcasm. If he posted his ideas in an open forum like usenet, they'd be torn to shreds because they are full of factual and logical errors. But from his privileged position as 'artist' he can write without fear of rebuttal.
  • ...if people repeatedly got my name wrong. It's Berkley Breathed, isn't it?

    is what I was about to post. But it appears that in fact it was the UK editions of the books that had his name wrong? Strange.

  • Berke OWNZ! (Score:5)

    by supabeast! ( 84658 ) on Monday February 19, 2001 @08:06AM (#420110)
    For the longest time I was sure that illiad was Berke Breathed. The artistic styles often matched far too well, the style of the humor and stories so close.

    Then I noticed the same thing with some other web comics. After a while I started picking up the same (Albeit same in a Calvin-knock-off-way) vibe from all the Bill Watterson-esque webcomics out there.

    So I went back, reread my Bloom Country/Outland collected editons, and realized something.

    Berke Breathed is one of the greatest daily comic creators ever. Far beyond of the tepid humor of Peanuts, flying up there in the glorious airspace shared by Gary Treadau, Billl Watterson, and Gary Larson. His work influenced comic creators in the best ways possible, and now he is honored with imitation.
  • Where is it written that political satire has to be subtle? I remember when they ran one series that was against the drug war (which was a pretty unpopular stance at the time) that was great. It told the tale of creating a successful hair tonic out of Bill the Cat's sweat which had unfortunate side-effects *ACK!*. Because of this it was outlawed, the prices went sky-high on the black market, and it began to be controlled by gangs. Subtle? No. Funny? Hell yeah. And the criticisms it represented are becoming more and more popular every day as people are considering what a waste the Drug War actually has become.

    When I started getting interested in the comic as a youngster, I knew very little about the political satire it talked about. But I still loved it because it made me laugh (sometimes uncontrollably) anyways. That's the difference between Breathed and Trudeau. Doonesbury is repetitious and boring. Never laughed at it when I was young and I don't laugh at it now.

    You mentioned Dilbert, which is good, but it's missing something important. It's missing the childlike, brilliant imagination of Bloom County. Binkley's anxiety closet is a good example of it. If all of today's comics were dry comedies about work place drudgery then I think I'd have to kill myself.

    I'm sorry but if you don't think Bloom County was funny then there's only two explanations for it. 1) You and your fellow Young Republicans didn't appreciate the political humor (hey at least I can appreciate Ben Stein without getting in a huff) or 2) you have no imagination and possibly no pulse.

    -Tyler
  • I love those comics...
    • "Classics of Western Literature"
    I have a stack of 'em on my bookcase. About 6 months ago, I went into a Borders' bookstore and asked them if there existed any volumes I didn't have. Their response: "Bloom what? Who's Berke Breathed?"

    Damn. Kids these days.

    I was watching Scott Kurtz's birthday wishlist, just waiting for this one item to happen. He has quite a few really cool ideas on that list -- I hope someone that knows George Lucas can come through for him.

    As for me, I take comfort in my laserdisc copy of A Wish for Wings that Work, and (of course) a working laserdisc player.


    All hail Bill! (Ack! Thppt!)

  • Remember FIDONET? (Score:3)

    by Stavr0 ( 35032 ) on Monday February 19, 2001 @08:57AM (#420118) Homepage Journal
    http://fidonet.fidonet.org/ [fidonet.org]
    It had all these great programs like OPUS and BINKLEYterm

    Before TUX, there was OPUS!
    ---

  • Six words .... [all together now] (Score:3)

    by opencode ( 28152 ) on Monday February 19, 2001 @09:09AM (#420125) Homepage

    "A WISH FOR WINGS THAT WORK" ---

    My all-time favorite Christmas show [which isn't played anymore], and not because I was a die-hard Opus/BC fan.

    BC was LIKE Saturday Night Live for me, in that it provided me some great catch phrases ["PWWWTTT", "Closet of Anxieties", "Dandelions in October", et. al) ...

    Now, for me, the REVOLUTION introduced by BC was what I now call the "comical one-two strip punch" -- in other words, a punchline at a frame in the middle of the "story", followed immediately by a SECOND punchline/retort in the last frame .... two dry moments for the price of one ....

    At the time [for the first few times we all read it], we didn't really know what to think, except to acknowledge that we've never seen someone do that before. But Calvin and Hobbes basically mastered this technique, and now virtually every hot comic being published plays on some variation of this now-called "rule" ....

  • There are some great cartoonists publishing primarily or exclusively for the Web. (Aside from User Friendly, I'm a big fan of Kevin and Kell [kevinandkell.com] and a lot of the Keenspot [keenspot.com] comics.)

    Could we please have some Slashdot interviews with some of the folks behind these comics?

