The Bloom County Library back in print

Off Topic!!!
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Growing up in the late 70s-80s, one of the formative influences on my sense of humor was Berkeley Breathed’s BLOOM COUNTY, which combined satire, whimsy, talking animals and pop culture ephemera to prime effect.

I think it’s one of the reasons why I ended up taking such a shine to MST3K.

I was only ever able to get my hands on one of the deluxe hardcovers released by the Library of American Comics over a decade ago (volume 2) so I’m very glad a new softcover edition with new cover art has begun releasing this year and last. wistful sigh Calvin and Hobbes, Bloom County…the 80s and 90s had some good comic strips.

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I loved Bloom County. My grandpa would save his Sunday funnies section for me, and it was one of the strips that I would cut out and save, attempting my own “album”. Calvin and Hobbes, Far Side, Garfield, Doonesbury, Frank and Earnest, Heathcliff…the eighties really were the golden age of Sunday comics.

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Excellent. I have most of it already, including the recent edition of comics he did on Facebook. Unfortunately, that doesn’t include the Calvin and Hobbes stuff he did a couple of years ago. I really hope that gets published soon.

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Totally agree, similar humor and sensibility to MST3K. I bet a lot of us love them both.

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Wasn’t there going to be an animated show? What happened with that?

Does anyone remember A Wish for Wings that Work?

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I just finished my copy of the Outland collection and was just looking at these. They’re a bit more of an investment, though.

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Bloom County maintained quality for such a long time that I think it’s worth the investment. It was shaky early on, but once Berkeley Breathed found his stride, it was good right up until the end.

You can get the whole thing for about $100.

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Wish For Wings That Work is required Christmas viewing every year at my house.

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The new editions are significantly cheaper than the hardcovers were, though as Bloom lasted a lot longer there are more volumes.

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Ah, the special. I love the flightless bird therapy session, but otherwise it doesn’t ever seem to quite take off, good as the animation is.

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i see what you did there futurama GIF

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Pun intended.

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I enjoy it for what it is. My biggest complaint is the VO for Opus which just doesn’t work for me at all.

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So true! I like the special, but that is not how I always heard Opus in my head at all!

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I was a super-fan when I was a kid and had big stacks of individual strips secured with butterfly clips. When we went on long out-of-town trips I was always asking whoever we stayed with if I could clip out the strip each day

After high school one of my friends was in Austin at UT on the top floor of an ancient dorm building. We found an attic access panel and the only thing up there was a complete run of Breathed’s campus paper strip. After reading through the whole archive, we careful placed it back in place. It was so fun to see the origins of some his main characters and bits

I wonder how much those would be worth now? $5?

Eegads, just looked at Google Maps and Brackenridge Hall appears to still exist!

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