Bloom County Episode XI: A New Hope

Whoa, this was a blast from the past. 3.75 stars, rounding up.

Berkeley Breathed, the cartoonist, makes a good point in his foreword: a lot of the great cartoonists of the 80s and 90s - Gary Larson, Bill Watterson, and himself - kinda disappeared in the mid-90s to vague early retirements. Bill Watterson had his hole anti-corporate, hermit thing going on; Gary Larson I have no idea where he went; and same with Berkeley Breathed. They just stopped. Meanwhile, we lost Dilbert's Scott Adams to virulent Trumpism, complete with a totally snide twitter/blog “voice”. Ugh.

Hey, what about Foxtrot guy? Bill Amend? He doesn't seem very political. Holy shit, I just googled, Foxtrot started in 1988. That man's been cartooning that for THIRTY YEARS PEOPLE.

HANNNYWAY. I used to binge this stuff back in the 90s, and I remember that Bloom County - more than any other strip, except maybe Gary Larson's - made me LOL the most. I still chuckle when I think of the strip about the resident Bloom County unreconstructed chauvinist asshole, Steve the Lawyer, getting a table at a restaurant. The maitre'd asks him a bunch of questions: “Smoking or non?” “Smoking!” he obnoxiously announces. More questions, ending with “Did your ancestors violently conquer and oppress large parts of the world?” Steve leans in, “YEEEESS!” Last panel: Steve sitting, cramped into a tiny table, asking a woman of color nearby for salt. “Apologize,” she deadpans. HAAAAA.

The 2016 presidential election lured Berkeley Breathed out of his 25-year retirement, and this book is a collection of his comic strip-sized reactions to Trump, American politics, identity politics, the new Star Wars movies, screen addiction, and did I mention Trump? He skewers right and left pretty evenly (which is probably safer for his bottom line), but doesn't seem so much angry as amused by the incoherent raging and doomsday panic and quasi-religious consumerism of this American life.

I LOLed quite hard at some of his little punchlines, which are usually delivered via Opus the Penguin, a soft and squishy idiot. I screenshotted (screenshat?) a LOT of panels, just because they either tickled or charmed me. The little girl offering free yoga classes and decorating Opus into “Zenguin” were some of my favorite moments.

I have a hard time believing it's been 25 years since the last Bloom County collection – but that's mostly because I'm in denial about my age. Even if it'd only been 2.5 years, it'd be great to see the ol' gang back together.

I really don't know what to say here – what can anyone say about Bloom County at this point? It's about as good as it ever was. I could be wrong, but I'm not sure that Breathed is as sharp as he was last time out, but who is? And when you're world is as well-developed, with such a great cast of characters, and strong point of view, no one's going to complain. Well, at least I'm not.

The author's note explaining his return to the comic, the little bonuses hidden through the pages, and being able to read these offline make this a must for fans – whether you actually listened to the Billy and the Boingers record or if you first read them on Facebook. It's not just a nostalgia trip, there's good material here.

One note about format – you want this in paperback. I don't want to complain, but this was a nightmare to read on my eReader. Paper is the only way to go with this.

Disclaimer: I received this eARC from IDW Publishing via NetGalley in exchange for this post – thanks to both for this.