  • So sad... (Score:5)

    by supabeast! ( 84658 ) on Monday February 19, 2001 @09:55AM (#420129)
    "Chris: Do you have any regrets about not drawing Bloom County any more? Do you miss it?

    Breathed: If the world still read the comic page... and if they weren't the size of 2 stamps... I would still do it. But their days as a topic of national conversation are over I fear. There are a great many more distractions of a more visceral nature to compete with. Too small, too quiet."

    This comment brought tears to my eyes. Berke used to make cracks about comics as a dying phenomenon in his strips. I remember a "Star Trek" parody involving the endlessy shrinking size of comics in particular. Another distinct memory is of the time Opus spent working as a cartoonist, calling himself a "stripper," and being treated as a wage slave to editors demanding gag-a-day humor slapped together in time for a deadline.

    He is so right that people no longer read and discuss comics. I remember discussing Bloom County and Doonesbury as a child with friends and family, now the only way it comes up is when a buddy and I discuss a webcomic, or I have to explain all the perverse/obscense/obscure webcomics I stick up at work. I truly miss having conversations about politcal candidates who wear "Frederick's of Holywood peek-a-boo panties" (From Breathed's 1988 election coverage) or little Ronald-ann sticking it to Rotney Washington the crack dealer.

    Now I bask in the glory of webcomics, creations of the purist love. Bound only by themselves, webcomics fill a void created by the American newspaper editors' misunderstanding of what may be the most important art form since mankind learned to write.

    Hopefully Berke will see this, and maybe get stimulated to do work online.

  • The artistic styles often matched far too well, the style of the humor and stories so close.

    I actually find this a little offensive. While an argument can be made that the humor styles are similar (although Breathed had a much broader array of subjects), the artistic abilities of the two are night and day. You don't have to be an artist to be a cartoonist, so I don't say this as a knock on Illiad. But Breathed really had truly significant artistic talent and his sight gags were often hiliarious.


    --

  • Mucky Pup was the original band. They had some other great tunes. Check out the album "Boy In A Man's World" -- which includes "You Make Me Sick..."

  • Pretty Blatant Invasion of Privacy. (Score:3)

    by Bonker ( 243350 ) on Monday February 19, 2001 @08:07AM (#420134)
    The interviewers were pretty damn lucky that Berke Breathed is apparently such a nice guy. Despite Mr. Breathed's influence on modern comices, the tone of the interview and the fact that he was upset that they got his phone number more or less points to the fact that Breathed is not interested in drawing comic strips anymore and shouldn't be bothered about his old work, which he is clearly uncomfortable discussing.

    Now, all that aside, it was neat to hear from him again.

  • I've always liked Berke Breathed (Score:4)

    by Heidi Wall ( 317302 ) on Monday February 19, 2001 @08:09AM (#420136)
    And these comics [markomics.com] are why. Such creative cartooning is why he is the master.

    The quotes [quotegeek.com] show his witty humour at work - pretty useful if you want to see what he is like when he is being light hearted, unlike in the serious interview.

    I only wish I was the sort of geek who could draw well.
    --
    Clarity does not require the absence of impurities,

  • There's a similarity (to THHGTTG) in the interview too. Douglas Adams says, in 'Mostly Harmless', that he finds writing tremendously difficult. Perhaps there's a certain type of artist who has to struggle to express themselves?

    Some, like the wonderful Terry Pratchett [lspace.org] just seem to be able to churn out quality. dave

  • Re:UF and Berke (Score:4)

    by Cplus ( 79286 ) on Monday February 19, 2001 @10:11AM (#420145) Homepage Journal
    You can tell Illiad [userfriendly.org] is a fan. There have been several homages [userfriendly.org] to Berke in the past. It's always nice to see someone you admire and who's work you enjoy tip their hat to someone that they admire.

  • That's not evidence they are the same person, it's evidence that he's lifting ideas. Badly. my god, so badly.
  • I own all the Bloom County books. Coincidentally, so does my wife (acquired before we met). So we have some extras. Oddly, I never read BC in the papers, just in the books. I picked up an Outland book once but it was like one of those lame sitcom spinoffs. I think the problem was in trying to hang too much of the comic on Opus's shoulders.
    --

  • Re:Shameless promotion... (Score:4)

    by Alien54 ( 180860 ) on Monday February 19, 2001 @08:12AM (#420152) Journal
    Is it me or is it shameless site promotion to put the interview in two parts on two differnet sites?

    Depends on how cynical you are.

    I can see two people who are good friends actually sharing something that is a golden nugget in their lives.

    But you'd have to have a really good friend.

    I think this interview actually qualifies as a golden nugget.

  • If anyone can galvanize the left, it's these 2... Personally, I've had enough of Gore/Clinton/etc, and think it's their time. :]

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